Personalized NK Cell Therapy for Blood Cancer
Recruiting in Palo Alto (17 mi)
Age: Any Age
Sex: Any
Travel: May Be Covered
Time Reimbursement: Varies
Trial Phase: Phase 2
Recruiting
Sponsor: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Disqualifiers: HIV positive, Uncontrolled serious medical condition, Active CNS disease, others
No Placebo Group
Prior Safety Data
Breakthrough Therapy
Approved in 2 Jurisdictions
Trial Summary
What is the purpose of this trial?This phase II clinical trial studies how well personalized natural killer (NK) cell therapy works after chemotherapy and umbilical cord blood transplant in treating patients with myelodysplastic syndrome, leukemia, lymphoma or multiple myeloma. This clinical trial will test cord blood (CB) selection for human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-C1/x recipients based on HLA-killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) typing, and adoptive therapy with CB-derived NK cells for HLA-C2/C2 patients. Natural killer cells may kill tumor cells that remain in the body after chemotherapy treatment and lessen the risk of graft versus host disease after cord blood transplant.
Will I have to stop taking my current medications?
The trial information does not specify if you need to stop taking your current medications. It's best to discuss this with the trial coordinators or your doctor.
What data supports the effectiveness of the treatment Allogeneic Natural Killer Cell Line NK-92 for blood cancer?
Research shows that the NK-92 cell line has demonstrated substantial antitumor activity against various cancers in laboratory settings and in animal models. It is the only NK cell line that has been used in clinical trials with patients, showing clinical benefits and minimal side effects.
12345Is NK-92 cell therapy safe for humans?
NK-92 cell therapy has been tested in early clinical trials and is generally considered safe, with minimal side effects reported in patients with advanced cancer. The treatment has shown promise in targeting cancer cells without causing severe adverse reactions.
12678How does personalized NK cell therapy for blood cancer differ from other treatments?
This treatment uses NK-92 cells, a unique type of natural killer cell line, which can be expanded easily and genetically modified to target specific cancer cells, offering a more targeted and potentially effective approach compared to traditional therapies that rely on variable and often dysfunctional NK cells from patients' blood.
126910Eligibility Criteria
This trial is for patients aged 15-80 with various blood cancers or myelodysplastic syndromes who have not responded well to standard treatments. They must be physically able to tolerate the transplant, with specific heart, kidney, and liver function requirements. Women of childbearing age must test negative for pregnancy. Those with curative treatment options elsewhere or certain serious health conditions are excluded.Inclusion Criteria
I do not have any curative treatment options available.
My CML is in the second chronic or accelerated phase.
Patients enrolled in this study may be enrolled on other supportive care investigational new drug (IND) studies at the discretion of the principal investigator (PI)
+16 more
Exclusion Criteria
I do not have any severe health issues that my current treatments can't control.
I have a matching stem cell donor available.
You have HIV, which will be checked with a special test for the virus.
+1 more
Trial Timeline
Screening
Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial
2-4 weeks
Preparative Regimen
Patients receive a preparative regimen including chemotherapy and total body irradiation before transplantation
9 days
Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant
Patients undergo umbilical cord blood transplantation
1 day
NK Cells Infusion
Patients receive NK cells infusion to enhance immune response and reduce graft versus host disease
150 days
Follow-up
Participants are monitored for safety and effectiveness after treatment
Up to 4 years
Visits at 1, 7, 14, 28, 45, 60, and 100 days, and at 6, 9, and 12 months, then yearly
Participant Groups
The study tests personalized NK cell therapy following chemotherapy and umbilical cord blood transplantation in patients with leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, or myelodysplastic syndrome. It aims to see if NK cells can kill remaining tumor cells and reduce graft versus host disease after transplant.
3Treatment groups
Experimental Treatment
Group I: Reduced intensity regimen 3Experimental Treatment6 Interventions
Patients receive anti-thymocyte globulin IV over 4 hours on days -7 and -6, fludarabine phosphate IV over 1 hour on days -5 to -2, and melphalan IV over 30 minutes on day -2.
UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD TRANSPLANT: Patients undergo umbilical cord blood transplantation on day 0.
