Retrospective single-center study of prognostic significance of TILs in patients with cutaneous melanoma

A study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) evaluated the prognostic significance of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes in patients with cutaneous melanoma. The study found that presence of brisk TILs in cutaneous melanoma represents an independent prognostic factor for overall survival, while presence of nonbrisk TILs was not associated with better OS compared with absence of TILs. The study also suggests that natural language processing is a highly efficient tool to facilitate large-scale analyses that involve free-text clinical data.