A type of cellular therapy, called TILs, or tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes is using immune cells from within the tumor to help fight cancer.
Randy Snavely and his fiancé Kristin enjoy spending time out on the road on their motorcycle.
But about four years ago, Snavely was diagnosed with lung cancer.
“I didn’t really notice anything until I quit eating and I thought there was something wrong, so I went to my regular doctor and she had me take X-rays and that’s how I found out I had it,” said Snavely, an Avera patient.
“He was diagnosed with an advanced lung cancer from the very beginning, so a stage 4 lung cancer, and usually that is treated with a combination of chemotherapy and often immunotherapy medicines that help to stimulate the immune system to help control the cancer and that’s what he got as part of a trial in first line,” said Avera Medical Group oncologist, Benjamin Solomon, MD.
After that, it was decided he should try a TILs therapy.
“The idea behind this kind of therapy is that the TILs, parts of his own immune system, can go back into his body and actually help to attack the cancer,” said Solomon.
“The first steps are actually to have an operation to remove a small amount of cancerous tumor and then that is taken to a lab where it’s processed to isolate the immune cells that are inside of the tumor,” said Solomon.
The next step involved Snavely receiving chemotherapy to help prepare his body to receive the cells, or lymphocytes back into his body.
“A lymphocyte is a type of white blood cell, a lymphocyte is part of the memory system of our immune system or the memory of our immune system that can be sort of trained in a way to attack certain bugs or germs for instance but also can participate in cancer control,” said Solomon.
“After they receive that chemo they are hospitalized, they receive kind of like a blood transfusion, their own lymphocytes back into their body, via an IV, and then they receive a medicine called IL2, that stimulates those cells to grow in the body and they become the dominant part of the immune system that attacks the tumor,” said Solomon.
“The idea is that these lymphocytes that are removed, the tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs, are the cells that would be the most educated, if you will, against the cancer,” said Solomon.
Now Snavely continues to come in every three months for a checkup.
“I’m real happy with what I did go through because it kept me going,” said Snavely, who is going on to his next adventure on his motorcycle.
This type of technology is still being investigated through clinical trials.
