A New Personalised Treatment for Unresectable or Metastatic Melanoma Could Help Patients Live Longer
Lifileucel is a new type of personalised immunotherapy treatment, that uses the patient’s own immune system (the body’s natural defence) to attack their melanoma. The treatment is called tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy.
Lymphocytes, or white blood cells, are an important part of the immune system that helps the body fight off infections or recognise and attack cancer cells. Researchers will take tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes from inside a patient’s melanoma and grow them in a laboratory before giving them back to the patient as a one-off treatment, where they can recognise and attack the melanoma.
Results from the C-144-01 trial run by Iovance have just been reported at the 2025 international Amercian Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference in Chicago, showing that almost one in five patients with advanced (unresectable or metastatic) melanoma were still alive five years after receiving lifileucel, with the melanoma shrinking in almost four out of five patients on the trial.
Experts say this could become a “transformative option” for patients with melanoma, with some patients having a long –lasting effect from treatment.
Dr Andrew Furness, the consultant medical oncologist who led the trial at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“Results from this trial have shown that TIL therapy may change the outlook for people with advanced melanoma.”
Lifileucel was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of advanced melanoma in February 2024. In the UK, lifileucel is currently going through a review process with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) with the results hoping to be published in December 2025. If approved, the NHS in England will be responsible for the review of the set-up of hospitals across England to be able to give this new innovative treatment. Lifileucel is a one-off infusion but requires a hospital stay of up to two weeks for the supportive medicines before and after the TILs therapy.
Melanoma Focus CEO, Susanna Daniels said:
“The 5-year results with this personalised cancer care in patients who have had a number of treatments for advanced melanoma are extremely encouraging. As a charity, we look forward to supporting the approval processes across the UK so that, once licensed, this treatment will be available for patients with advanced melanoma.”
Esther Allen was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma during 2009, in August 2024 she received TILs treatment:
“I accessed TILs in Israel in August 2024 as I had failed all treatments available to me in the UK.”
“Receiving TILs therapy means, that for me, I can now see a future. TILs therapy is important. It offers personalised tailored medicine and is potentially curative. My scans in March 2025 showed that I was clear of all metastatic disease.”
For more information on TILs therapy, visit our page here.
Additionally, you can access this publication from the Journal of Clinical Oncology: Long-Term Efficacy and Safety of Lifileucel Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte Cell Therapy in Patients With Advanced Melanoma: A 5-Year Analysis of the C-144-01 Study