KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer is one of the most common cancers in the U.S. Melanoma makes up just 1% of skin cancers, but it's the most deadly. Now there's a new treatment that could save lives.
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a therapy for rare and aggressive cancers, and it's being offered at the University of Tennessee Medical Center.
"FDA approval for any therapy means that it can be more broadly given to patients that are in need of that type of treatment," said Dr. Kelly McCaul, the director of the cell therapy program at UT Medical Center.
Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILS therapy, has been approved to treat metastatic melanoma.
"It has been recognized for many decades that our immune system can attack cancer cells," said McCaul. "And so what we do is we harvest that component of our immune system, the T cells out of a tumor mass, purify it, expand it, and then give it back to a patient so that it can have an anti-cancer effect."
This therapy is for patients whose cancer is not responding to other treatments.
"For our patient, Charles Kelly, he had his melanoma progressing after he was on his initial immunotherapy. And his disease was growing in many parts of his body inside the liver and other parts," said Dr. Renju Raj, a transplant and cell therapy physician.
Charles Lloyd Kelly was a part of the clinical trials. He said he was diagnosed with melanoma in 2022 and TILS therapy helped.
"I was stage four metastatic, started in the leg and went to the liver, the lungs, ribs," said Kelly. "Now all of that has pretty much shrunk. Except I've got one that's still being a little hateful, but we're working on that."
UT Medical Center is currently the only hospital in Tennessee to offer this type of therapy.
"We're onboarding these new therapies that previous residents of this area would have had to go several hundreds of miles away to receive," said Josh Hickman, the director of the transplant cellular program.
Kelly said he recommends the therapy if someone is eligible.
"Definitely look into, you know, ask your doctors about it.," said Kelly. "Because, like I said, this place is awesome. Especially the fifth floor, the team up there. They treat you right, you know, they really take care of you."
Kelly said he feels great and has even put on some weight since doing the therapy last October.