Lunch Seminar - TIL Explained
What does TIL mean?
Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are a type of immune cell that is found within a tumor. Neoantigens are a type of antigen that is unique to cancer cells and is not found on normal, healthy cells. They are generated as a result of mutations that occur in cancer cells and can be recognized by the immune system as foreign. TILs are thought to play a role in the immune response to neoantigens, as they are able to recognize and attack cancer cells that express these unique antigens.
The ability of TILs to recognize neoantigens is thought to be important in the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies, such as checkpoint inhibitors. These therapies work by releasing the brakes on the immune system, allowing it to more effectively attack cancer cells. The presence of TILs may indicate that a patient's immune system is already actively attacking the tumor, making them more likely to respond to immunotherapy.
TILs have also been shown to be associated with a more favorable prognosis in some cancer types, including melanoma and breast cancer. In these cases, the presence of TILs may indicate that the immune system is actively trying to eliminate the cancer cells, leading to better outcomes.
TIL as a cancer therapy
In recent years (well we meant for the past 30+ years), TILs have been developed as an adoptive cell transfer therapy to treat cancer. TIL therapy was pioneered by Dr. Steven Rosenberg and colleagues at the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
In this type of autologous cell therapy, tumor tissue is fragmented and TILs are isolated. The TIL cells are ex vivo activated and grown prior to transfusion back into the same patient. The combination of TILs with a high dose of IL-2 presents multiple clinical trials demonstrating rates near 50% or more patients effectively responding. TIL therapy was found to induce complete and durable regression of metastatic melanoma. The front runner is applying for BLA from the US FDA. Fresh Wind Biotech is focused on using cutting-edge AI algorithm to identify and expand the most potent subclones in TILs - we call them TIL2.0.
The use of TILs to treat other tumor types, including lung, ovarian, bladder, and breast, are under investigation. Take a listen to what Dr. Rosenberg presented in this video – pretty incredible!