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← Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

FOR PATIENTS · SOURCE READING

Immunotherapy

Source: Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (PDQ®)–Patient Version, National Cancer Institute.

Source updated: April 15, 2025 · Captured 2026-09-09.

Selected source text with whitespace normalised. This Triangle page is not an NCI PDQ summary. Independent clinical review is pending.

Context: Types of treatment for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the patient's immune system to fight cancer. Substances made by the body or made in a laboratory are used to boost, direct, or restore the body's natural defenses against cancer. Examples of immunotherapy used to treat childhood ALL include blinatumomab, rituximab, and CAR T-cell therapy.

Blinatumomab: Blinatumomab works by bringing healthy T cells (immune cells that help kill cancer cells) and leukemia cells close together so the T cells can more effectively kill the leukemia. It does this by binding to a protein called CD3 on healthy T cells and a protein called CD19 on B cells (the immune cells that are cancerous in acute lymphoblastic leukemia). Blinatumomab is a type of targeted therapy drug called a bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE).

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CAR T-cell therapy: This treatment changes the patient's T-cells (a type of immune system cell) so they will attack certain proteins on the surface of cancer cells. T cells are taken from the patient and special receptors are added to their surface in the laboratory. The changed cells are called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. The CAR T cells are grown in the laboratory and given to the patient by infusion. The CAR T cells multiply in the patient's blood and attack cancer cells. CAR T-cell therapy is being studied in the treatment of childhood ALL that has relapsed (come back) a second time.

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Rituximab.

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Learn more about Immunotherapy to Treat Cancer.

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Preserved source evidence · Independent clinical review pending · Not medical advice