1 Thoracic Service, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. 2 Thoracic Service, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; Center for Cell Engineering, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. Electronic address: adusumip@mskcc.org.

Immunotherapy is a promising field that harnesses the power of the immune system as a therapeutic agent for cancer treatment. Beneficial outcomes shown in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) with relatively higher tumor-infiltrating T cells, combined with impressive responses obtained in a cohort of patients with NSCLC following checkpoint blockade therapy, lays a strong foundation to promote effector immune responses in these patients. One such approach being investigated is administration of tumor antigen-targeted T cells with transduction of a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). CARs are synthetic receptors that enhance T-cell antitumor effector function and have gained momentum to investigate in solid tumors based on recent successes of clinical trials treating patients with B-cell hematologic malignancies. This review summarizes target antigens for CAR T-cell therapy that are being investigated in preclinical studies and clinical trials for both NSCLC and MPM patients. We discuss the rationale for combination immunotherapies for NSCLC and MPM patients. Additionally, we have highlighted the challenges and strategies for overcoming the obstacles facing translation of CAR T-cell therapy to solid tumors.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PMID: 28502785 PMCID: PMC5581988 [Available on 2018-09-01] DOI: 10.1016/j.trsl.2017.04.004

Abstract C86: The clinical candidate ZEN-3694, a novel BET bromodomain inhibitor, is efficacious in the treatment of a variety of solid tumor and hematological malignancies, alone or in combination with several standard of care and targeted therapies