VCU Massey offers first, only TIL therapy for melanoma in Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Virginia Commonwealth University's (VCU) Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center is the first and only authorized treatment center in the commonwealth to offer a special type of therapy for patients in advanced stages of melanoma.

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, is a highly personalized treatment that uses the tumor tissue within a patient to create individualized immune cells by the billions -- which are then put back into the patient to fight the disease, according to a release.

This is the first FDA-approved cellular therapy for solid tumors, and is also referred to as adoptive cell therapy, Amtagvi or lifileucel.

“This innovative new approach offers the potential of long-term survival for a large percentage of advanced melanoma patients who have exhausted all other available options,” said Andrew Poklepovic, M.D., a medical oncologist and associate director for clinical research at Massey, who specializes in the treatment of melanoma.

Melanoma is a potentially life threatening type of skin cancer, due to its ability to grow rapidly and spread to other organs in the process.

Additionally, while most deaths from skin cancer are because of melanoma, "just over half of melanoma patients with metastatic disease experience long-term survival with the current standard-of-care medical treatment options," the release said.

For around 40% of patients with an aggressive form of melanoma who do not benefit from standard treatments, TIL therapy is now an approved option, according to the release.

Massey was able to become the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Virginia to offer TIL therapy due to multiple physicians participating in an initial clinical trial in 2017. According to the release, the official FDA approval took place in February 2024.

In addition to melanoma treatments, there are other active clinical trials taking place at Massey to investigate how TIL therapy can be used for lung cancer and and earlier stages of melanoma.

For more information about TIL therapy, click here.