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Thursday's Health Report: New therapy for advanced melanoma
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BATON ROUGE — The FDA approved a new treatment earlier this year for advanced melanoma called TIL therapy, experts say it can be an effective one-time treatment for some patients.
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy, or TIL therapy, uses the body's own immune cells to target the cancer — in this case, advanced melanoma.
The process, which takes about three weeks, begins with surgery.
"We remove the cancer; it's sent off to a lab, and those immune cells, those lymphocytes, are isolated, they're separated out, they're enriched," Dr. James Jakub, a surgical oncologist, said.
While the cells are prepared, the patient undergoes chemotherapy in preparation for their own immune cells, which recognize the melanoma, to be infused back into their body.
"When we give them back to the patient, they can effectively target the cancer, and now in numbers, they can overwhelm the cancer and kill it," he said.
Blood tests and scans measure the body's response three months after treatment.
For those who have failed multiple lines of treatment, Dr. Jakub says this one-time therapy offers hope.
"It's the potential that their cancer may not come back again, and they may not need any additional therapy,” Dr. Jakub said.
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