A Phase 1 interventional study of Cytokine-Induced Memory-like Natural Killer Cells and Interleukin-2 in Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Acute Myeloid Leukemia Recurrent and Leukemia, sponsored by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Recruiting at 2 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-28.
Sponsored by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment
The purpose of this research study is to test the safety and to explore the effectiveness of infusing cytokine- induced memory-like (CIML) natural killer (NK) cells in combination with Interleukin-2 (IL-2) and standard-of-care venetoclax as a treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) with measurable residual disease or oligoblastic (\< 20% blasts in the bone marrow) disease.
Names of the study therapies involved in this study are:
This is an open-label, single center phase I trial combining Cytokine-induced memory-like natural killer (CIML NK) cell therapy with low-dose IL-2 and with venetoclax as consolidation therapy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML)with measurable residual disease or oligoblastic (\< 20% blasts in the bone marrow) disease.
This is the first time that CIML NK cells in combination with venetoclax will be given to humans.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved CIML NK cells as a treatment for AML.
The U.S. FDA has not approved IL-2 for AML but it has been approved for other uses.
The U.S. FDA has approved venetoclax as a treatment option for AML.
The research study procedures include screening for eligibility, study treatment visits, electrocardiograms (ECGs), bone marrow biopsies, blood tests, and echocardiograms.
Participants will be followed for up to 1 year after the start of therapy.
It is expected that about 10 people will take part in this research study.
This research is funded by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
3,667 studies on the registry are indexed under Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; 816 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 10 is below the median of 40 across 3,005 interventional studies indexed under Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute.
Browse Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute studies →Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is the lead sponsor of 834 studies on the registry; 122 are open to participants now.
Of its 114 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 78 (68%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Inclusion Criteria for Trial Enrollment (Registration Visit):
Presence of molecular risk factors for relapse as defined by any of the following present at any time during a participant's history of AML:
Participants must meet the following organ function as defined below:
Exclusion Criteria for Trial Enrollment (Registration visit)
Inclusion Criteria to Start Investigational Treatment Plan (On Treatment visit)
Participants must undergo a repeat bone marrow at Visit #2 to determine one of two scenarios below.
OR
oligoblastic AML (5-19% blasts): Repeat bone marrow biopsy at this time shows 5-19% residual myeloblasts in the bone marrow by either bone marrow aspirate or core biopsy. Additionally, the participant must fulfill one of the following criterion for relapsed/refractory disease.
Refractory disease: Defined as failure to achieve a CR, CRh, or CRi after ≥ 1 cycle of intensive chemotherapy with a cytarabine-containing regimen (e.g., 7+3, MEC, HIDAC, reinduction chemotherapy such as 5+2, etc.), ≥ 2 cycles of Ven/HMA or a targeted therapy (for FLT3, IDH1/2, NPM1, or KMT2Ar), or ≥ 4 cycles of HMA monotherapy. So long as these criteria are met, participants with relapsed/refractory AML may have received any bridging therapy between Visit #1 and Visit #2 per clinicians' discretion.
oxygen saturation ≥ 90% on room air
Exclusion Criteria to Start Investigational Treatment Plan (On Treatment visit)
Criteria to Receive Lymphodepletion on Day -5
Adequate organ function within 24 hours of lymphodepletion as defined below:
Criteria to Receive CIML NK Infusion
Adequate organ function within 24 hours of NK cell infusion as defined below:
If any of the above criteria are noted at these time points, please discuss with PI the benefits/risks of proceeding with the CIML infusion and document rationale for course of action taken in study regulatory binder. However, patient may still receive CIML NK infusion if relevant parameters are reviewed and both PI and IND holder agree with proceeding.
If inclusion/exclusion criteria are not met on planned day of CIML NK cell infusion, the NK cell infusion may be delayed for up to 24 hours to enable inclusion criteria to be met.
Criteria to Receive Venetoclax
Adequate organ function within 24 hours of venetoclax initiation as defined below:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.
“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
After a transplant from a donor, the donor’s immune cells attack the recipient’s body, often the skin, gut or liver.
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Stem cell (bone marrow) transplants. Allogeneic uses cells from a donor; autologous uses your own cells, collected earlier and given back.
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
CYP3A is a group of enzymes, mainly CYP3A4, in the liver and gut that break down many medicines. Some medicines, supplements and foods (grapefruit, St John’s wort) slow them down or speed them up, which changes how much of a study drug stays in the body.
Studies list them so they can be avoided or switched; bring a list of everything you take, including supplements.
Line of therapy
A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.
“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
GVHD (graft-versus-host disease)
After a transplant from a donor, the donor’s immune cells attack the recipient’s body, often the skin, gut or liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECOG performance status
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Bilirubin
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Creatinine clearance (CrCl)
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction)
The share of blood the heart’s main pumping chamber (the left ventricle) pushes out with each beat, measured by an echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) or a MUGA scan. About 50–70% is normal.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Allogeneic and autologous transplant
Stem cell (bone marrow) transplants. Allogeneic uses cells from a donor; autologous uses your own cells, collected earlier and given back.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Autoimmune disease
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Biopsy and archival tissue
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Relapsed and refractory
Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Live vaccines
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
CYP3A (CYP3A4) inhibitors and inducers
CYP3A is a group of enzymes, mainly CYP3A4, in the liver and gut that break down many medicines. Some medicines, supplements and foods (grapefruit, St John’s wort) slow them down or speed them up, which changes how much of a study drug stays in the body.
