TIL therapy
Immune cells that have already found their way into the tumour are harvested, grown to billions, and returned.
Lifileucel (Amtagvi, Iovance) was approved in 2024 for anti-PD-1-refractory melanoma: ORR 31%, five-year data show durable responses in about a third of responders. Trials in NSCLC (TILVANCE-301), cervical, and head and neck cancer. Next-generation TILs are gene-edited (PD-1 knockout, IL-15 membrane-bound, OBX-115) to reduce IL-2 dependence.
How it works
Surgical harvest → ex vivo expansion of polyclonal tumour-reactive T cells with IL-2 → lymphodepletion → infusion with IL-2 support.
- Naturally polyclonal against the patient's own neoantigens
- Works in solid tumours
- Requires resectable tumour and 3-4 week manufacturing
- IL-2 toxicity
- Single-centre logistics
High-dose interleukin-2 was the first immunotherapy to cure a small fraction of patients with metastatic melanoma and kidney cancer, at the cost of ICU-level toxicity; today it mainly supports TIL therapy.
Lifileucel was the first approved TIL therapy: the patient's own tumour-fighting immune cells are expanded to billions and given back.
This trial supplied the randomised proof that was missing for TIL therapy and showed academic centres can run cell-therapy phase 3 trials without industry. It supports TIL as a standard option after checkpoint inhibitor failure in melanoma and underpinned reimbursement in the Netherlands. The comparator, ipilimumab, is itself only modestly effective in this setting, and overall survival did not differ significantly.
Lifileucel proved that Steven Rosenberg's decades-old TIL concept could be industrialised into a licensed product and gave patients with checkpoint-refractory melanoma, who otherwise have few options, a chance of durable remission. It is the first cell therapy approved for any solid tumour. The treatment requires surgery to harvest tumour, hospitalisation for lymphodepletion and IL-2, and specialised centres, so its reach is limited.
Latest papers
topQuery for this technology: (TITLE:"tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy" OR ABSTRACT:"tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy" OR TITLE:"TIL therapy" OR ABSTRACT:"TIL therapy" OR TITLE:"lifileucel" OR ABSTRACT:"lifileucel"). Results are unfiltered search hits about TIL therapy, not a curated reading list.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- TechnologyTCR-T cell therapy
Shares Patrick Hwu, Public cell-therapy foundries at cancer centres for academics and start-ups, Steven A. Rosenberg, Hospital-exemption cell therapies at scale, backed by a shared registry.
- TechnologyCAR-T cell therapy
Shares An open interoperability standard for closed automated cell-processing machines, Digital batch records and AI process control to halve cell therapy batch failures, Public cell-therapy foundries at cancer centres for academics and start-ups, Use patient organoids to check a cell therapy will work before infusing it.
- IdeaRegional translational institutes with academic GMP suites and IND teams
Shares Shared modular GMP facilities for academic personalised vaccines and cell products, Hospital-exemption cell therapies at scale, backed by a shared registry, Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI-AvL), Manufacturing cost and time for living and radioactive medicines.
- BottleneckNo one can predict who responds to immunotherapy
Shares Grow tumour organoids together with the patient's own immune cells, Vaccines aimed only at mutations shared by every tumour cell, Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), Select patients for cell therapy by whether their tumour holds reactive T cells.
- TechnologyCytokines & engineered cytokines
Shares Aldesleukin (high-dose IL-2), Steven A. Rosenberg, NCI Center for Cancer Research (intramural programme), T-cell exhaustion.
- TechnologyPersonalised neoantigen (mRNA) vaccines
Shares Shared modular GMP facilities for academic personalised vaccines and cell products, Vaccines aimed only at mutations shared by every tumour cell, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) / Ludwig Institute Lausanne, Immunotherapy.
- TermNeoantigen
Shares Vaccines aimed only at mutations shared by every tumour cell, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) / Ludwig Institute Lausanne, Immunotherapy, University College London Hospitals / UCL Cancer Institute.
- IdeaHospital-based CAR-T manufacturing at cost through a public network
Shares Shared modular GMP facilities for academic personalised vaccines and cell products, Hospital-exemption cell therapies at scale, backed by a shared registry, Manufacturing cost and time for living and radioactive medicines.