At the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, US, Maria Lia Palomba, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, US discusses the future of CAR T- cells.
Dr. Lia Palomba expresses delighted at the initial results of CAR T-cell therapy for lymphoma, with the responses being durable and intriguing, however about 30 % of patients don’t respond and about 60 % will relapse eventually, so investigators are trying to modify the CAR T-cell therapy from the available results. Dr. Lia Palomba then discussed other avenues that are being explored such as more powerful CAR T-cells where the CAR constructs are being modified so that they can secrete cytokines that can preferentially expand certain types of T cells. There are also combinations that are being explored, where CAR T-cells are being combined with anti-PD1 or anti PDL1 antibodies with 3 clinical trials exploring this possibility.