While chemotherapy kills leukemia cells directly, immunotherapies stimulate the immune system so your body can use its own natural defenses to fight the disease.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy
Patients receiving cellular therapies are treated by their primary oncologists as well as clinicians in the Transplant & Cellular Therapy Center.
CAR T-cell therapy is a type of immunotherapy that uses a patient's own immune cells against the cancer. In these therapies, the patient’s T-cells (a type of immune cell that can kill cancer cells) are removed from the body in a process much like a blood donation. The cells are then genetically modified in the laboratory to be able to find and recognize cancer cells, and then given back to the patient to fight the cancer cells.
Roswell Park is an authorized treatment center for all current FDA-approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, including these for leukemia:
- Kymriah™for patients 25 and younger with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
- Breyanzi for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
Antibody therapy
This type of treatment use antibodies to fight infection and disease. Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system that attach to certain markers on cells. Antibody therapy used for cancer include:
- Monoclonal antibodies. These are designed to knock out specific proteins or target other unique characteristics of each patient’s cancer cells. Like a magnet, they find and attach themselves to the target on the cancer cells and can kill the cancer cell directly or help the immune system recognize the cancer cell and kill the cancer cell.
These drugs are better at targeting only cancer cells. Monoclonal antibodies may be joined to a chemotherapy drug to create an antibody-drug conjugate. The monoclonal antibody attaches itself to the cancer cell, delivering the chemotherapy drug directly to that cell to destroy it, while healthy cells are protected.
- Bispecific T-cell engagers (BiTEs). These drugs work to engage or trigger your own T cells (powerful immune cells) to destroy the cancer cells. They use an antibody to attach to two specific sites: one on the T cell and one on the cancer cell, bringing the two cells close together so that the T cell activates and kills the cancer cell.
Donor lymphocyte infusion
Patients who undergo an allogeneic bone marrow transplant (using a donor) and whose disease later recurs (comes back) may be eligible for a type of immunotherapy called a donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI), which can help patients achieve remission again. In this procedure, you receive additional lymphocytes (white blood cells) from your original donor.