Dr. Shaughnessy on Available CAR T-Cell Therapies in R/R Hematologic Malignancies

Paul J. Shaughnessy, MD, hematologist, oncologist, and medical director of Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the Methodist Hospital, discusses the available CAR T-cell therapies for relapsed/refractory hematologic malignancies.

There are 2 CAR T-cell products that are commercially available now, says Shaughnessy: axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) and tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah). These products are available for adults with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who have failed all standard therapies. There has been a gap in the availability of treatment for these patients.

CAR T-cell therapies now provide very meaningful responses in these patients, some of which have been very durable for a number of months, or even years. CAR T-cell therapies are very important in filling this gap in patients with relapsed/refractory lymphoma, as well as in pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Once again, there is no standard therapy for this population, though CAR T-cell therapy is offering durable remissions in a percentage of these patients, concludes Shaughnessy.