A new personalised therapy for melanoma could be lifesaving, and it’s set to become available in Australia!
This emerging treatment targets advanced solid cancers, like metastatic melanoma, and could be a game-changer for people potentially saving lives.
What is TIL therapy?
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is a form of cellular immunotherapy that uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. TILs are also considered important biomarkers in predicting treatment response and outcomes.
Bringing TIL therapy to Australia
Researchers from the Western Australia Melanoma Initiative (WAMI) want to establish immunotherapy manufacturing in WA thanks to a major funding boost.
The Cancer Research Trust has generously provided a $2.5 million grant. An additional $1 million has been pledged from various funders, including Spinnaker Health Research Foundation, part of THRF Group.
The research is being led by Professor Jonas Nilsson and Professor Elin Gray. The goal of WAMI is to provide patients with TIL therapy as an improved option for those not benefitting from standard immunotherapy.
While TIL therapy is already free in countries like Denmark and The Netherlands, it’s not yet available in Australia. This is due to its complexity, cost and need for specialised facilities and training.
However with local expertise and growing funding support, Prof Nilsson and Prof Gray are confident the therapy could become a viable option for Australians.
“With this significant investment we will be able to lead the implementation of TIL therapy. Then we will be able to identify new ways to improve it,” Prof Gray said.
“We hope to work with other centres around Australia and the world to improve patient outcomes and save lives from those suffering melanoma and other cancers.”
This project relies heavily on collaboration and that’s exactly what the team are planning, bringing oncologists, surgeons, pathologists and scientists together to create a multidisciplinary team to develop a personalised treatment plan for each patient.
The team will be focussing on biomarkers to monitor treatment responses and to predict which patients may need new therapies if traditional treatment fails.
“We are confident we can predict who might respond to standard of care immunotherapy, but we must implement this technology,” Prof Gray said.
“Having a therapy to offer these patients makes predictive biomarkers very powerful.”
A vision for the future
Prof Nilsson added: “We will establish a platform of collaboration where early ideas can be realised, tested in advanced models and translated into clinical practice. We are lucky to have access to a TGA-accredited clean room facility that can manufacture cell therapies for patients locally.”
The team plan on offering treatments to patients from other states through their clinical collaborators. They are hoping to initiate national collaborative projects to leverage further funds to enable to expansion of the program Australia-wide.
We look forward to updating you on this incredible exciting research, that has the potential to save the lives of so many people battling cancer.
We would like to acknowledge and thank the Janine Chalwell Committee. They have worked tirelessly over the past three years to raise more than $700,000 for melanoma research. The group’s hard work in raising these funds has contributed to Prof Gray and Prof Nilsson’s lifesaving research. Thank you for your hard work, passion and commitment.
