Autologous T-Cells Expressing a Second Generation CAR for Treatment of T-Cell Malignancies Expressing CD5 Antigen (MAGENTA)

Patients eligible for this study have a type of blood cancer called T-cell leukemia or lymphoma (lymph gland cancer).

The body has different ways of fighting infection and disease. No one way seems perfect for fighting cancers. This research study combines two different ways of fighting disease, antibodies and T cells, hoping that they will work together. Antibodies are types of proteins that protect the body from bacterial and other diseases. T cells, also called T lymphocytes, are special infection-fighting blood cells that can kill other cells including tumor cells. Both antibodies and T cells have been used to treat patients with cancers; they have shown promise, but have not been strong enough to cure most patients.

T lymphocytes can kill tumor cells but there normally are not enough of them to kill all the tumor cells. Some researchers have taken T cells from a person’s blood, grown more of them in the laboratory and then given them back to the person. The antibody used in this study is called anti-CD5. It first came from mice that have developed immunity to human leukemia. This antibody sticks to T-cell leukemia or lymphoma cells because of a substance on the outside of these cells called CD5. CD5 antibodies have been used to treat people with T-cell leukemia and lymphoma. For this study, anti-CD5 has been changed so that instead of floating free in the blood it is now joined to the T cells. When an antibody is joined to a T cell in this way it is called a chimeric receptor.

In the laboratory, the investigators have also found that T cells work better if proteins that stimulate T cells are also added, such as one called CD28. Adding the CD28 makes the cells grow better and last longer in the body, thus giving the cells a better chance of killing the leukemia or lymphoma cells.

In this study investigators are going to attach the CD5 chimeric receptor with CD28 added to it to the patient’s T cells. The investigators will then test how long the cells last. These CD5 chimeric receptor T cells with CD28 are investigational products not approved by the Food and Drug Administration .