The Food and Drug Administration has approved a novel type of cancer therapy to treat aggressive forms of melanoma using immune system cells from a patient's tumor.
The treatment, called Amtagvi, was developed by Iovance Biotherapeutics, a biotech company based in San Carlos, Calif.
It is intended for patients whose melanoma cannot be removed with surgery or has spread to other parts of the body.
"The approval of Amtagvi represents the culmination of scientific and clinical research efforts leading to a novel T cell immunotherapy for patients with limited treatment options," Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement announcing the approval on Friday.