What is investigational TIL cell therapy?

A patient’s immune system naturally responds to cancer by deploying specialized immune cells to fight tumors. These are called tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, or TIL, which recognize tumor-specific neoantigens.

The majority of solid tumor neoantigens are unique to each patient, with fewer than 1% shared among patients. Cancer can evade the patient’s immune system via inhibitory pathways, as well as suppressor cells, which exhaust the patient’s TIL and render them ineffective.

In investigational TIL cell therapy, a portion of a patient’s tumor is used to generate billions of rejuvenated TIL using GMP manufacturing. TIL cell therapy is cryopreserved and shipped back to the treatment center for patient infusion.

TIL cell therapy includes billions of rejuvenated, patient-specific TIL.

First, patients receive non-myeloablative lymphodepletion, which diminishes the suppressive cells in the tumor microenvironment.

Second, patients receive investigational TIL cell therapy, and billions of TIL traffic to tumor sites throughout the body.

Third, patients receive a short course of high-dose IL-2 to support T-cell activity.

Investigational TIL cell therapy is a unique, individualized approach designed to recognize a multitude of patient-specific neoantigens, leading to the activation of the billions of TIL.