NEJM: clinical trials show that CD19 car-nk cell therapy achieves a 73% remission rate in patients with leukemia and lymphoma

February 7, 2020 news / Biovalley BIOON / - -- in a new phase I / IIa clinical trial Researchers from the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas reported that the treatment of CD19 targeting car-nk cells from cord blood can lead to the majority of patients with recurrent or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and chronic lymphoblastic leukemia Patients with CLL had clinical reactions and no major side effects were observed The relevant research results were published in NEJM on February 6, 2020 The paper is entitled "use of car transformed natural killer cells in CD19 positive lymphoid tumors" Of the 11 patients who participated in the clinical study, 8 (73%) responded to the treatment, 7 of whom had complete remission, meaning that they did not show signs of disease at a median follow-up of 13.8 months The treatment after remission was given to five of the patients who responded No patient experienced cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity The response to CD19 car-nk cell therapy was obvious within one month after infusion, and the persistence of these cells was confirmed within one year after infusion Picture from NEJM, 2020, DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa1910607 "We are encouraged by the results of this clinical trial," said Dr katayoun rezvani, co-author of the paper and professor of stem cell transplantation and cell therapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas "We will carry out further clinical trials to study allogeneic car-nk cells from cord blood as potential treatment options for patients in need." Car-nk cells are allogeneic, which means they come from unrelated healthy donors, not from patients themselves Therefore, car-nk cells have the potential to be prepared and stored in advance for immediate use on the spot In contrast, the current commercial car-t cells need to use the genetically modified T cells from the patient's own, which are constructed through weeks of preparation At the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, natural killer cells (NK cells) were isolated from donated cord blood and genetically engineered to express the required car to identify cancer specific targets Car-nk cells are also armored with IL-15, an immune signaling molecule designed to enhance the proliferation and survival of these cells CD19 car-nk cells used in this clinical study target B-cell malignancies In this clinical trial, 11 patients received a single dose of cord blood derived CD19 CAR-NK cells and infused them at one of three dose levels Five patients had CLL and six had NHL All patients received at least 3 and at most 11 prior treatments The first nine patients received CD19 car-nk cells partially matched according to the type of human leukocyte antigen (HLA), but this treatment regimen allowed the last two patients to receive CD19 car-nk cells without HLA matching Rezvani said the side effects experienced by these patients were mainly related to the conditioning chemotherapy before CD19 car NK cell infusion and disappeared within one to two weeks No patients need to enter the intensive care unit to control treatment side effects "Because of the nature of this treatment, we can actually use it in an outpatient setting," rezvani said Based on these clinical results, we look forward to working with Takeda to conduct larger multicenter clinical trials in order to promote the treatment more widely " The car-nk cell therapy platform at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas was licensed to Takeda pharmaceutical in 2019 As part of the license agreement and research agreement, Takeda pharmaceutical has the exclusive right to develop and commercialize up to four car-nk projects, including CD19 car-nk cell therapy (tak-007) and BCMA targeted car-nk cell therapy Takeda pharmaceutical and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center will launch a key CD19 car NK cell therapy tak-007 clinical trial in 2021 Reference: 1 Enli Liu et al Use of car transformed natural killer cells in CD19 positive lymphoid tumors NEJM, 2020, DOI: 10.1056/nejmoa1910607 2 CD19 car NK cell therapy achievements 73% response rate in patients with leukemia and lymphama https://mediaexpress.com/news/2020-02-cd19-car-nk-cell-therapy-response.html