Dr. Pagel on the Utility of CAR T-Cell Therapy in Relapsed/Refractory DLBCL

Video

John M. Pagel, MD, PhD, discusses the utility of CAR T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

John M. Pagel, MD, PhD, chief of the Hematologic Malignancies Program, and director of the Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Program at Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle, Washington, discusses the utility of CAR T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Although autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) is still used in DLBCL, it is important to understand that it is not a viable treatment option for the vast majority of patients who relapse, says Pagel. For example, if 60 out of 100 patients are cured, that means 40 patients will relapse, adds Pagel; of those 40 patients, approximately half will receive an ASCT. Patients will not get a transplant if they are not chemotherapy sensitive or they may have comorbidities that do not allow them to undergo the procedure.

Moreover, only about half of patients who under transplant will achieve cure, adds Pagel. Patients who are not cured up front or by transplant still need an effective treatment option that can provide a significant benefit. To this end, some newer agents have emerged for patients with relapsed disease in recent years. The biggest development has been CAR T-cell therapy, says Pagel. This approach provides curative potential to patients who failed a transplant; were never able to get to transplant because they are not sensitive to chemotherapy; or were high-risk and refractory to up-front rituximab (Rituxan) plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin hydrochloride, vincristine sulfate, and prednisone chemoimmunotherapy.

CAR T-cell treatments are very important for those patients, adds Pagel, as this approach can provide long-term survival to some of these patients, concludes Pagel.

Newsletter

Stay at the forefront of cutting-edge science with CGT—your direct line to expert insights, breakthrough data, and real-time coverage of the latest advancements in cell and gene therapy.

Recent Videos
Nathan Yozwiak, PhD, the head of research at the GCTI
Derek Jackson, BS, MA, the vice president of cell & gene therapy product development at Pacira, and Kilian Guse, PhD, the vice president of genetic medicine platforms at Pacira
Derek Jackson, BS, MA, the vice president of cell & gene therapy product development at Pacira
Jeffrey Chamberlain, PhD
Tami John, MD
Tami John, MD
Tami John, MD
Matthew Ku, MBBS, FRACP, RACP, FRCPA/RCPA, PhD, an associate professor and the lymphoma stream lead at St Vincent’s Hospital
Saurabh Dahiya, MD, FACP, an associate professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine; as well as clinical director of Cancer Cell Therapy in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cell Therapy at Stanford Medicine
Shahzad Raza, MD, a hematologist/oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic
Related Content
© 2025 MJH Life Sciences

All rights reserved.