Pilot Study of Autologous T-cells in Patients With Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

Overview

This is a study in which pancreatic cancer patients receive a combination therapy with CART-meso cells and CART19 cells administered at 3 days after one dose of cyclophosphamide. CART-meso cells are patients' own T cells that were modified in the laboratory to express a receptor specific to the mesothelin protein. CART19 cells are patients' own T cells that were modified in the laboratory to express a receptor specific to a protein called CD19. The CD19 protein is expressed on white blood B cells. CART19 cells are expected to attack the B cells and impede the antibody response against CART-meso cells. The investigators hypothesize that this combination therapy may prolong the duration of CART-meso cells in the body. Additionally, one dose of cyclophosphamide may enhance engraftment and persistence of CART cells.

Immunotherapy is a novel and promising approach for the treatment of solid tumors; immunotherapy with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells (CART cells) in particular has the potential advantage of targeted therapies that can invoke a rapid tumor response, and the advantage of long-lived responses that are the hallmark of engagement of the adaptive immune system such as memory T cells. This is a single arm, open-label, phase I study to determine the safety and feasibility of combination CART-meso cells (autologous T cells lentivirally transduced to express anti-mesothelin scFv fused to TCRζ and 4-1BB costimulatory domains) and CART19 cells (autologous T cells lentivirally transduced to express a humanized anti-CD19 scFv fused to TCRζ and 4-1BB costimulatory domains) in patients with pancreatic cancer following lymphodepletion with cyclophosphamide.