TODAY | Mom, 38, Was Dying of Melanoma That Started on Her Ear Until New Therapy Saved Her Life
Jennifer Melahn endured an ear amputation and other treatments that didn't stop the melanoma from spreading. She had months left to live until she tried a “last ditch effort." “I had told her that without any successful therapy, her prognosis was less than three to four months,” says Dr. Theresa Medina, an oncologist at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital. Melahn’s life depended on the success of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes are the body’s own immune cells. They can recognize and invade a cancerous mass, but they can be “turned off” by signals from the tumor or unable to attack the cancer cells for other reasons, Medina explains. There may also be too few of them to do the job, according to the Melanoma Research Foundation. In TIL therapy, these immune cells are removed from the tumor, enhanced and multiplied in a lab. Billions of them are then infused back into the patient.