NK CELLS INFUSION: Patients receive NK cells IV over 30 minutes between days 30-180.
Group II: Non-myeloablative regimen 2Experimental Treatment8 Interventions
Patients with CD20 positive malignancies receive rituximab IV over 6 hours on day -9. Patients receive anti-thymocyte globulin IV over 4 hours on days -8 and -7, fludarabine phosphate IV over 1 hour on days -6 to -3, and cyclophosphamide IV over 3 hours on day -6 and undergo TBI on day -1 at the discretion of the investigator(s).
UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD TRANSPLANT: Patients undergo umbilical cord blood transplantation on day 0.
NK CELLS INFUSION: Patients receive NK cells IV over 30 minutes between days 30-180.
Group III: Myeloablative regimen 1Experimental Treatment8 Interventions
Patients receive anti-thymocyte globulin IV over 4 hours on days -9 and -8, fludarabine phosphate IV over 1 hour, clofarabine IV over 1 hour, and busulfan IV over 3 hours on days -7 to -4. Patients undergo TBI on day -3.
UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD TRANSPLANT: Patients undergo umbilical cord blood transplantation on day 0.
NK CELLS INFUSION: Patients receive NK cells IV over 30 minutes between days 30-180.
Find a Clinic Near You
Research Locations NearbySelect from list below to view details:
M D Anderson Cancer CenterHouston, TX
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Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?
M.D. Anderson Cancer CenterLead Sponsor
National Cancer Institute (NCI)Collaborator
References
Cellular immunotherapy of malignancies using the clonal natural killer cell line NK-92. [2022]For years activated natural killer (A-NK) cells have been explored with respect to their efficacy in anticancer therapy, but, except for some anectdotal reports, no clear clinical benefit has been shown. However, as the understanding about the interactions of NK cells and tumor cells advances, the use of A-NK cells might be revisited with more sophisticated approaches that pay tribute to mechanisms which allow tumor cells to escape immune surveillance. Here the highly cytotoxic NK cell line NK-92 seems to be an attractive alternative for use in adoptive immunotherapy, because it was shown to exhibit substantial antitumor activity against a wide range of malignancies in vitro as well as in xenografted SCID mice. NK-92 cells are characterized by an almost complete lack of killer cell immunglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) yet conserved ability to perforin and granzyme B-mediated cytolytic activity, which make them unique among the few established NK and T cell-like cell lines. NK-92 is the only natural killer cell line that has entered clinical trials. Here we discuss the current status of development of this cell line for adoptive immunotherapy (AIT) of malignancies and review our first clinical experience in patients with advanced cancer who have received repeated transfusions of irradiated NK-92 in a phase I/II trial. Also we discuss issues that address safety aspects of immunotherapy with clonal cell lines and describe further manipulations, which hold the potential of significantly improving the clinical outcome of AIT with NK-92.
Natural Killer Cells for Immunotherapy - Advantages of the NK-92 Cell Line over Blood NK Cells. [2022]Natural killer (NK) cells are potent cytotoxic effector cells for cancer therapy and potentially for severe viral infections. However, there are technical challenges to obtain sufficient numbers of functionally active NK cells from a patient's blood since they represent only 10% of the lymphocytes and are often dysfunctional. The alternative is to obtain cells from a healthy donor, which requires depletion of the allogeneic T cells to prevent graft-versus-host reactions. Cytotoxic cell lines have been established from patients with clonal NK-cell lymphoma. Those cells can be expanded in culture in the presence of IL-2. Except for the NK-92 cell line, though, none of the other six known NK cell lines has consistently and reproducibly shown high antitumor cytotoxicity. Only NK-92 cells can easily be genetically manipulated to recognize specific tumor antigens or to augment monoclonal antibody activity through antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. NK-92 is also the only cell line product that has been infused into patients with advanced cancer with clinical benefit and minimal side effects.
