T-Lymphocytes in Treating Patients With Epstein-Barr Virus-Positive Nasopharyngeal Cancer, NPC

Summary

Patients have a type of cancer called nasopharyngeal cancer. This cancer has come back or not gone away or is at high risk for coming back after treatment (including the best treatment we know for nasopharyngeal cancer). We are asking patients to volunteer to be in a research study using special immune system cells called EBV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes, a new experimental therapy. Most patients with nasopharyngeal cancer show evidence of infection with the virus that causes infectious mononucleosis, Epstein Barr virus (EBV), before or at the time of their diagnosis of nasopharyngeal cancer. EBV is found in the cancer cells of most patients with nasopharyngeal cancer, suggesting that it may play a role in causing this cancer. The cancer cells infected by EBV are able to hide from the body's immune system and escape destruction. We want to see if special white blood cells (called T cells) that have been trained to kill EBV-infected cells can survive in the patient's blood and affect the tumor. We have treated other patients with different EBV positive cancers and have had variable results. Some patients have had some response to the treatment. Some patients have been cured by the treatment. It is not possible for us to predict if this treatment will work for nasopharyngeal cancer. The purposes of this study are to find the largest safe dose of EBV specific cytotoxic T cells, to learn what the side effects are, and to see whether this therapy might help patients with nasopharyngeal cancer.

Timeline

Start

2001-08

Primary completion

2007-10

Completion

2012-06

Publications

• Background Louis CU, Straathof K, Bollard CM, Ennamuri S, Gerken C, Lopez TT, Huls MH, Sheehan A, Wu MF, Liu H, Gee A, Brenner MK, Rooney CM, Heslop HE, Gottschalk S. Adoptive transfer of EBV-specific T cells results in sustained clinical responses in patients with locoregional nasopharyngeal carcinoma. J Immunother. 2010 Nov-Dec;33(9):983-90. doi: 10.1097/CJI.0b013e3181f3cbf4.
• Results Straathof KC, Bollard CM, Popat U, Huls MH, Lopez T, Morriss MC, Gresik MV, Gee AP, Russell HV, Brenner MK, Rooney CM, Heslop HE. Treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with Epstein-Barr virus--specific T lymphocytes. Blood. 2005 Mar 1;105(5):1898-904. doi: 10.1182/blood-2004-07-2975. Epub 2004 Nov 12.

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