CIRM Funded Clinical Trials
Phase 1 Study of CD19/CD22 Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cells in Adults with Recurrent or Refractory B Cell Malignancies

David Miklos
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cell Therapy is an innovative cancer therapy with very encouraging response rates in patients. The therapy works by isolating a patient’s own T cells (a type of immune cell) and then genetically engineering them to recognize a protein on the surface of cancer cells, triggering their destruction. In some patients with B cell leukemias, however, cancer cells escape detection by the modified T cells and cause the cancer’s reoccurrence.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed an engineered T cell designed to recognize not one, but two, cell surface proteins on cancer cells with the aim of enhancing a patient’s response to the therapy and reducing the potential for relapse. In addition, some of the T cells will form memory stem cells that will survive for years and continue to survey the body, killing any new or surviving cancer cells.
Open label, dose escalation study.
Safety and feasibility.