Potential cell therapy option for NSCLC

Cancer growth in human respiratory system, 3d illustration.

New evidence published recently in Cancer Discovery examined the use of TIL (tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes) therapy to treat lung cancer tumors in adults. Adam Schoenfeld, MD, a lung cancer specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), was the lead researcher of the study.

“The patients who came to us in this trial were very sick and had often exhausted all other options,” said Dr. Schoenfeld, a thoracic oncologist, cellular therapist and early drug development specialist. “The fact that 21% of the non-small cell lung cancer [NSCLC] patients responded to TIL therapy is significant. Some patients remained free of cancer relapse for more than two years after the treatment.”Head shot of Adam SchoenfeldAdam Schoenfeld, MD

This emerging type of immunotherapy incorporates two main steps. First, doctors remove TIL cells — a specialized type of white blood cells — from the patient’s tumor. Then, the TIL cells are put back into the patient’s body, where they can find and destroy cancer cells. 

According to MSK, all 28 patients in the phase 2 clinical trial had late-stage NSCLC that had metastasized and was resistant to other therapies, including checkpoint inhibitors. The participants, who were treated at multiple hospitals in the U.S. and Europe, had scans completed both before and after treatment. Of the 24 patients with reportable outcomes, six showed a positive response to TIL therapy, meaning the regenerated TIL cells showed success in destroying cancer cells.

Dr. Schoenfeld said this trial has been ongoing for four years. In this time, other scientific studies have evaluated this therapy on patients with earlier stages of NSCLC and demonstrated response rates that are nearly twice as high. 

Additionally, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved lifileucel (Amtagvi), a TIL therapy for treatment-resistant metastatic melanoma. It is the first cell therapy approved to treat solid tumors.

“TIL therapy has been studied in melanoma for many years, but until very recently, no one had shown the treatment could be effective for lung cancer,” said Dr. Schoenfeld. “This study is significant because it was one of the first times anyone demonstrated that generating TIL cells from lung tumors was feasible and that these cells could generate anti-tumor activity.”

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