Natural killer cell lines in tumor immunotherapy. [2022]Natural killer (NK) cells are considered to be critical players in anticancer immunity. However, cancers are able to develop mechanisms to escape NK cell attack or to induce defective NK cells. Current NK cell-based cancer immunotherapy is aimed at overcoming NK cell paralysis through several potential approaches, including activating autologous NK cells, expanding allogeneic NK cells, usage of stable allogeneic NK cell lines and genetically modifying fresh NK cells or NK cell lines. The stable allogeneic NK cell line approach is more practical for quality-control and large-scale production. Additionally, genetically modifying NK cell lines by increasing their expression of cytokines and engineering chimeric tumor antigen receptors could improve their specificity and cytotoxicity. In this review, NK cells in tumor immunotherapy are discussed, and a list of therapeutic NK cell lines currently undergoing preclinical and clinical trials of several kinds of tumors are reviewed.
Natural killer cells: Innate immune system as a part of adaptive immunotherapy in hematological malignancies. [2022]Natural killer (NK) cells are part of a phylogenetically old defense system, which is characterized by its strong cytolytic function against physiologically stressed cells such as tumor cells and virus-infected cells. Their use in the treatment of hematological malignancies may be more advantageous in several ways when compared with the already established T lymphocyte-based immunotherapy. Given the different mechanisms of action, allogeneic NK cell products can be produced in a non-personal based manner without the risk of the formidable graft-versus-host disease. Advanced manufacturing processes are capable of producing NK cells relatively easily in large and clinically sufficient numbers, useable without subsequent manipulations or after genetic modifications, which can solve the lack of specificity and improve clinical efficacy of NK cell products. This review summarizes the basic characteristics of NK cells and provides a quick overview of their sources. Results of clinical trials in hematological malignancies are presented, and strategies on how to improve the clinical outcome of NK cell therapy are discussed.
Improving the outcome of leukemia by natural killer cell-based immunotherapeutic strategies. [2021]Blurring the boundary between innate and adaptive immune system, natural killer (NK) cells are widely recognized as potent anti-leukemia mediators. Alloreactive donor NK cells have been shown to improve the outcome of allogeneic stem-cell transplantation for leukemia. In addition, in vivo transfer of NK cells may soon reveal an important therapeutic tool for leukemia, if tolerance to NK-mediated anti-leukemia effects is overcome. This will require, at a minimum, the ex vivo generation of a clinically safe NK cell product containing adequate numbers of NK cells with robust anti-leukemia potential. Ideally, ex vivo generated NK cells should also have similar anti-leukemia potential in different patients, and be easy to obtain for convenient clinical scale-up. Moreover, optimal clinical protocols for NK therapy in leukemia and other cancers are still lacking. These and other issues are being currently addressed by multiple research groups. This review will first describe current laboratory NK cell expansion and differentiation techniques by separately addressing different NK cell sources. Subsequently, it will address the mechanisms known to be responsible for NK cell alloreactivity, as well as their clinical impact in the hematopoietic stem cells transplantation setting. Finally, it will briefly provide insight on past NK-based clinical trials.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Engineered NK-92 Cells: An Off-the-Shelf Cellular Therapeutic for Targeted Elimination of Cancer Cells and Induction of Protective Antitumor Immunity. [2019]Significant progress has been made in recent years toward realizing the potential of natural killer (NK) cells for cancer immunotherapy. NK cells can respond rapidly to transformed and stressed cells and have the intrinsic potential to extravasate and reach their targets in almost all body tissues. In addition to donor-derived primary NK cells, also the established NK cell line NK-92 is being developed for adoptive immunotherapy, and general safety of infusion of irradiated NK-92 cells has been established in phase I clinical trials with clinical responses observed in some of the cancer patients treated. To enhance their therapeutic utility, NK-92 cells have been modified to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) composed of a tumor-specific single chain fragment variable antibody fragment fused via hinge and transmembrane regions to intracellular signaling moieties such as CD3ζ or composite signaling domains containing a costimulatory protein together with CD3ζ. CAR-mediated activation of NK cells then bypasses inhibitory signals and overcomes NK resistance of tumor cells. In contrast to primary NK cells, CAR-engineered NK-92 cell lines suitable for clinical development can be established from molecularly and functionally well-characterized single cell clones following good manufacturing practice-compliant procedures. In preclinical in vitro and in vivo models, potent antitumor activity of NK-92 variants targeted to differentiation antigens expressed by hematologic malignancies, and overexpressed or mutated self-antigens associated with solid tumors has been found, encouraging further development of CAR-engineered NK-92 cells. Importantly, in syngeneic mouse tumor models, induction of endogenous antitumor immunity after treatment with CAR-expressing NK-92 cells has been demonstrated, resulting in cures and long-lasting immunological memory protecting against tumor rechallenge at distant sites. Here, we summarize the current status and future prospects of CAR-engineered NK-92 cells as off-the-shelf cellular therapeutics, with special emphasis on ErbB2 (HER2)-specific NK-92 cells that are approaching clinical application.
