About this study
This study evaluates a new treatment for treatment of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and other types of leukemia. This treatment is called CD123-specific CAR T-cell therapy. It is a type of immunotherapy that combines two of the body’s basic disease fighters: antibodies and an immune cell called a T cell.
Doctors usually treat patients with AML with high doses of chemotherapy (anti-cancer medicine) and radiation, followed by a blood cell transplant. CAR T-cell therapy is different. With this treatment, we will change the body’s own immune cells to recognize and kill cancer cells.
In the first step of this study, we will collect immune cells from the patient’s blood. Next, we will insert a gene into the cells so they can recognize a particle that is on the surface of the cancer cell. Those particles are called antigens. If CAR T cells see the antigen on the cancer cell, they will attack and kill it.
The CATCHAML study uses CAR T cells that “see” an antigen called CD123. Once we collect the patient’s immune cells, we will send them to a manufacturing facility on the St. Jude campus to create the CD123-specific CAR T-cell product. Later, the patient will be admitted to the hospital to receive chemotherapy. Following chemotherapy, the patient will receive the CD123-CAR T cells through a vein. This procedure is called infusion. Four weeks after the infusion, we will evaluate the effects of the infused CD123-CAR T cells. At this point, we will decide if the patient should have a bone marrow transplant.
The entire study lasts one year. All patients will be enrolled on a follow-up study for another 14 years.
Eligibility overview
- 21 years old or younger*
- Relapsed/refractory CD123+ AML, B-ALL, T-ALL or blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm
- Has a suitable bone marrow transplant donor