Driving out chronic lymphocytic leukemia with CAR T-cells.

Abstract

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most prevalent leukemia in the western hemisphere. Recent availability of novel targeted therapies, namely Bruton s tyrosine kinase, phosphoinositide-3 kinase and BCL-2 inhibitors, have revolutionized the treatment algorithm for CLL but have not yet resulted in cure. Advances in the field of immuno-oncology and T-cell engineering brought chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T)-cell therapy from the lab to the clinic for treatment of B-cell lymphoid malignancies and it has improved disease response and survival outcomes of various types of relapsed and/or refractory B-cell lymphomas. While acknowledging that there are no approved CAR T-cell therapies for CLL yet, this comprehensive review explores novel targets for CAR T-cell therapy in CLL and highlights the promising results of CAR T-cell trials to date. Furthermore, we shed light on future areas of development including multitarget CAR T-cell products for this disease.