ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Melanoma — it’s a type of aggressive skin cancer that is the fifth most deadly cancer. Surgery, immunotherapy and chemo are the typical treatments. But now, the FDA has approved a groundbreaking new therapy for patients battling late-stage melanoma, offering hope when options run out.
Whether it’s for fun or for work — we’ve all spent too much time in the sun, but did you know too much sun is the leading cause of melanoma? This year, more than 104,000 people will be told they have it — more than 8,000 will die from the disease.
“For a patient who has late-stage disease, unfortunately, most patients will succumb to their disease,” said Tirrell Johnson, MD, Director of Early Phase Therapeutics at the Orlando Health Cancer Institute.
Now, scientists have engineered a way to supercharge a patient’s own immune cells to aggressively attack melanoma.
“What we’ve done is we take a piece of the tumor, we developed, engineered T-cells, we give those engineered T-cells back to the patient,” explained Dr. Johnson.
These uniquely tailored tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes or TIL, are created for each individual patient using the patient’s own cancer cells. Dr. Johnson led part of the study that showed 55% of patients with cancer responded to this treatment. And for one in seven patients — their cancer completely disappeared!
“I think immunotherapy was the first big advancement in melanoma. And I would say that this is the second one,” Dr. Johnson told Ivanhoe.
This new FDA approved therapy now offers a powerful new lifeline for patients with advanced-stage melanoma.
Ongoing clinical trials are exploring the potential of this therapy in earlier stages of melanoma and even other cancers like endometrial, cervical, and lung cancers.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
Sources:
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/melanoma-skin-cancer/about/key-statistics.html
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/melanoma/symptoms-causes/syc-20374884
* For More Information, Contact:
Bill Kallus
Public Affairs and Media Relations Manager at the Orlando Health Cancer Institute
William.Kallus@orlandohealth.com
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