# PD-1 failure → TIL therapy

Source: https://onco.cc/pairings/io-then-til/  
OnCo record `io-then-til` (Pairing). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

When checkpoint blockade fails in melanoma, harvesting and expanding the patient's own tumour-reactive T cells still works in a third of patients.

## Summary

This sequence pairing follows failure of Immune checkpoint inhibitors with TIL therapy in Melanoma: when checkpoint blockade fails, harvesting and expanding the patient's own tumour-reactive T cells can still produce responses. The rationale is that checkpoint failure often reflects too few tumour-reactive T cells rather than none, and TIL therapy multiplies them a thousand-fold, supplying cells that were quantitatively insufficient rather than absent. Lifileucel received accelerated approval for use after anti-PD-1 therapy such as Pembrolizumab, and long-term durability data support the approach. The pairing is reached from the Melanoma entry and illustrates how a cell therapy can rescue a setting where antibodies have stopped working.

## Fields

- Kind: Pairing
- Last checked: 2026-09-04
- Pairs: Immune checkpoint inhibitors + TIL therapy
- Type: sequence
- Rationale: Checkpoint failure often reflects too few tumour-reactive T cells; TIL therapy multiplies them a thousand-fold.
- Evidence: Accelerated approval; 5-year durability data.

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02360579: C-144-01: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02360579

## Connected records

- cancers: [Melanoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/melanoma/)
- drugs: [Lifileucel](https://onco.cc/drugs/lifileucel/), [Pembrolizumab](https://onco.cc/drugs/pembrolizumab/)
- technologies: [Immune checkpoint inhibitors](https://onco.cc/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/), [TIL therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/til-therapy/)

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