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The research involves cancer-fighting immune cells called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs. These are white blood cells that swarm around tumors, a sign that the immune system is trying to attack the cancer. Dr. Rosenberg has been studying TILs for decades, with the goal of enhancing their ability to fight the disease and using them as a treatment.

An attempt to treat another patient with tumors much like Ms. Ryan’s did not work, almost certainly because the researchers could not produce enough highly targeted TILs, Dr. Rosenberg said.

So far, the cells have worked best against advanced melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. By extracting TILs from tumors, multiplying them in the lab and then returning them to the patient, Dr. Rosenberg’s team has produced long remissions in 20 to 25 percent of patients with that disease.

In March 2015, she got in. Whether the screen shots were a deciding factor is not clear. Dr. Rosenberg said the team had been watching her progress and brought her in as soon as they identified operable tumors.

A month later, the researchers performed surgery, removing several lung tumors to search for TILs.

Ms. Ryan’s tissue turned out to be a medical gold mine. She had a KRAS mutation and her TILs included killer T-cells that locked onto the mutation like guided missiles.

Her T-cells were able to recognize the mutation because she has an uncommon tissue type, which is a genetically determined trait. As a result, she carries a certain protein on the surface of her cells that plays an essential role in displaying the KRAS mutation so that cancer-killing cells can find it and attack.

Best of all, from a scientific standpoint, was that Ms. Ryan’s KRAS mutation is shared by many other patients with colon and pancreatic cancers. Those who share her tissue type may also be good candidates for treatment with TILs.

Researchers say they now have a blueprint that may enable them to develop cell treatments for other patients as well. The killer T-cells have surface molecules called receptors that lock onto mutated cells, and it may be possible to genetically engineer patients’ T-cells to give them those receptors and their cancer-targeting ability.