Studies list them so they can be avoided or switched; bring a list of everything you take, including supplements.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
A maximum tolerated dose (MTD) will be established, and dosage will start at dose level 0. 5-10 participants at dose level 0 will complete: * Baseline visit. * Bone marrow biopsies: at the on treatment visit, end of treatment, and at discretion of PI. * Days -6 through -2: predetermined doses of standard-of-care lymphodepleting chemotherapy. * Day 0: Predetermined dose of CIML NK cells 1x daily. Hospitalization for up to 3 to 4 weeks for CIML NK infusion. * Days 0 through 12: Predetermined dose of IL-2 1x daily every other day for up to 5 doses. * Day 7 through Day 20: Predetermined dose of Venetoclax 1 x daily. * If ≤1 dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) are observed, this dose will be the MTD, and 5 additional participants will be enrolled. * Follow-up visits: Days 42, 60, 100 and months 6, 9, and 12.
Biological: Cytokine-Induced Memory-like Natural Killer Cells · Biological: Interleukin-2 · Drug: Venetoclax
De-escalation to dose level -1 will be conducted per protocol if DLTs occur in Cohort 1 dose Level 0. Participants will complete: * Baseline visit. * Bone marrow biopsies: at the on treatment visit, end of treatment, and at discretion of PI. * Days -6 through -2: predetermined doses of standard-of-care lymphodepleting chemotherapy. * Day 0: Predetermined dose of CIML NK cells 1x daily. Hospitalization for up to 3 to 4 weeks for CIML NK infusion. * Days 0 through 12: Predetermined dose of IL-2 1x daily every other day for up to 5 doses. * Day 7 through Day 20: Predetermined dose of Venetoclax 1 x daily. * Follow-up visits: Days 42, 60, 100 and months 6, 9, and 12.
Biological: Cytokine-Induced Memory-like Natural Killer Cells · Biological: Interleukin-2 · Drug: Venetoclax
Allogeneic, cytokine induced memory-like natural killer cells, via intravenous infusion per protocol.
Also known as: CIML NK Cells
Recombinant, human glycoprotein, single-use 22 MIU vials, via subcutaneous (under the skin) injection per protocol.
Also known as: Aldesleukin, Proleukin, IL-2
Selective inhibitor of BCL-2 protein, 10, 50, or 100 mg tablets, via orally per standard-of-care.
Also known as: C45H50ClN7O7S
Dose Limiting Toxicity (DLT)
A DLT is defined as an adverse event (AE) that is related to the CIML NK cell infusion with venetoclax as consolidation therapy. Toxicities are to be assessed according to the CTCAEv5.
Time frame: Observing window is from Day 0 (day of CIML NK cell infusion) to Day +28
Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD)
The MTD in the CIML NK cell infusion with venetoclax as consolidation therapy is determined by the number of participants who experience a DLT. See previous primary outcome measure for the DLT definition. If ≤1 DLTs are observed at dose-level 0, this dose will be the MTD. If ≥2 DLTs are observed in a cohort of 5 evaluable participants, then the MTD is considered exceeded. If this is dose level 0, dose de-escalation will take place, and 5 evaluable participants will be enrolled at dose level -1. If ≥2 DLTs are observed at dose level -1, accrual will stop.
Time frame: Observing window is from Day 0 (day of CIML NK cell infusion) to Day +28
Measurable Residual Disease Negative (MRD-) Rate
MRD- rate is defined as the proportion pf participants achieving MRD. MRD clearance is evaluated by both highly sensitive flow cytometry and duplex sequencing on paired bone marrow samples.
Time frame: At +28 days post CIML NK Infusion
100-day Leukemia-Free Survival (LFS)
Leukemia free survival based on the Kaplan-Meier method is defined as the the duration of time from study entry to documented disease progression (leukemic relapse or death from any cause) or death. 100-day LFS is calculated from the KM curve with standard error.
Time frame: 100 Days
1-year Leukemia-Free Survival (LFS)
Leukemia free survival based on the Kaplan-Meier method is defined as the the duration of time from study entry to documented disease progression (leukemic relapse or death from any cause) or death. 1-year LFS is calculated from the KM curve with standard error.
Time frame: 1 Year
100-day Overall Survival (OS)
100-day OS is a probability estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method; OS is defined as the time from study entry to death, or censored at date last known alive.
Time frame: 100 Days
1-year Overall Survival (OS)
1-year OS is a probability estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method; OS is defined as the time from study entry to death, or censored at date last known alive.
Time frame: 1 Year
Acute GVHD Rate
Acute GVHD Rate is defined as the proportion of participants that has achieved acute GVHD. The criteria of acute GVHD grading is attached in protocol appendix c.
Time frame: 1 Year
1-year Chronic GVHD Rate
Chronic GVHD Rate is defined as the proportion of participants that has achieved chronic GVHD by NCI common toxicity criteria (appendix d).
Time frame: 1 Year
Plan to share: Yes — The Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center encourages and supports the responsible and ethical sharing of data from clinical trials. De-identified participant data from the final research dataset used in the published manuscript may only be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement. Requests may be directed to: [contact information for Sponsor Investigator or designee]. The protocol and statistical analysis plan will be made available on Clinicaltrials.gov only as required by federal regulation or as a condition of awards and agreements supporting the research.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan
Time frame: Data can be shared no earlier than 1 year following the date of publication
Access criteria: Contact the Belfer Office for Dana-Farber Innovations (BODFI) at innovation@dfci.harvard.edu
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