Autologous TIL cell therapy uses a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. Doctors collect lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, from the patient’s tumor, grow hundreds of millions of these cells in a lab, and then infuse them back into the patient to help the immune system better recognize and attack the cancer.

The findings from the phase 2 clinical trial appear in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.

“This study demonstrated the feasibility of consistently generating TILs from recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumors to stabilize a patient’s disease,” said Robert L. Ferris, MD, Ph.D., corresponding author and executive director of UNC Lineberger. “This is a group of patients with a short life expectancy, many of whom have already undergone chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and/or immunotherapy, and there are no other known treatments that would have extended life by about nine months as our TIL therapy did.”