Engineering NK-CAR.19 cells with the IL-15/IL-15Rα complex improved proliferation and anti-tumor effect in vivo. [2023]Label="Introduction">Natural killer 92 (NK-92) cells are an attractive therapeutic approach as alternative chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) carriers, different from T cells, once they can be used in the allogeneic setting. The modest in vivo outcomes observed with NK-92 cells continue to present hurdles in successfully translating NK-92 cell therapies into clinical applications. Adoptive transfer of CAR-NK-92 cells holds out the promise of therapeutic benefit at a lower rate of adverse events due to the absence of GvHD and cytokine release syndrome. However, it has not achieved breakthrough clinical results yet, and further improvement of CAR-NK-92 cells is necessary.
The emerging role of off-the-shelf engineered natural killer cells in targeted cancer immunotherapy. [2021]Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes that recognize and clear infected and transformed cells. The importance of NK cells in tumor surveillance underlies the development of NK cell therapy as cancer treatment. The NK-92 cell line has been successfully modified to express high-affinity CD16 receptor for antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity and/or chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) that can recognize antigens expressed on tumor cells and mediate NK cell activation. Since there is no need for human leukocyte antigen matching or prior exposure to the tumor antigens, NK-92 provides an opportunity for the development of next-generation off-the-shelf cell therapy platforms. CAR-engineered NK-92 cells have demonstrated robust antitumor activity in in vitro and in vivo preclinical studies, propelling the clinical development of CAR NK-92 cells. Preliminary phase 1 data indicate that CAR NK-92 can be safely administered in the clinic. In this review, we provide an overview of recent advances in the research and clinical application of this novel cell immunotherapy.
Treatment of patients with advanced cancer with the natural killer cell line NK-92. [2022]Natural killer (NK) cells, either naive or genetically engineered, are increasingly considered for cellular therapy of patients with malignancies. When using NK cells from peripheral blood, the number of expanded NK cells can be highly variable and the need for NK cell enrichment can make the process expensive. The NK-92 cell line (CD56+/CD3-) that was isolated from a patient with lymphoma has predictable high cytotoxic activity and can be expanded under good manufacturing practice conditions in recombinant interleukin-2.
Emerging NK cell therapies for cancer and the promise of next generation engineering of iPSC-derived NK cells. [2022]Adoptive cell therapy is a rapidly advancing approach to cancer immunotherapy that seeks to facilitate antitumor responses by introducing potent effector cells into the tumor microenvironment. Expanded autologous T cells, particularly T cells with engineered T cell receptors (TCR) and chimeric antigen receptor-T cells have had success in various hematologic malignancies but have faced challenges when applied to solid tumors. As a result, other immune subpopulations may provide valuable and orthogonal options for treatment. Natural killer (NK) cells offer the possibility of significant tumor clearance and recruitment of additional immune subpopulations without the need for prior antigen presentation like in T or B cells that could require removal of endogenous antigen specificity mediated via the T cell receptor (TCR and/or the B ecll receptor (BCR). In recent years, NK cells have been demonstrated to be increasingly important players in the immune response against cancer. Here, we review multiple avenues for allogeneic NK cell therapy, including derivation of NK cells from peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood, the NK-92 immortalized cell line, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). We also describe the potential of engineering iPSC-derived NK cells and the utility of this platform. Finally, we consider the benefits and drawbacks of each approach and discuss recent developments in the manufacturing and genetic or metabolic engineering of NK cells to have robust and prolonged antitumor responses in preclinical and clinical settings.