Adoptive transfer of short-term cultured tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (young TIL) in metastatic melanoma patients.

8510 Background: Treatment of metastatic melanoma patients with adoptively transferred Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes (TIL) has developed into an effective therapy. The use of unselected, short term cultured (young) TIL simplifies the laboratory production process. Our aim was to explore the effectiveness and toxicity of adoptive young TIL transfer in metastatic melanoma patients (ClinicalTrial.gov NCT00287131). Methods: Patients were eligible if they had progressed on prior IL2 based treatment and had adequate organ function. Amended protocol since 5/10 allowed recruitment of patients with CNS metastasis without major neurologic deficit. Patients received lympho-depleting chemotherapy with CTX and fludarabin before TIL administration followed by high dose bolus IL2 infusion. Results: Sixty five patients were enrolled in the study and Young-TIL cultures were successfully generated for 60 (92%). Ten patients clinically deteriorated during TIL production, resulting in a total drop-out rate of 23% (15/65). 2...