Scientifically at least, the biggest story coming out of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2022 Congress is the success of cell therapy in solid tumors. “During this ESMO, there is a lot of novelty coming from T-cell therapies,” John Haanen told the audience at his joint keynote speech with Ton Schumacher – so much so that Haanen and Schumacher, both group leaders at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, left antibodies out of their keynote session in order to do justice to the advances in cell therapies.

Tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is a promising approach to cancer cell therapy that could provide a new option for people whose cancers have not responded to previous lines of treatment – and Denmark’s Cbio A/S is heading to the clinic with a new contender in the field. Delegates at the Anglonordic Life Science Conference in London, held on May 5, heard from CEO Ulrik Cordes, who explained the company aims to outperform rivals from Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. and Instil Bio Inc. with its proprietary approach to TIL.

Cell therapy company Zhuhai Grit Biotechnology Inc. completed a series A+ financing of undisclosed value to advance its lead tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) program, GT-101 for advanced solid tumors, into the clinic by year end while also developing other TIL candidates in its pipeline.

Phase II data from Iovance Biotherapeutics Inc. in advanced melanoma at the recent meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology turned up an important relationship between previous anti-PD-1 therapy exposure and the durability of treatment response. Findings added weight to the idea that tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) should be deployed earlier in therapy.