Richard Wu, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist who specializes in skin cancer and melanomas and the early development of new drugs. One of the new cancer treatments Wu is helping to develop is TIL – which stands for tumor infiltrating therapy. T cells in the immune system are programmed to locate and destroy cancer cells. “We take and isolate T cells from each patient’s unique tumor and expand them to billions of T cells in the lab and then reinfuse them back into the patient,” Wu explained. Prior to reinfusing the T cell, patients “have received chemotherapy to deplete their immune system to make space for these new T cells. This is a very personalized form of immunotherapy.” The TIL procedure is currently being performed in clinical trials at the James and other leading cancer hospitals. Wu said that the Food and Drug Administration will soon approve a new drug that will make the procedure more effective. The process in the lab “will make the cells stronger and smarter and better able to differentiate between cancer cells and healthy cells … the amount of cells we put back into the patient is critical, we need billions,” Wu said. Currently, TIL is being used to treat patients with a very limited number of cancers, including metastatic melanomas. However, Wu is optimistic that the procedure will eventually be used to treat several other types of cancer. Initial clinical trials are testing the TIL approach for patients with head and neck cancer and triple-negative breast cancer. The early studies have indicated there’s a potential efficacy, there are some really exciting signs,” Wu said.