Cancer Immunotherapy Treatment Options

KYMRIAH: FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapy for leukemia

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford is one of a select group of certified treatment centers offering the FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapy KYMRIAH. This treatment is available to patients up to 26 years of age who have acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that either relapsed (came back after going into remission) or never went into remission after other leukemia treatments were used (refractory). You and your child’s care team will decide if KYMRIAH is right for your child.

As one of the centers involved in the early clinical trials of KYMRIAH, we have significant experience caring for patients who are receiving CAR T-cell therapy, from addressing potential side effects to providing long-term follow-up care.

Cancer immunotherapy clinical trials

KYMRIAH was approved after years of testing in clinical trials. Our researchers and physicians are continuing to test ways for making immunotherapy more successful and expanding it to treat other types of cancers beyond leukemia.

Immunotherapy clinical trials currently enrolling at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health include:

  • CD19/CD22: A trial using CAR T cells to target two different proteins on the surface of cancer cells to stop the cancer from adapting and evading the immune system. This trial is for patients with recurrent or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia. We are the only children’s hospital in California to offer this kind of trial.
  • CD22: An only-at-Stanford trial to study if CAR T cells targeting CD22, a protein on the surface of cancer cells, are effective at treating children and young adults with certain types of leukemia and lymphoma.
  • GD2: A trial evaluating whether a type of CAR T cell called GD2 is safe and can fight against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a type of brain tumor, and spinal diffuse midline glioma (DMG), a spine tumor. This trial is available only at Stanford.

Our researchers are working to apply immunotherapy to other types of cancer, including solid tumors such as osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, and medulloblastoma, and other types of brain tumors.