News

A CAR T-cell therapy specific for CD22 was safe and provided high response rates for pediatric patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia who had failed chemotherapy and/or a CD19-targeted CAR T-cell treatment.

A compound CLL1/CD33-targeted CAR T-cell therapy showed a complete remission with minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity in a single-patient case study from an ongoing phase I study for relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

A new approach using gene editing technology could allow chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells to target CD33 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) but prevent the cells from attacking healthy stem cells, too.

Last year, the FDA expanded the indications of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) drug tocilizumab (Actemra) to include the treatment of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) caused by CAR T-cell therapy. Recently, 2 studies have identified another rheumatoid arthritis drug that could be more effective in the treatment of CRS.

The CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel (JCAR017; liso-cel) is showing promising response rates in patients with high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab for the treatment of refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) or who have relapsed after 2 or more previous lines of therapy.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to pembrolizumab for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, or those who have relapsed after 2 or more prior lines of therapy.

CMS has proposed a different way to handle payment for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, one that the medical and manufacturing community thinks is unworkable.

CAR T-cell therapy with bb2121 induced deep, long-lasting responses in patients with heavily pretreated MM.

The CD19-targeted CAR T-cell product axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) is currently being investigated in patients with relapsed/refractory MCL in the ongoing ZUMA-2 trial.

Several studies presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting helped further refine and inform treatment strategies for the budding class of CAR T-cell therapies, with a focus on predicting adverse events and optimizing efficacy.

A study recently published in Cell investigated the deletion of the CD33 protein to enable CAR T-cells to more accurately target and attack cancerous cells in patients with n acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

The FDA has granted a Breakthrough Therapy designation to bluebird bio, Inc’s Lenti-D, a gene therapy for patients with cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, an X-linked genetic disorder caused by a defect in the gene ABCD1.

In TRANSCEND NHL 001, the CD19-directed 4-1BB CAR T-cell product lisocabtagene maraleucel yielded durable responses in heavily pretreated R/R DLBCL.

At the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, June 1-5, Chicago, Illinois, Noopur S. Raje, MD, director, Center for Multiple Myeloma, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, presented results from the phase 1 multicenter study with a second-generation chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy called bb2121.

Therapy with CAR T cells may benefit patients with highly refractory multiple myeloma, said U Penn’s Adam Cohen at ASCO 2018.

Marijke van den Berg, MD, PhD, Alok Srivastava, MD, and Glenn Pierce, MD, PhD discuss gene therapy in hemophilia.

The FDA has granted crizotinib a breakthrough therapy designation for the treatment of patients with metastatic non–small cell lung cancer with MET exon 14 alterations, and for use in patients with relapsed/refractory ALK+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

Supported by positive data from an ongoing Phase 2/3 study, bluebird bio’s Lenti-D has been granted Breakthrough Therapy designation by the US FDA for the treatment of patients with cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy.

Novel combination regimens anchored by pembrolizumab (Keytruda), atezolizumab (Tecentriq), or nivolumab (Opdivo) are opening the door to new options and an opportunity to personalize therapy in non–small cell lung cancer.

New data demonstrates clinical benefit in hemophilia B patients with pre-existing anti-AAV5 neutralizing antibodies.

Anas Younes, MD, discusses the current and future state of CAR T-cell therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors in the landscape of hematologic malignancies.

The phase 1/2 trial for ABO-102 (AAV-SGSH), clinical gene therapy for the treatment of Sanfilippo syndrome type A (MPS III A) shows efficacy in trial update.

SL-401, a novel therapy that targets a cancer stemness pathway, is being investigated in patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm in a phase I/II trial.

The FDA has granted Rare Pediatric Disease Designation to Myonexus Therapeutics for its MYO-101, which is an AAV-based gene therapy for the treatment of limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) type 2E.

CMS's initial payment codes for CAR T-cell therapies are opposed by the medical community on the basis that they would be cumbersome to implement and wouldn't reflect the full amount of care delivered to each patient.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the Bioverativ's Investigational New Drug (IND) application for BIVV003, a gene-edited cell therapy candidate for the treatment of people with sickle cell disease.

The investigational new drug application allows the initiation of phase 1/2 clinical trial to assess the safety of BIVV003 in adults.