OncoLog - May-June 2017

6 R of remarkable response rates and long-lasting remissions are beginning to emerge from clinical trials of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in patients with B cell malignancies. However, the promising therapy is out of reach for patients who lack sufficient T cells for CAR T cell generation or cannot afford to forgo treatment for the time it takes to generate CAR T cells. To sidestep these barriers, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are turning to natural killer (NK) cells to expand the use of CAR-directed therapy in patients with B cell malignancies. And starting soon is a clinical trial of CAR NK cells in patients with relapsed or refractory B cell malignancies.