CAR T-cell therapies are the future of cancer treatment and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is preparing to open a number of new trials based on research originating here and in partnership with the industry.

Marco Davila, Senior Vice President and Associate Director of Translational Research at Roswell Park, provides an overview of half a dozen new trials set to open in 2025, including a new treatment for patients with B-cell malignancies who have relapsed after an initial round of CAR T-cell therapy, targeting the CD19 antigen.

“What is interesting about this CAR, which is based on research from my laboratory, is it has a customized signaling domain in the chimeric antigen receptor,” Dr. Davila says. “My laboratory has demonstrated that this co-stimulator domain is more resistant to exhaustion inducting stimuli, so based on our research, we anticipate these CAR T cells will expand and persist longer in patients. We’re going to investigate that in a phase 1 clinical trial for patients at Roswell Park who have various B cell malignancies,” including patients who have relapsed or progressed after CAR T cell therapy or patients not eligible for other CAR T cell products.

This trial, along with one targeted the CD83 antigen, are first-in-human trials opening only at Roswell Park. Other trials expected to open this year will test treatments for solid tumor cancers, including ovarian cancer, bladder cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, gastrointestinal malignancies and breast cancer, among others.

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Marco Davila, MD, PhD

Vice Chair for Cellular Therapies
Senior Vice President and Associate Director for Translational Research
Department of Medicine

My research is dedicated to developing gene-engineered cell therapies that target cancer cells in pre-clinical models. The goal of this research is to identify optimal cell therapies that can then be evaluated in cancer patients. It is ...

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