Adoptive Cellular Therapy for Metastatic Melanoma: The Road to Commercialization and Treatment Guidelines for Clinicians

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) has been gaining promise as a therapeutic option for metastatic melanoma. By harnessing the power of patients’ tumor-resident lymphocytes, TIL therapy has shown promise in delivering durable, complete responses for patients who have progressed with other treatments, including checkpoint inhibition. This form of personalized medicine has traditionally been limited to select academic facilities with the infrastructure and resources to generate TIL cells and care for patients during the treatment phase. In this review, the authors discuss the role of TIL therapy for patients with metastatic melanoma, including the current state of therapeutic options, logistics of TIL harvest and infusion, management of infusion-specific toxicities, and foundational steps for surgeons and oncologists to establish cell-based therapies in individual hospitals and cancer centers.