Dr. Galal on CAR T-Cell Therapy in Relapsed/Refractory Lymphomas

Ahmed Galal, MD, instructor, Department of Medicine, Duke Cancer Institute, discusses the use of CAR T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory lymphomas.

CAR T-cell therapy is currently FDA-approved for patients with aggressive lymphoma subtypes, such as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, primary mediastinal lymphoma, and other high-grade lymphomas. These patients are typically eligible for CAR T cell-therapy after having developed resistance to prior 2 lines of treatment. Galal says that approximately 40% of patients will progress on frontline R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan], cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) or R-EPOCH (rituximab, etoposide phosphate, prednisone, vincristine sulfate, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin hydrochloride), and only 30% of those patients will benefit from an autologous stem cell transplant. Thus, CAR T cells can make a difference in a fairly large population of patients that had once represented an unmet need.

This approach has provided new hope for these patients in the third-line setting, he concludes.