News

Switchable chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells with a switch directed towards human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has similar efficacy as conventional HER2 CAR T cells while also having a greater control over treatment toxicities.

Although CD19 has proved to be an attractive and effective target for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies in hematologic malignancies, a significant subset of patients treated with this groundbreaking form of immunotherapy eventually relapse.

We visited San Francisco, California for a State of the Science Summit on Hematologic Malignancies. The meeting covered novel agents and combinations in lymphoma, updates in acute and chronic leukemias, and modalities in the management of multiple myeloma.

We visited Chicago, Illinois for a State of the Science Summit on Renal Cell Carcinoma and Bladder Cancer. The meeting covered the genomics of bladder cancer, novel approaches to non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, side effect management from immunotherapy, as well as the integration of immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy in genitourinary cancers.

Improvements in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, approved last year by the FDA for leukemias and lymphomas, were a focus of a session by a National Cancer Institute (NCI) researcher who spoke at the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference taking place in New York City this week.

A single leukemia cell was able to reproduce and cause a deadly relapse of pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) after it had bonded with the leukemia-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) lentivirus and infused back into a patient. The case of the cell that became resistant to CAR T-cell therapy was published in the journal Nature Medicine Monday.

Kenneth H. Shain, MD, PhD, discusses the evolution of treatment for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma and how physicians are leveraging data with chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy and minimal residual disease negativity to improve outcomes.