Recovery, Follow-Up, and Ongoing Care after TIL

This episode focuses on what life looks like after tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy. Michael Goldman describes leaving the hospital and feeling close to normal within days, with only mild skin rashes, a common early sign that the immune system is active after interleukin-2 (IL-2). Medical oncologist James Smithy, MD, MHS, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center reviews the standard follow-up schedule, including the first scan at around 6 weeks and ongoing labs and imaging at regular intervals. Michael recounts spending a full year off all systemic therapy and feeling like his prediagnosis self. He also shares the more recent chapter of his journey, including small new sites of growth seen on imaging, stereotactic radiation to 1 spot in his abdomen, and enrollment in a clinical trial of a BRAF-targeted agent that crosses the blood-brain barrier. His brain disease has remained controlled since TIL therapy.