Harnessing the immune system in the treatment of cutaneous T cell lymphomas

Abstract

Cutaneous T cell lymphomas are a rare subset of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas with predilection for the skin with immunosuppressive effects that drive morbidity and mortality. We are now appreciating that suppression of the immune system is an important step in the progression of disease. It should come as no surprise that therapies historically and currently being used to treat these cancers have immune modulating functions that impact disease outcomes. By understanding the immune effects of our therapies, we may better develop new agents that target the immune system and improve combinatorial treatment strategies to limit morbidity and mortality of these cancers. The immune modulating effect of therapeutic drugs in use and under development for cutaneous T cell lymphomas will be reviewed.

Generation and optimization of off-the-shelf immunotherapeutics targeting TCR-Vβ2+ T cell malignancy

“…1,7; and clinicaltrials.gov). Many challenges exist for these strategies [58][59][60] including relapse after antibody treatment, malignant T cell masking of bispecific antibody, shared expression of targeted surface markers between malignant T cells and normal T cells leading to CAR-T cell fratricide and T cell aplasia induced immune suppression, and resistance to CAR-T therapy by contamination of CAR-T cell products with malignant T cells, similar to that described in a leukemic B-ALL case 61 . In these patients, malignant CD19-CAR+ cells bound to CD19, thus preventing recognition by functional CAR-T cells.…”