Steven Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of CCR’s Surgery Branch since 1974, is a genuine pioneer in the development of immunotherapies for cancer. In 1985, he was the first to demonstrate that an immunotherapy—specifically, the administration of interleukin-2 (IL-2)—could cure certain patients with metastatic disease. A few years later, he opened the doors to cell-based immunotherapies by showing that tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes (TILs) could be isolated from melanomas, stimulated to proliferate, and reintroduced into patients to promote cancer regression. Since that time, Rosenberg and his colleagues have discovered and developed innovative ways to improve upon cell transfer therapies. He was the first to insert foreign genes into humans in 1990 and the first to demonstrate that genetic modification of T cells could mediate cancer regression in patients with melanoma, sarcomas, and lymphomas. Rosenberg has written more than 1,100 scientific articles, as well as eight books, and was the most cited clinician in the world in the field of oncology between 1981 and 1998.
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Destroying the Competition
In 2002, we demonstrated that we could increase the therapeutic efficacy of ACT dramatically, by first extracting TILs, then depleting the patient’s remaining lymphocytes with a combination of drugs (cyclophosphamide and fludarabine) before reinfusing the expanded population of TILs into the patient. We recently reported that among the first 93 patients with metastatic melanoma who were treated in this way, 20 had complete regressions. Of those 20, 19 maintained their tumor-free status for more than six years and some have been followed for more than 10 years. We reported these data from three successive pilot trials; in the last trial, 40 percent of patients experienced complete cancer regression.
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