Driving Progress in CAR-T Therapy

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy can provide durable remissions for patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphomas, but when the treatment fails these patients have limited options and poor survival. Investigators now report phase 1 safety and efficacy results for an investigational anti-CD19 CAR-T modified (“armored”) to express human interleukin-18 (IL-18). Patients who were resistant to or had relapse after prior anti-CD19 CAR-T therapy, and who remained CD19 positive on biopsy, received a single infusion of the huCART19-IL18 at five dose levels ranging from 3×10⁶ to 3×10⁸. Most received bridging therapy before CAR-T infusion. Patients with incomplete remission or later relapse during the study could receive a repe…