Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) Therapy

Since T cells can recognize tumor-associated antigens and eliminate cancer cells, preclinical and clinical developments of therapy have been leveraging on the use of autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). Target metastatic tumor is excised from patient by trained surgeon and then transferred to laboratory, where is cut into small fragments. Lymphocytes are then enriched in culture with interleukin 2 and after several days propagated in rapid expansion phase. When TIL product is ready, patient receives lymphodepleting chemotherapy, and then TILs are infused followed by treatment with high-dose interleukin 2. Therapy with TIL has shown to be an effective treatment strategy in melanoma, even after melanoma progression following immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy with remarkable responses and improvement of progression-free survival. Recently, genetically modified TILs have been tested with a goal to further improve clinical activity.