The TK008 Phase III trial on using donor lymphoctyes to treat patients with high-risk acute leukemia

Chiara Bonini, MD, from San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, gives an overview of the ongoing randomised Phase III trial TK008 (NCT00914628), which looks at the ability of donor lymphoctyes to recognise and kill leukemia cells and the control of graft-versus-host-disease (GvHD) via the use of a suicide gene in high-risk leukemia patients who underwent haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation. The aim is immunoreconstitution, a reduced relapse rate and control of GvHD. According to Prof Bonini, the killing of the gene modified cells and the control of GvHD has been reported as efficient in several studies.