A new immunotherapy treatment for advanced melanoma had a reduction in disease progression in 50 percent of participants and complete remission in 20 percent, making it one of the most effective treatments to date, NBC News reported Dec. 7.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, used cells called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), which were harvested from the tumor itself and multiplied in a lab. The study included 168 patients, half receiving TIL and half an immunotherapy drug called ipilimumab. Patients were followed up with after 33 months.
Those who received TIL had a 50 percent reduction in disease progression and death, 49 percent experienced at least partial remission — meaning a decrease of at least 30 percent of their metastatic tumors — and 20 percent had complete remission.
"Patients with a complete remission have an excellent prognosis," trial leader Dr. John Haanen, a medical oncologist at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, told NBC News. "We estimate that more than 80 percent of these may be cured."
Seven percent of the ipilimumab participants experienced complete remission.
Iovance Biotherapeutics, a California-based biotech company that produces TIL, said it hopes to receive FDA approval by mid-2023, according to Jen Saunders, Iovance's director of investor relations and public relations.