Yale Cancer Center (YCC) and Smilow Cancer Hospital (SCH) will soon offer a new cellular therapy for patients living with melanoma that has spread to other parts of the body. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy (TIL), or lifileucel, was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. SCH is the first and only hospital in Connecticut to offer the therapy.
TIL therapy uses a patient’s immune cells collected at the hospital from their tumor. Then, the cells are sent to a laboratory where billions of TILs are grown. After a round of chemotherapy, mass amounts of these lab-grown immune cells are then returned to the body to seek out and combat any remaining melanoma cells in the body.
YCC is now enrolling for a new clinical trial to study the efficacy of TIL therapy for melanoma.
“Therapies using patients’ immune cells have the potential to become important tools in the fight against a broad range of solid tumors,” said Michael Hurwitz, MD, PhD, medical oncologist and principal investigator for the trial at YCC. “We hope that lifileucel will be the beginning of major changes in our approach to cancer treatment.”
In addition to TIL therapy, SCH is also the only hospital in the state that offers a similar immune cell therapy known as CAR T-cell therapy for patients with blood cancers. CAR T-cell therapy is a relatively new and highly personalized type of immunotherapy where the patient’s T cells are collected from their blood to create synthetically modified T cells — a type of white blood cell — to kill cancer cells. “CAR T is an exciting new form of immunotherapy that is proving effective in patients with certain recurrent or resistant blood cancers,” said Stuart Seropian, MD, clinical director and lead physician of the stem cell transplant program at YCC and SCH. Clinical trials using new CAR-T cells are being conducted for some blood cancers as part of the cell therapy research program.
Accredited for both cellular therapy and stem cell transplantation from the internationally recognized Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT), YCC physicians are among a select group who also perform stem cell transplantation (also known as bone marrow transplantation). Stem cell transplantation can be used sometimes as a treatment for leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. It can be performed either using compatible donor stem cells, which is known as an allogeneic transplant, or using a patient’s own stem cells, which is known as an autogulous transplant.
These treatments can be lifesaving. The National Marrow Donor Program, which tracks data on patients who have received a transplant at accredited US transplant centers, reports that after one year, patients who receive a stem cell transplant at SCH have a 9 percent higher expected one-year survival rate than the national rate of 63%. SCH is ranked among the best hospitals in the nation for leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.
For more on the phase 1 TIL trial, call (203) 737-8884, or email jialing.zhang@yale.edu.
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Yale Cancer Center combines a tradition of innovative cancer treatment and quality care for our patients. A National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated comprehensive cancer center since 1974, Yale Cancer Center is one of only 56 such centers in the nation and the only one in Connecticut. Yale Cancer Center members include national and internationally renowned scientists and physicians at Yale School of Medicine and Smilow Cancer Hospital. This partnership enables the Center to provide the best approaches for prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment for cancer.
Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven Health is one of the nation’s pre-eminent cancer hospitals, Connecticut’s largest provider of cancer care, and the only comprehensive cancer facility in the Northeast – bringing together both inpatient and outpatient care in one hospital. In addition to the flagship Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven, Smilow offers state-of-the-art cancer services at 16 locations throughout the region. Partnering with Yale Cancer Center, Smilow Cancer Hospital offers the very latest care, delivered by some of the nation’s most prominent and highly respected physicians and nurses. A leader in groundbreaking academic medicine, Smilow provides access to more than 300 clinical trials – bringing innovation and new hope to patients each year, including access to Phase I trials.
Contacts:
Michael Masciadrelli Michael.masciadrelli@yale.edu
Colleen Moriarty colleen.moriarty@yale.edu