Adoptive T-cell immunotherapy of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

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Adoptive T-cell immunotherapy of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

AE , MK Brenner, and G Dotti

Best Pract Res Clin Haematol, September 1, 2008; 21(3): 375-89.

Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist

Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital, 6621 Fannin Street, MC 3-3320, Houston,

Texas 77030, USA.

Immunotherapy for B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (B-CLL) and other

haematological malignancies may consist of passive antibody, active immunization

or adoptive T-cell transfer. This chapter will focus on T-lymphocyte

immunotherapy; an approach supported by earlier observations that the beneficial

effects of allogeneic stem cell transplantation depend, in part, on the

graft-versus-leukaemia effects mediated by these cells. One promising strategy

consists of the genetic manipulation of effector T lymphocytes to express

tumour-specific T-cell receptors or chimeric antigen receptors directed against

surface antigens on the B-CLL cells. This methodology is now being integrated

with the concept that tumour recurrence may be due to the persistence of a

reservoir of more primitive and chemoresistant tumour cells, dubbed 'cancer stem

cells', with self-renewal capacity. Identification and characterization of these

cancer stem cells in B-CLL is crucial for the development of new anti-tumour

agents, and for the identification of target antigens for cellular

immunotherapy. This chapter will describe how immunotherapy may be directed to a

more primitive side population of B-CLL cells.

PMID: 18790444