Experimental CARS therapy breaks through relapsed CLL
AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEMATOLOGY
The term "serial killer cells" has been coined because there has been an effector-to-target ratio of 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 93,000, meaning that the infused T cells, or their progeny, can kill up to 93,000 tumor cells, Dr. Porter said.
"When we do the math, we estimate that’s between 2.9 and 7.5 pounds of tumor in these patients that we’ve treated," he added.
During a discussion of the results, Dr. Porter said that in patients with cytokine release syndrome, anti-IL-6 therapy is typically given at the first sign of hemodynamic instability and that improvement is almost instantaneous. To address the B-cell dysplasia, he said, there is a lot of interest in developing either more specific targets or technology such as a suicide vector where the CARS are self-limited to allow for normal B-cell development.
In August 2012, the University of Pennsylvania and Novartis announced an exclusive global research and licensing agreement to study and commercialize CAR therapies for other cancers at a Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies to be built on the university campus.
The research was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy. Dr. Porter reported patents and royalties from Novartis, honoraria from Celgene, spouse employment with Genentech, and research funding from Pfizer. His coauthors reported commercial relationships with TxCell and Novartis.
