TIL Therapy Holds Potential for Growth in Advanced Melanoma

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy may offer a potentially individualized immunotherapeutic option for patients with advanced melanoma, according to Muhammad Umair Mushtaq, MD.

At the 2025 Immune Cell Effector Therapy (ICE-T) Conference, CancerNetwork® spoke with Mushtaq about the overall landscape of TIL therapy in metastatic melanoma following his presentation on the subject.

Mushtaq, an associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapeutics of the Department of Medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center, emphasized that TIL therapy is the only approved cellular therapy in solid cancers. He stated that a third of patients who receive the therapy achieve a response, and at 4 years post-treatment, 20% of patients continue to maintain their response.

Transcript:

[TIL] therapy in melanoma is the only FDA-approved cell therapy in solid cancers. There are several products approved for blood cancers, but this is an exciting time to see this development in the solid organ space. In melanoma, the TIL therapy [involves] these T cells that are already in the cancer. The patient’s tumor is resected, it’s digested, and those immune cells are separated. They are expanded and grown in the laboratory, and then once these cells are ready, in about 3 to 4 weeks, the patient receives a chemotherapy regimen with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide to knock down their immune system, so they don’t reject [the TIL] cells. Then, they are admitted to the hospital. They receive [the TILs] along with interleukin-2 to stimulate the immune system to help these cells grow. Then, they’re in the hospital for 1 to 2 weeks until they recover their blood counts, and then they’re discharged. They follow up with their medical oncologist.

We are seeing that, in those patients who have relapsed/refractory melanoma with survival measured as a few weeks and no effective treatments, about a third of these patients will have a response. The exciting part is that at the 4-year mark—the longest survival we have available—about 20% of these patients are still maintaining their response and are alive. There is margin to improve on these treatments, but this is a real hope for patients with melanoma.

Reference

Mushtaq MU. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) therapy in metastatic melanoma. Presented at the 2025 National Immune Cell Effector Therapy (ICE-T) Conference; July 26, 2025; Orlando, FL.