Chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cells in chronic lymphoid leukemia.

Carl H. June and colleagues proved that the ‘concept’ of CAR T-cell therapy developed by them, was a very promising and viable alternative in specific recalcitrant cancers. They showed that their novel in-vitro-created molecular cocktail of agents including T-cells, chimeric antigen receptors and other esoteric ingredients (T-cells engineered in the lab to target the specific CD19 in cancerous B cells delivered into the patient in a HIV lentiviral vector), met the following requirements:
1) The one patient treated had basically two severe adverse reactions: tumor lysis and lymphopenia. Both were then treatable.
2) The one patient treated had a remission still ongoing at 10 months after treatment.
3) The novel engineered cells given to the patient persisted at high levels for 6 months after therapy.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Porter, Levine, Kalos, June. Full text available from nejm.org at this link.

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this reference and its interpretation.)