Innovative paediatric CAR-T therapy study meets recruitment target

Congratulations to the paediatric oncology research team and colleagues in London who have met their recruitment target for an innovative CAR-T therapy study.

The CARPALL study opened at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (RMCH) in 2015 to evaluate the use of CAR-T therapy in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and Burkitt’s lymphoma.

CAR-T therapy involves using a patient’s own cells, which have been altered to recognise and attack the ALL and lymphoma cells to see if it can prevent leukaemia/lymphoma from coming back.

The study involves taking a patient’s white blood cells and altering them to recognise a protein (CD19) on the surface of ALL and lymphoma cells. The aim is that the modified cells identify the CD19 protein on the cancer cells and attack them.

The study, which has been running for three years, was the first CAR-T study in Europe to show partial and in some cases full remission of cancer in children and young adults with ALL and lymphoma. The study has now been extended to recruit another 18 patients and has also recently opened at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Professor Rob Wynn, Consultant Paediatric Haematologist and Principal Investigator for the study said:

“This is an important but intensive study, and I’d like to thank the paediatric oncology research team and wider RMCH in enabling us to provide such an innovative study for our patients.

“By learning more about new therapies such as CAR-T, we hope to be able to offer more treatment options for young people with blood cancer.”

The CARPALL study is sponsored by Cancer Research UK and the UCL Cancer Trials Centre.