News|Articles|May 12, 2025

For Patients Who Cannot Wait, This Off-the-Shelf CAR NK Treatment for AML Leaves Healthy Cells Alone

Author(s)Stephen Strickland, MD, MSCI, Interview by Mary Caffrey

First part of a 2-part interview with Stephen Strickland, MD, MSCI, director of leukemia research for Sarah Cannon Research Institute. Strickland recently presented data from a phase 1 trial of SENTI-202, an investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK) cell therapy.

In some blood cancers, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has been lifesaving. These treatments are engineered with patients’ own T cells to express a synthetic receptor, or CAR, that binds to antigens to set loose a powerful immune response. These treatments can destroy cancer or produce a prolonged response in pediatric leukemia, B-cell lymphoma, and multiple myeloma; for patients lacking options, CAR T can seem like a miracle.