CARCIK-CD19, an investigational therapy developed by scientists in Italy, involves donor-derived CD19-targeted CAR T cells differentiated according to the cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell protocol that uses non-viral Sleeping Beauty transposon gene transfer to prevent graft-versus-host disease. More than 60% of patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia achieved initial complete remission after receiving experimental chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, results from the phase 1/phase 2 study showed. At their initial one-month assessment, 73% of patients who received the highest doses had a complete response to treatment, according to results presented at the 4th European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation-European Hematology Association CAR-T Cell Meeting.
