Efficacy and safety of CAR19/22 T-cell cocktail therapy in patients with refractory/relapsed B-cell malignancies.

Antigen-escape relapse has emerged as a major challenge for long-term disease control after CD19-directed therapies, to which dual-targeting of CD19 and CD22 has been proposed as a potential solution. From March 2016 through January 2018, we conducted a pilot study in 89 patients who had refractory/relapsed B-cell malignancies, to evaluate the efficacy and safety of sequential infusion of anti-CD19 and anti-CD22, a cocktail of 2 single-specific, third-generation chimeric antigen receptor-engineered (CAR19/22) T cells. Among the 51 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the minimal residual disease-negative response rate was 96.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 86.3-99.5). With a median follow-up of 16.7 months (range, 1.3-33.3), the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 13.6 months (95% CI, 6.5 to not reached [NR]), and the median overall survival (OS) was 31.0 months (95% CI, 10.6-NR). Among the 38 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the overall response rate was 72.2% (95% CI, 54.8-85.8), with a complete response rate of 50.0% (95% CI, 32.9-67.1). With a median follow-up of 14.4 months (range, 0.4-27.4), the median PFS was 9.9 months (95% CI, 3.3-NR), and the median OS was 18.0 months (95% CI, 6.1-NR). Antigen-loss relapse occurred in 1 patient during follow-up. High-grade cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity occurred in 22.4% and 1.12% patients, respectively. In all except 1, these effects were reversible. Our results indicated that sequential infusion of CAR19/22 T cell was safe and efficacious and may have reduced the rate of antigen-escape relapse in B-cell malignancies. This trial was registered at www.chictr.org.cn as #ChiCTR-OPN-16008526.

Efficacy and toxicity for CD22/CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory aggressive B-cell lymphoma involving the gastrointestinal tract.

Gastrointestinal (GI) tract is the most common site of extranodal involvement in non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Life-threatening complications of GI may occur because of tumor or chemotherapy. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has been successfully used to treat refractory/relapse B-cell lymphoma, however, little is known about the efficacy and safety of CAR-T cell therapy for GI lymphoma. Here, we reported the efficacy and safety of CAR-T cell therapy in 14 patients with relapsed/refractory aggressive B-cell lymphoma involving the GI tract. After a sequential anti-CD22/anti-CD19 CAR-T therapy, 10 patients achieved an objective response, and seven patients achieved a complete response. CAR transgene and B-cell aplasia persisted in the majority of patients irrespective of response status. Six patients with partial response or stable disease developed progressive disease; two patients lost target antigens. Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and GI adverse events were generally mild and manageable. The most common GI adverse events were diarrhea (4/14), vomiting (3/14) and hemorrhage (2/14). No perforation occurred during follow-up. Infection is a severe complication in GI lymphoma. Two patients were infected with bacteria that are able to colonize at GI; one died of sepsis early after CAR-T cells infusion. In conclusion, our study showed promising efficacy and safety of CAR-T cell therapy in refractory/relapsed B-cell lymphoma involving the GI tract. However, the characteristics of CAR-T-related infection in GI lymphoma should be further clarified to prevent and control infection.

A Model Perspective Explanation of the Long-Term Sustainability of a Fully Human BCMA-Targeting CAR (CT103A) T-Cell Immunotherapy.

Different from canonical drugs, CAR T-cells are "living drugs", which derived from patient's own blood. Studies of the pharmacokinetics of CAR T-cells could improve our understanding of their efficacy, safety, optimal dosage, and other characterizes. We previously reported a phase I study of a novel fully human BCMA-targeting CAR (CT103A) in 18 patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. CT103A exhibited extraordinary persistence with low anti-drug antibody positivity. To figure out the pharmacokinetic characterizes and investigate the potential reason of CT103A's long-term persistence, we established a population pharmacokinetic (PopPK) model of CT103A based on 18 patients cohort by applying nonlinear mixed-effects modeling and analyzed the CAR T-cell clonal evolution. The results suggested that extramedullary spreading was found to impair Cmax and was therefore added as a covariate to the modified model. The model revealed tocilizumab and corticosteroids showed no impact on the CT103A expansion rate. No dominant clone existed in patients with persistently high peripheral CT103A by CAR integration sites analysis. Finally, patients with lower contraction rate constants and higher Cmax as well as memory CT103A fraction could achieve better clinical responses. Taken together, this study developed a PopPK model of a fully human anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy, and summarized its model characteristics. We suggested that the long-term persistence of CT103A was attributed to the memory CAR T-cell fraction but not the clonal evolution. This study will improve people's understanding of pharmacokinetics and PopPK of CAR T-cell immunotherapy.

