cells Article Current Challenges in Providing Good Leukapheresis Products for Manufacturing of CAR-T Cells for Patients with Relapsed/Refractory NHL or ALL Felix Korell 1,*, Sascha Laier 2, Sandra Sauer 1, Kaya Veelken 1, Hannah Hennemann 1, Maria-Luisa Schubert 1, Tim Sauer 1, Petra Pavel 2, Carsten Mueller-Tidow 1, Peter Dreger 1, Michael Schmitt 1 and Anita Schmitt 1 1 Department of Internal Medicine V, University Hospital Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany;
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[email protected] Received: 9 April 2020; Accepted: 13 May 2020; Published: 15 May 2020 Abstract: Background: T lymphocyte collection through leukapheresis is an essential step for chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy. Timing of apheresis is challenging in heavily pretreated patients who suffer from rapid progressive disease and receive T cell impairing medication. Methods: A total of 75 unstimulated leukaphereses were analyzed including 45 aphereses in patients and 30 in healthy donors. Thereof, 41 adult patients with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (85%) or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (15%) underwent leukapheresis for CAR-T cell production.