FT819 CAR T-cell Therapy Approved for Leukemia and Lymphome Clinial Trials

Release Date: 06-Aug-2020

The US FDA approved Fate Therapeutics investigational drug candidate called as FT819 for the clinical testing for the indication andndash; leukemia and lymphoma. The trial will be focsuded towards determining the maxmimum tolerated dose, safety and clinical activity of the drug in approximately 297 adults suffering from relapsed oor refractory Acute Lymophoblastic leukemia, Chronic lymphoblastic leukemia and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The approval of the clinical testing for the drug is considered as a ground-breaking discovery for the immunotherapy field.

Three doses of the drugs have been selected for the trial. The efficieny of the doses will be verified on the patients enrolled in the study. In the first course of the treatment, enrolled patients will be receiving a single dose of the therapy. In the second course of the treatment, enrolled patients will be receiving FT819 as well as interleukin 2 (IL-2). In the third course of the treatment, enrolled patients will be receiving FT819 three times at smaller doses.

FT819 that was used in the respective study is considered as a first form of CAR-T cell therapy that utilizes T cells that has been derived from the line of induced pluripotent stem cells. It is believed that this will provide the researchers and the physicians to treat more patients in a small period of time. Some manipulations have been done on the FT819 therapy 1) CD19 protein has been added to it in order to increase the targeted anti-tumor activity 2) TCR has been removed in order to avoid the possibility of graft-versus host disease.

It was found through the studies that FT819 was able to deliver more specific cancer cell killing activity than donor-derived CAR-T cell therapy. The modifications performed on the cells have been efficient in tumor clearance by remaining active in the patients for a long period of time. According to Fate therapeutics, they have received the license for the use of FT819 modified T cells. It is estimated that the arrival of such type of therapy in the market will help in decreasing the high cancer mortality rate.