Dr. Shah on How to Address CAR T-Cell Therapy Failure in Hematologic Malignancies

Nirav N. Shah, MD, associate professor, the Medical College of Wisconsin, discusses treatment options following CAR T-cell therapy failure in hematologic malignancies.

Different CAR T-cell therapies have been approved across hematologic malignancies, including mantle cell lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, with different indications for different products, Shah says. Despite the effectiveness of these approved products, addressing patients who fail on CAR T-cell therapy remains one of the biggest unmet needs across the lymphoma spectrum, Shah adds. Fortunately, novel treatments, including CD22-targeted and dual-targeted CAR T-cell therapies, are being developed, and they could fill the gap left by current regimens , Shah says.

Other immune effector cells could also be utilized in cellular therapies, and natural killer cells are an example of immune cells that could be leveraged for gene modification to target proteins on cancer cells, Shah explains. These newer therapies being developed have the chance to expand on the current CD19-targeted CAR T-cell therapies approved for hematologic malignancies, Shah concludes.