Emerging Therapies in Oncology: Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes

BioPharm International® spoke with Jason Bock, founder and CEO of CTMC, about next-generation modalities in the treatment of cancer, especially cell therapies and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). Cell therapies have been focused on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells, according to Bock, but these treat only a small number of cancer types, such as blood cancers. TILs are focused on treating solid tumors, such as lung and cervical cancers, which is a step forward in fighting 90% of cancers, says Bock.

“TILs have been around for decades, especially in academic centers, and have a slightly different approach, where we take a piece of the tumor and extract the cells, the immune cells that [have] already found their way into the tumor and are presumably fighting that tumor, and then we can have methods to expand, in some ways, rejuvenate those cells to large numbers and then reinfuse those to the same patient,” says Bock. “Another really exciting aspect about TILs is that they have inherent specificity for the tumor that allows us the opportunity to further genetically engineer them for improved fitness, persistence or durability.”

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About the speaker

Jason Bock, founder and CEO of CTMC

Jason Bock, PhD, is a biotech leader with a track record of translating cutting-edge science into impactful biologic therapies. As CEO of CTMC—a joint venture between MD Anderson Cancer Center and Resilience—he leads efforts to bridge academic discoveries with industrial drug development and advanced manufacturing, accelerating transformative cell therapies to patients. Since its 2022 launch, CTMC has guided eight novel cell therapies through IND clearance. Previously, Dr. Bock spent a decade at Teva Pharmaceuticals, where he grew the Biologics team to 600+ employees, advanced 15 novel drugs, and led three to global commercialization. He holds a BS in Biology from MIT and a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Physiology from Stanford University.