Tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy have been a stable of cell therapy for many years and how recently shown clinical effect in phase III studies. How are TILs made, what are the major challenges the therapy face, and what’s next?

In this episode we are joined by Dr Özcan Met, an associated professor at Herlev og Gentofte Hospital, Center for Cancer Immune Therapy (CCIT), Copenhagen University Hospital and Technical University Denmark, who is at the forefront of TIL research.

In the episode we discuss how Dr Met and his colleagues are marrying advanced CRISPR edits with TIL therapy to knock-out PD-1, and what’s next for the field. The articles we discuss are:

1. 'Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte Therapy or Ipilimumab in Advanced Melanoma’ by Rohaan MW et al, NEJM, 2022 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36477031/).

2. 'Highly efficient PD-1-targeted CRISPR-Cas9 for tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte-based adoptive T cell therapy’ by Chamberlain CA et al, Mol Therapy Oncolytics, 2022 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35141398/).

3. 'Tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy comes of age in the era of genetic engineering’ by Crowther MD et al, Lancet Oncology, 2025 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41167225/).

4. ' Unlocking tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte potential with CRISPR-Cas9’ by Met Ö and Svane IM, Lancet Oncology, 2025 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40315881/).