Although CD19 CAR T-cell therapy is a dynamic scientific and clinical breakthrough for CD19+ NHL, issues still remain in terms of relapse, toxicity, and availability. This trial will incorporate a CD34 tag (CD34t) into the CAR T-cell construct, thus allowing a more purified CAR T-cell product via CD34 selection. This purification step will hopefully lead to an improvement in safety/toxicity. Furthermore, the issue of CD19 CAR T-cell relapse has been linked to a lack of CAR T-cell fitness. With the knowledge that Th1 T-cell subsets have improved effector function and Th17 T-cell subsets have improved persistence, the investigators plan to expose the collected T-cells to priming conditions that lead to a metabolically enhanced CAR-T cell product akin to a Th1/17 hybrid cell. The investigators hypothesize that these metabolically programmed CD19 CAR-T cells will yield a high- quality product with enhanced persistence and anti-tumor efficacy when purified based on CD34t expression.
This is a single-center, nonrandomized, open-label dose-escalation study followed by dose-expansion of CD19- CD34t metabolically programmed CAR T-cell therapy in adult patients with relapsed or refractory CD19 B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) or chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL).