Center For Cell & Gene Therapy

The body has different ways of fighting infection and disease. No single way seems perfect for fighting cancers. This research study combines two different ways of fighting cancer: antibodies and T cells.
Antibodies are types of proteins that protect the body from infectious diseases and possibly cancer. T cells, also called T lymphocytes, are special infection-fighting blood cells that can kill other cells, including cells infected with viruses and tumor cells. Both antibodies and T cells have been used to treat patients with cancers. They have shown promise but have not been strong enough to cure most patients.
In order to get them to kill cancers more effectively, in the laboratory, the study team inserted a new gene called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) into T cells that makes them recognize cancer cells and kill them. When inserted, this new CAR T cell can specifically recognize a protein found on solid tumors, called glypican-3 (GPC3). To make this GPC3-CAR more effective, the study team also added two genes called IL15 and IL21 that help CAR T cells grow better and stay in the blood longer so that they may kill tumors better. When the study team did this in the laboratory, they found that this mixture of GPC3-CAR,IL15 and IL21 killed tumor cells better when compared with CAR T cells that did not have IL15 plus IL21 in the laboratory. This study will use those cells, which are called 21.15.GPC3-CAR T cells, to treat patients with solid tumors that have GPC3 on their surface.
The study team also wanted to make sure that they could stop the 21.15.GPC3-CAR T cells from growing in the blood should there be any bad side effects. In order to do so, they inserted a gene called iCasp9 into the FAST-CAR T cells. This allows us the elimination of 21.15.GPC3-CAR T cells in the blood when the gene comes into contact with a medication called AP1903. The drug (AP1903) is an experimental drug that has been tested in humans with no bad side-effects. This drug will only be used to kill the T cells if necessary due to side effects .
The study team has treated patients with T cells that include GPC3. Patients have also been treated with IL-21 and with IL-15. Patients have not been treated with a combination of T cells that contain GPC3, IL-21 and IL-15. To summarize, this study will test the effect of 21.15.GPC3-CAR T cells in patients with solid tumors that express GPC3 on their surface.
The 21.15.GPC3-CAR T cells are an investigational product not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

This study involves patients that have a cancer called diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), Natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (NKTL), or classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) (referred to collectively as lymphoma). Patients' lymphoma has come back or not gone away after treatment.
A previous research study at Baylor combined two ways of fighting disease: antibodies and T cells. Antibodies are proteins that bind to bacteria, viruses and other foreign substances to prevent disease. T-cells are special infection-fighting white blood cells that can kill tumor cells or cells infected with bacteria and viruses. Both have shown promise treating cancer, but neither has been strong enough to cure most patients. In the previous study, an antibody called anti-CD30 which is found on the surface of some T-cells and cancer cells, and had been used to treat lymphoma with limited success, was joined to the T-cells through a process called gene transfer, resulting in CD30.CAR T cells.
Another study saw encouraging responses using CD30.CAR T cells made in a lab from a patients' own blood then injected back into the same patient to treat their lymphoma. These cells are termed 'autologous' because they're given back to the original patient.
In an ongoing study, patients were treated with allogeneic CD30.CAR T cells, which are made from healthy donors instead of the patients. The use of allogenic cells avoids a lengthy manufacture time since the products are stored as a bank and available on demand. This ongoing trial has preliminarily shown promising clinical activity with no safety concerns.
With the current study, investigators plan to extend the anti-cancer effects of the CD30.CAR T cell by attaching another molecule called C7R, which has made CAR T cells have deeper and longer anticancer effects in the laboratory. The aim is to study the safety and effectiveness of allogeneic banked CD30.CAR-EBVST cells that also carry the C7R molecule, to learn the side effects of C7R modified CD30.CAR-EBVST cells in lymphoma patients, and to see whether this therapy may help them. As an extra safety step, the C7R containing T cells will also have a marker called iC9. If a patient experiences intolerable side effects from the C7R T cells, they could receive a medication called 'rimiducid' that can eliminate the C7R containing T cells by binding iC9, thereby potentially resolving the side effects. While not yet FDA approved, rimiducid has been tested in patients before without bad side effects.

The purpose of this study is to find the biggest dose of HTR2 T cells that is safe, to see how long these cells last in the body, to learn the side effects, and to see if these cells are able to fight and kill HER2 expressing breast cancer.
Patients eligible for this study have metastatic breast cancer that has HER2 expression and has progressed on at least one line of therapy. This is a gene transfer research study using special immune cells called T cells. T cells are a type of white blood cell that helps the body recognize and fight cancer cells.
The body has different ways of fighting diseases and no single way seems perfect for fighting cancer. This research combines two different ways of fighting cancer: antibodies and T cells. Antibodies are proteins that protect the body from infectious disease and possibly cancer. T cells, or T lymphocytes, are special blood cells that can kill other cells, including tumor cells. Both antibodies and T cells have shown promise treating cancer but have not been strong enough to cure most patients.
Previous research has found that investigators can put genes into T cells that helps them recognize cancer cells and kill them. Investigators now want to see if by putting a new gene in those T cells to help recognize breast cancer cells expressing HER2 can kill the cancer cells. In clinical trials for various cancer types that express HER2, our center engineered a CAR that recognizes HER2 and put this CAR into patients own T cells and gave them back. Investigators saw that the cells did grow and patients did tolerate and respond to the treatment.
Investigators will add a gene to the HER2 recognizing CAR T cells that will improve the T cells function. Investigators know that some immune cells in the body can lower T cells ability to kill cancer cells. Investigators have identified an antibody that will inactivate those immune suppressive cells thereby allowing T cells to survive better to recognize and kill cancer cells. This antibody targets the Trail-R2 receptor and is referred to as TR2.
Also, investigators know that T cells need the support of cytokines to perform their immune functions. There is evidence showing that the addition of interleukin 15 (IL15) enhances CAR T cells ability to kill cancer cells. As a result, investigators also added IL15 to the HER2 and TR2 targeting CAR T cells (HTR2 T cells).
The HTR2 T cells are an investigational product not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.