Immunotherapy for Melanoma

Immunotherapy is a promising new treatment for melanoma. We offer a specialized form of immunotherapy known as Adoptive Immunotherapy using T-cell clones, that is only available through clinical trials conducted by researchers at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance’s partner organizations, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and UW Medicine.

Adoptive immunotherapy uses your own immune system (specifically one type of white blood cell called the T-cell) to fight your cancer.

During this treatment, your doctor will extract specialized T-cells that fight melanoma from your blood, then grow more of them in the laboratory and give the T-cells back to you via an infusion, a process similar to a blood transfusion.

The objective is for the billions of new T-cells you receive to specifically target and destroy cancer cells in your body.

To learn more about immunotherapy clinical trials, ask your doctor.

You can also read "The Power of the Immune System" by Barbara Berg on immunotherapy.