Dr. Park on Using CD19-Targeted CAR T Cells as Treatment for ALL

Jae H. Park, MD, attending physician, Leukemia Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses a trial presented at the 2014 ASH Annual Meeting that explored CD19-targeted T cells as treatment for patients with relapsed, refractory B- cell ALL.

Park says these patients have a very poor prognosis in overall survival, with previous studies showing an overall survival of less than 10%.

In order to improve the survival of these patients, researchers have modified patients’ own T cells to express CAR to target CD19, which is expressed in all patients with B-Cell ALL, Park says.

Using these modified CAR T cells, researchers have treated up to 33 patients. Of the 27 patients that were evaluable for response, 24 patients achieved complete response for a CR rate of 80%, Park says. Those patients that achieved a complete response, the majority of them were MRD-, which proves that the treatment is providing a deep response, despite that these are very high-risk patients.

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