Fast & furious: looking ahead to next-generation treatments & new combinations in lymphoma?

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.