A long-awaited cancer treatment reaches patients
By Erin Wayman
Managing Editor, Print and Longform
Thanks to the pandemic, the immune system has gotten a lot of attention. When I think about all the viruses, bacteria and other invaders that the body’s defenses fend off, I’m in awe, even if the nudge of a vaccine is sometimes needed to help mount the counterattack.
This issue’s cover story reminds me of another reason to be in awe: The immune system not only protects against foreign threats but homegrown ones as well. On Page 22, senior writer Meghan Rosen describes a recent breakthrough in wielding the immune system against cancer. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first T cell therapy for a solid tumor, sold under the name Amtagvi. To treat advanced melanoma, doctors remove tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, a type of T cell known as TILs, from a patient’s own tumor and grow these natural cancer killers by the billions in the lab. Then the battalion of T cells is injected into the patient to improve the body’s odds of beating the cancer.