Since 2016, Bernard Thurman has undergone traditional treatments, experimental therapies and surgeries to counter the cancer within him, but nothing has eradicated the disease. Earlier this year, the oncologists in Los Angeles who were treating him referred Thurman to a personalized cancer therapy trial being developed at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health.
“Truly, I am running out of options as far as treatment goes,” said Thurman, whose cancer developed in his tonsils and has since spread to his lungs.
On Dec. 8, Thurman became the first patient to undergo an investigational cell therapy that uses a patient’s own, lab-grown immune cells, specifically tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, or TIL, in an effort to destroy his cancer.