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FDA approves cell therapy to treat melanoma
The Cell Therapy Manufacturing Center, or CTMC, in the Texas Medical Center is producing a patient's own cells to treat complicated, late-stage cancer.
HOUSTON - A huge advancement in cancer treatment after the Food and Drug Administration just approved a type of cell therapy for patients with late-stage melanoma.
There's a manufacturing center in Houston that is teaming up with the leading cancer center, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in an effort to help save lives.
The Cell Therapy Manufacturing Center, or CTMC, in the Texas Medical Center is producing a patient's own cells to treat complicated, late-stage cancer.
"I almost think of it as science fiction, because I can't believe we can do this with today's science! For a cancer patient, we can literally take a piece of their tumor, and their immune cells that are present in that tumor that are trying to fight the tumor but aren't strong enough. Cancer cells are winning the war. So, we extract those cells here in the lab, expand them and genetically engineer them to be stronger, more fit, and then infuse those into the same patients, giving that patient their own immune cells that have been enhanced to fight that cancer," explains Jason Bock, CEO of CTMC, a joint venture between Resilience and MD Anderson Cancer Center.
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It takes about a month to convert those cells into the billions, before they're infused in the patient to attack cancer.
Mary Beth Cicchetti, who lives in Kansas City and traveled to Houston for the therapy, says she sure is proud of the nine billion TIL cells she received! TIL stands for tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.
Mary Beth says doctors tell her years of peeling sunburns led to skin cancer, causing her to battle melanoma the past 14 years. It first started on the side of her face and then came back three times, eventually spreading to her back, pancreas, and liver.
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The standard treatment of immunotherapy for her melanoma didn't help, so she feels this is her last hope.
"I had a week of chemo to eliminate anything else, and then they infused me with the TIL cells," explains Mary Beth.
She's only the fourth patient in this study to receive TIL therapy by Obsidian Therapeutics.
It has taken nearly 40 years to perfect this technology. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute developed it in the 80s, and studies through the decades look promising.
"Patients can get one treatment and can be cancer free for 5, 10, 15 years, and counting. The first two patients on this trial have gone into complete remission or complete response, and so it's really gratifying for all the hard work that we do here," states Bock.
We also talked to Laura Torgerson with CTMC.
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"When we think about it, 90% of cancers are solid tumors and so that is what TIL therapy treats versus CAR-T cell therapy, which are really most successful with treating blood cancers and is really only 10% of cancer patients. The number of people this could potentially help with TIL therapy is extraordinary," exclaims Torgerson.
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It has at least stopped the progression of Mary Beth's advanced disease, which was their goal for her.
"Most of my platelets and white blood cells are coming back to normal. I have been called stable, which means there's no increase in the tumors. There's no decrease in the tumors, which was what I was hoping, but as I've been told, I had a lot of cancer in my liver and it would have been unusual if those had gone away, like highly unlikely. So, the good news is - I'm stable and nothing is growing," says Mary Beth.
Doctors believe this treatment could spare many lives, with nearly 8,000 people dying from melanoma every year. It sure gives this loving grandmother a new lease on life.
"I'm very hopeful for my future and I think other people who get a diagnosis of metastasized melanoma should be hopeful, because so much has changed, between immunotherapy and then these TIL cell therapies. It's going to be amazing, and hopefully it will be stagnated, if not wiped out. So, I want to say thank you to all the researchers doing the good work for me and for the people who also have this weird metastases in our organs," says Mary Beth.
It's delivering a powerful punch with few and minor side effects.
Right now, this technology to treat solid tumors is expensive, so it's reserved for terminal patients, when all other treatments have failed. It is covered by medical insurance though and the hope is this new FDA approval will allow more companies to manufacture TIL therapy, making it more affordable. Doctors are also researching TIL therapy to treat some types of lung and gynecological cancers.
For more information: https://ctmc.com
https://www.aimatmelanoma.org/iovance-biotherapeutics-announces-approval-for-til-therapy