Ongoing Research in the Hematology Space at AHN

Yazan Samhouri, MD, a hematologist/oncologist in the Division of Hematology and Cellular Therapy at Allegheny Health Network (AHN), discusses some of the current research that his team at AHN is working on.

According to Samhouri, experts at AHN have been advancing treatments for patients, including taking a giant leap forward with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. While CAR T-cell therapy is only offered at a few cancer centers in the country, AHN is one of them.

Through using CAR T-cell therapy that is manufactured by them, clinicians at AHN are able to combat some of the most challenging cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma. With this type of therapy, there is even the potential to provide patients with a chance at remission.

In addition to research regarding CAR T-cell and cellular therapy, experts are always looking to improve upon the combination or discover better options. New clinical trials are also focusing efforts in the diffuse large B-cell lymphoma space, as well as for patients with primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma. These trials, according to Samhouri, are already beginning and accruing patients.

TRANSCRIPTION:

0:08 | At Allegheny Health Network, we have a mission of being a center for cellular therapy. We produce our own CAR T-cell product. We have an in-house product that we have an investigation initiated in clinical trials in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma currently, and we are expanding that into other sites. We are working on starting a new clinical trial for primary CNS lymphoma using our in-house product, and we are excited about it.

0:41 | Also, 2 parts of the cellular therapy is our tumor infiltrating lymphocyte program [TILs program] and we have a few clinical trials that are already accruing. That is for different disease sites, and we are expanding on that soon as well.