Trial of innovative CAR-T blood cancer treatment expanded

A clinical trial of a personalised therapy for blood cancer, led by researchers at UCL and University College London Hospitals, has been expanded enabling new groups of patients with a wider range of blood cancers to now receive the treatment. The new type of CAR T-cell therapy - where a patient's own immune system is 'reprogrammed' in order to fight their cancer - has already been  shown to have promise  for adult patients with a type of blood cancer called relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL). Now the therapy is being given to patients with relapsed/refractory B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (B-NHL) and chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) / Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma (SLL). Early indications suggest patients are responding to the treatment and that it is tolerated well but full trial results are not yet published. CLL is the most common type of blood cancer and accounted for around 1% of all new cancer cases in the UK between 2016 and 2018. Around 3,800 people in the UK are diagnosed with CLL every year - around 10 a day. The last decade has been marked by considerable progress in CLL therapies however treating patients with hard to treat or relapsed disease is an area of unmet need. The therapy is being given as part of the  ALLCAR19 trial , run by a team at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) and UCL, in collaboration with UK-based CAR T cell therapy company Autolus Therapeutics. Participants to the trial are being recruited nationwide including at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester. What is CAR T-cell therapy?