Advocate Aurora Research Institute has joined a clinical trial studying CAR T-cell therapy for people with a type of aggressive lymphoma.
“CAR T-cell therapy is a targeted and unique type of cancer treatment made from a person’s own T cells, which are part of the immune system,” said Tulio Rodriguez, MD, hematologist, oncologist and director of the Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. “After removal from the person’s body, the T cells are genetically engineered to recognize, attack and kill cancer cells and then returned to their body.”
The clinical trial, known as ZUMA 2, evaluates KTE-X19, a CAR T-cell therapy, for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) that is either refractory (non-responsive to treatment) or has relapsed (returned after initial improvement) in people who were not previously treated with a different cancer-targeting drug named Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or BTKi.
“KTE-X19 is engineered to identify and kill MCL cancer cells,” Dr. Rodriguez said. “XTE-X19 has already been approved for people with relapsed or refractory MCL who received BTKi as part of their treatment regimen. Cohort 3 of the ZUMA 2 clinical trial is designed to test the safety and effectiveness of KTE-X19 when not given in combination with BTKi.”
CAR T-cell therapy is given as part of a treatment regimen. The combination of therapies a person receives may include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy or immunotherapy, such as BTKi that helps to stop cancer cells from growing and dividing.
Currently, six CAR T-cell therapies have been approved in the U.S. for the treatment of some aggressive blood cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Rodriguez is the ZUMA 2 site principal investigator for Advocate Lutheran General. Approximately 90 research participants will be enrolled into cohort 3 of the trial at study sites throughout the world. Participants will be monitored for a follow-up period of about 15 years.
“CAR T-cell therapy is state-of-the-art personalized medicine,” said Nina Garlie, PhD, vice president of clinical trials research at the Research Institute. “Unlike chemotherapy, which can kill a person’s own fast-growing cells, CAR T-cell therapy only targets and kills cancer cells. And it has provided hope for people with cancer when standard treatments haven’t worked.”
The ZUMA 2 clinical trial, also called “Study to evaluate the efficacy of brexucabtagene autoleucel (KTE-X19) in participants with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (cohort 3),” is sponsored by Kite, A GILEAD Company.
To learn more about Advocate Aurora’s research, visit aah.org/research.