3RD GENERATION GD2 SPECIFIC CHIMERIC ANTIGEN RECEPTOR TRANSDUCED AUTOLOGOUS NATURAL KILLER T-CELLS FOR NEUROBLASTOMA

This research study is for patients that have a cancer called Neuroblastoma that has either come back after treatment or did not respond to the standard medicines used to treat it. This study combines two different ways of fighting cancer: antibodies and Natural Killer T cells. Antibodies are types of proteins that protect the body from infectious diseases and possibly cancer. T cells, also called T lymphocytes, are special infection-fighting blood cells that can kill other cells, including cells infected with viruses and tumor cells. Both antibodies and T cells have been used to treat patients with cancers. The investigators have found from previous research that they can put a new gene into T cells that will make them recognize cancer cells and kill them. In a previous clinical trial, the investigators made a gene called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), from an antibody called 14g2a that recognizes GD2, a molecule found on almost all neuroblastoma cells (GD2-CAR). They put this gene into the patients' own T cells and gave them back to patients that had neuroblastoma. Nineteen patients were treated on that study and there were no long term side-effects seen after the GD2 T cell infusion. As the investigators have followed the patients over time, they noticed that for those patients with disease at the time of their infusion, the time to progression (the amount of time it takes before their neuroblastoma got worse) was longer in those whom they could find GD2 T cells in the blood for more than 6 weeks after the last T cell infusion. Because of this, the investigators think that if effector cells are able to last longer, they may have a better chance of killing neuroblastoma tumor cells. Natural Killer T cells are a special subset of innate lymphocytes that can effectively go into tumor tissues of neuroblastoma. Inside the tumor, there are certain white blood cells which help the cancer cells to grow and recover from injury. Natural Killer T-cells can specifically kill these cells. In this study, Natural Killer T cells will be genetically engineered to express GD2-CAR to attack neuroblastoma cells and the white blood cells inside the tumor tissue.