Case report: simultaneous occurrence of multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma treated by CAR T therapy.

RATIONALE: B cell lymphoma can co-occur with multiple myeloma (MM), and the prognosis in this case is usually poor. We propose the combination of CD19-chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and BCMA-CAR T cells for the treatment of such patients to obtain a superior prognosis. PATIENT CONCERNS: We present a 50-year-old patient with previous B cell lymphoma and subsequent multiple myeloma (MM). DIAGNOSIS: A diagnosis of B cell lymphoma and MM was made. INTERVENTIONS: The patient was treated with a combination of haploidentical CD19-chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and BCMA-CAR T cells. OUTCOMES: After CAR T cell therapy, the monoclonal plasma cells in the bone marrow and M protein disappeared. LESSONS: The combination therapy of CD19- and BCMA-CAR T cells is an effective measure to treat patients with concomitant or borderline cases of B cell lymphoma and MM.

Detection and Quantification of Chimeric Antigen Receptor Transgene Copy Number by Droplet Digital PCR versus Real-Time PCR.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy is a new strategy for the treatment of refractory B-cell malignancies; therefore, the rapid and accurate quantification of CAR transgene copy number is essential. Real-time PCR was used for quantifying the copy number of chimeric antigen receptor transgene. Droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) is an absolute quantification method that does not require a standard curve. In this study, key performance parameters of the ddPCR and real-time PCR methods were assessed, including linearity, detection range, the lower limit of detection, repeatability, reproducibility, and accuracy, using a series of gradient diluted standards and clinical peripheral blood samples from CAR T-cell patients. The two platforms showed a good correlation for the standards (Pearson R2 = 0.9966; P < 0.0001) and clinical samples (Pearson R2 = 0.8952; P < 0.0001), and both showed good linearity (R2 = 0.9996 for ddPCR; R2 = 0.9984 for real-time PCR) over the detection range. Compared with real-time PCR, ddPCR showed lower intra-assay and interassay CVs for the series of diluted standards, which indicated ddPCR has better repeatability and reproducibility. The limit of detection of ddPCR was lower compared with that of real-time PCR. The combined results suggest that ddPCR is a more promising tool for the detection and quantification of the chimeric antigen receptor transgene copy number.

CAR T-cell therapy for a relapsed/refractory acute B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma patient in the context of Li-Fraumeni syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS) is characterized as an autosomal dominant cancer predisposition disorder caused by germline TP53 gene mutations. Both primary and therapy-related hematopoietic malignancies with LFS are associated with dismal outcomes with standard therapies and even allogenic stem cell transplantation (SCT). CASE PRESENTATION: We reported a relapsed/refractory acute B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (B-LBL) patient in the context of LFS. He was identified to harbor a TP53 c.818G>A (p.R273H) germline mutation, and his family history was significant for rectal carcinoma in his father, an unknown cancer in his sister and acute lymphoblastic leukemia in his brother and one of his sons. The patient received murine monoclonal anti-CD19 and anti-CD22 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell "cocktail" therapy and achieved complete remission with negative minimal residual disease (MRD), as assessed by morphology and multiparameter flow cytometry. Fifteen months after murine monoclonal CAR T-cell "cocktail" therapy, the patient's B-LBL recurred. Fortunately, a round of fully human monoclonal anti-CD22 CAR T-cell therapy was still effective in this patient, and he achieved CR again and continued to be followed. Each time after infusion, the CAR T-cells underwent extremely rapid exponential expansion, which may be due to the disruption of TP53, a gene that can functionally control cell cycle arrest. Grade 4 and grade 1 cytokine release syndrome occurred after the first and second rounds of CAR T-cell therapy, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This case provides the first report of the use of CAR T-cell therapy in a hematologic malignancy patient with LFS. As traditional chemotherapy and allogenic SCT are not effective therapy strategies for patients with hematologic malignancies and LFS, CAR T-cell therapy may be an alternate choice.ChiCTR-OPN-16008526 and ChiCTR1900023922.