First patient participates in immunotherapy trial despite COVID-19 pandemic
Source: www.news-medical.net Author: UC-San Diego, Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc Since 2016, Bernard Thurman has undergone traditional treatments, experimental therapies and surgeries to counter the cancer within him, but nothing has successfully eradicated the disease. Earlier this year, the oncologists in Los Angeles who were treating him referred Thurman to a personalized cancer therapy trial being developed at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health. "Truly, I am running out of options, as far as treatment goes," said Thurman, whose cancer developed in his tonsils and has since spread to his lungs. "The latest immunotherapies, both the FDA-approved and the experimental, were proving ineffective. Obviously, it was time to go in a different direction." Thurman met with Ezra Cohen, MD, associate director for translational science at Moores Cancer Center, in mid-March to discuss an investigational cell therapy that uses a patient's own immune cells -- specifically tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) -- to seek and destroy their own unique cancer cells. Days after this meeting, COVID-19 swept the country, forcing hospitals to rethink which procedures could continue and which would need to be paused. Because the TIL trial requires that patients be hospitalized, it was put on hold. Thurman was disappointed. "Don't let the pandemic make you decide to put off cancer treatment," said Thurman. "You may or may not get COVID, but cancer will kill you if you don't treat it. So, don't delay it." Knowing the urgency of treatment, Cohen, a head and neck oncologist, suggested an alternative [...]