Providence Cancer Institute celebrates historic milestone to finish cancer

Walter J. Urba, M.D., PhD.
Chief Medical Officer, Providence Cancer Institute
Director of Cancer Research, Earle A. Chiles Research Institute

I am thrilled to share news of the Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of a new immunotherapy for advanced melanoma. The fast-track approval of lifileucel, an adoptive cell therapy, represents a significant advance for the field of immuno-oncology.

Lifileucel is the first adoptive cell therapy approved for a solid tissue cancer and offers the potential for treatment of other solid tumors.

This achievement also marks another milestone for Providence Cancer Institute in our pursuit to finish cancer. We were among the first sites to enroll patients in the multi-center, global clinical trial that led to FDA approval.

Brendan Curti, M.D., medical director, melanoma program and cytokine and adoptive immunotherapy, for Providence Cancer Institute, and member and Robert W. Franz Endowed Chair for Clinical Research at the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, served as our site principal investigator. He and other investigators found that lifileucel addresses a major unmet need in patients with metastatic melanoma whose cancer has progressed after approved therapy.

Participation in the clinical study is a testament to our standing as a global leader in immuno-oncology and a sought-after clinical partner for adoptive cell therapy development.

Our ability to develop, manufacture and administer clinical grade adoptive cell therapies, combined with the superior capabilities of our genomics team, allows us to offer patients access to cutting-edge therapies available only at Providence Cancer Institute.

The approval marks another milestone for Providence researchers whose decades of scientific and clinical research has culminated in harnessing the power of a patient’s own T cells as a living drug. With numerous investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored studies underway, adoptive cell therapy is a principal focus of our cancer research enterprise.

Please join us in celebrating this important step forward for our researchers and care teams, and for patients with cancer.

With appreciation,

Dr. Urba

Related

Learn more about this historic achievement and our efforts to improve patient outcomes through precision immuno-oncology on our blog.

FDA approves cellular therapy, offering hope to more people with cancer