Dr. Bollard on the Treatment of EBV-Positive Lymphoma

Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Pathology & Immunology, Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Texas Childrens Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, discusses the treatment of EBV-positive lymphoma with T-cell therapy.

Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease is one of the most amenable cancers to T-cell therapy, Bollard says, and is almost always EBV-positive, especially in the bone marrow setting.

Researchers developed a strategy for patients to be given EBV-specific T cells after bone marrow transplant to prevent and treat EBV lymphoma. Today, over 100 patients have been treated with this type of T-cell therapy and none have relapsed, had toxicity issues, or GVHD. Also in the bone marrow setting, the majority of patients with active EBV lymphoma were cured with T-cell therapy alone.