CAR T-Cell Therapy for CLL: A New Addition to Our Treatment Toolbox?

摘要

Treatment of high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has undergone a revolution in recent years with the intro-duction of novel agents. Bruton kinase inhibitors (BTK) inhibitors, such as ibrutinib, acalabrutinib, and zanubrutinib, are effective at controlling CLL in all lines of therapy, including in patients with high-risk features. BTK inhibitors can be used in sequence or in combination with the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax. As a result, standard chemotherapy and allogeneic stem cell transplant (allo-SCT)-once major treatment approaches in high-risk patients-are used much less commonly in the current era. Despite the outstanding efficacy of these novel agents, a proportion of patients still experience disease progression. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has received regulatory approval for several B-cell malignancies in which it has shown efficacy, but it remains investigational for CLL. Several studies have shown the potential for long-term remission in CLL with CAR T-cell therapy, with a favorable safety profile compared with conventional approaches. This review focuses on selected literature on CAR T-cell therapy for CLL, including the interim results of key ongoing studies, with an emphasis on recent research.