TIL are part of the body’s natural response to cancer
TIL are naturally occurring immune cells that are on constant surveillance to recognize, attack and kill cancer cells. TIL recognize cancer through tumor markers on the surface of cancer cells that are unique to each person. The majority of solid tumor immune targets are patient-specific, with fewer than 1% shared among patients. When cancer invades and prevails, the TIL are unable to perform their intended function. Cancer can then evade the immune system, exhausting the TIL and rendering them ineffective.
How TIL therapy is designed to work
Iovance investigational TIL therapy is intended to reinvigorate a patient’s TIL so they can be deployed to fight cancer. A patient’s naturally occurring TIL are collected from a portion of their own tumor and grown outside the body using our proprietary manufacturing process to produce TIL therapy. This individualized TIL therapy is a one-time treatment to deliver these cells back to the patient. Once inside the body, Iovance TIL therapy deploys billions of personalized, patient-specific TIL to recognize and target diverse cancer cells.
Key steps in the TIL therapy process
A tumor sample is removed from the patient and shipped overnight to our centralized manufacturing facility, where the TIL are isolated.
The patient-specific TIL are amplified and reinvigorated using our proprietary manufacturing process, which we refer to as Gen 2 to reflect our successful efforts to streamline TIL manufacturing from several weeks to 22 days. The TIL therapy is cryopreserved and sent back for infusion into the patient.
The patient receives a preparative regimen (lymphodepleting chemotherapy) prior to TIL infusion. The treatment regimen is completed with a short course of interleukin-2 (IL-2) to promote T-cell activity.
TIL therapy is an investigational therapy and has not been approved for any indication by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or any other regulatory agency. The safety and efficacy of this therapy have not been determined.