Dr. Wierda Discusses Use of CAR T Cells in CLL
William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, discusses how CAR T cells could become more effective in the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, associate professor, Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses how chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells could become more effective in the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
Early data for CAR T-cell therapies in these patients have been shown to elicit lower remission rate of around 30% compared with the 80% remission rate seen in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. However, Wierda says recent findings of research conducted by University of Pennsylvania group demonstrated that T cells collected from patients who were on ibrutinib (Imbruvica) treatment had a higher potency. Ibrutinib is associated with immune-modulating effects that could lead to better outcomes in these patients with CLL.
