Towards a New Frontier in CAR T-Cell Therapy

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is an effective option for relapsed B-cell lymphoma, but access to treatment may be limited due to rapid disease progression, the time required for CAR T-cell manufacture, and geographic barriers for patients needing management at specialized centers. Investigators now report a novel CD19-targeted natural killer (NK) cell CAR (FT596) derived from an allogeneic induced pluripotent stem cell that was engineered to include an immunoglobulin Fc receptor (CD16), to enhance tumor cell targeting when co-administered with rituximab, and an interleukin-15 ligand/receptor fusion protein, to mitigate the need for exogenous cytokine support.

The industry-sponsored, multicenter, phase 1 trial tested multiple…