Strength in numbers

New therapy unleashes billions of immune cells on patient’s melanoma

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In March, Stanford Medicine became the first medical center nationwide to treat a patient with advanced melanoma using a new cell-based therapy called lifileucel. The first such therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration for solid tumors, it offers hope to people with this deadly form of skin cancer that has metastasized — spread to other parts of the body — and resisted standard immunotherapies.

The treatment works by exploiting the body’s natural cancer-fighting ability. Immune cells called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or T cells, are harvested from the patient, then stimulated in the laboratory to multiply into billions of cancer-fighting cells. They’re administered to the patient about a month later.

“These cells are naturally existing T cells that target multiple aspects of the existing tumor,” said assistant professor of medicine Allison Betof Warner, MD, PhD, a member of the Stanford Cancer Institute. “Before now, there was no approved therapy for people with melanoma whose cancers had progressed after immunotherapy and/or targeted therapy.”

Stanford Medicine is one of fewer than 30 medical centers around the country offering lifileucel treatment.

“We are very excited to move cell-based therapies beyond blood cancers,” said David Miklos, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. “This has been a long time coming, but now we have a new standard of care for these patients.”

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Krista Conger

Krista Conger is a Senior Science Writer in the Office of Communications. Email her at kristac@stanford.edu.

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