Iovance Biotherapeutics is focused on developing tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapies – a novel form of immunotherapy where a patient’s own T cells, harvested from their tumor, are expanded and activated in a lab, then reinfused to attack cancer. This approach, originally pioneered by NCI’s Dr. Steven Rosenberg in the 1980s, finally reached fruition when Iovance’s lifileucel earned FDA approval in 2024 as the first-ever TIL therapycancer.gov. Lifileucel is indicated for unresectable or metastatic melanoma that has progressed after standard immunotherapiesfda.gov. In clinical trials, lifileucel achieved an objective response rate ~31% in heavily pre-treated melanoma patientsfda.gov, with some complete tumor regressions observed. Notably, many responses have proven durable – about 40% of responders had no cancer progression one year post-infusion in trialscancer.gov – signaling the potential for long-term remission in a subset of patients.
