On Friday, February 16, the FDA approved a new cancer therapy that could change the way many aggressive and advanced tumors are treated. Iovance Biotherapeutics’ treatment management, called Amtagvi, may provide hope for skin cancer patients who have tried other medications and failed. This method is also known as TIL therapy and aims to benefit from their cancer-fighting power by increasing the number of immune cells within tumors.
A FIRST IN THE WORLD
This is the first time a cellular therapy has been approved to treat solid tumors. The drug was given rapid approval based on the results of the phase 2 clinical trial. The company has begun conducting a larger phase 3 trial to confirm the benefits of the treatment. The list price for the therapy (before insurance and other possible discounts) is $515,000 per patient.
Senior physician Dr. from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Elizabeth Buchbinder said of the drug’s effect, “This will be huge.” She stated that skin cancer “is not one of those cancers for which there are nearly 20 different treatments” and said, “Your options are quickly starting to run out.”
HOW IS THE TREATMENT METHOD?
TIL refers to tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, which are immune cells found inside tumors. However, nowhere are there sufficient numbers of these cells to effectively fight against cancer cells. TIL therapy involves, in part, removing some of these immune cells from the patient’s tumor and replicating them billions of times in the laboratory. , then giving them back to the patient.
INCREASING THEIR NUMBER
This is similar to CAR-T cell therapy, where healthy cells are removed from a person’s body and then modified in the laboratory to fight cancer. This is often used for difficult-to-treat blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. In TIL therapy, the cells used are already programmed to recognize cancer; there is no need to make changes in the laboratory; Their number only needs to be increased to fight cancer.
TREATMENT DURATION 8 WEEKS CAR-T
Like TIL therapy, it is a one-time treatment, but the entire process can take up to eight weeks. According to Iovance, TIL cells are first collected from the tumor through a minimally invasive procedure and then grown and propagated in the laboratory; This process takes 22 days.