S.A. Rosenberg, B.S. Packard, P.M. Aebersold, D. Solomon, et al., "Use of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and interleukin-2 in the immunotherapy of patients with metastatic melanoma," New England Journal of Medicine, 319, 1676-80, 22 December 1988.
Steve Rosenberg (National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md.): "The three standard treatments for patients with cancer are surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. These treatments can cure about one half of all individuals who develop the disease. Those patients who cannot be cured, however, represented more than 485,000 deaths in the United States last year. There is thus a need for new approaches to treating cancer. This paper describes an approach to the immunotherapy of human cancer using tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) isolated from a resected cancer nodule, expanded in culture, and returned to the patient with IL-2 administration. Partial regression of tumor was seen in about one half of patients with advanced melanoma. This technique is...