State-of-the-art for CAR T-cell therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2019

Experience in the use of CAR T cells to treat CLL is limited, but safety and efficacy data are encouraging, suggesting that it may be possible to use CAR T cells in populations of CLL patients with particularly unfavorable prognoses. Mechanisms intrinsic to the pathophysiology of CLL undoubtedly explain the efficacy reported based on limited data for the first few series, and underlie the rationale of successive modulations in lymphodepletion schemes, transgene constructs, and, finally, the therapeutic association of CAR T cells with ibrutinib, which appears to be particularly promising. This review describes the published results and expected developments.