Targeting B-Cell Lymphomas With T-Cell Therapies

Sonali M. Smith, MD, chief of the section of hematology/oncology at the University of Chicago, discusses how T-cell–directed therapies work in the context of indolent B-cell lymphoma.

She then moved on to discuss some of the most prominent T-cell–directed therapies currently being used or tested in this space, including bispecific antibodies and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. Smith presented on this topic during the 2024 Society of Hematologic Oncology Annual Meeting.

Transcription:

0:09 | When we think about T-cell directed therapies, they really fall into 2 classes that are currently FDA-approved. The first is antibody-based therapy, and the other is T-cell cellular therapy. For the talk that I presented…I discussed some of the newer antibody technology that includes bispecific agents, as well as CAR T-cell therapy, specifically for follicular lymphoma.

0:37 | The way that these T-cell therapies work are a little bit different depending on the specific product. But in general, I discussed bispecific agents, which are essentially CD20 by CD3 binding agents that engage T cells to help eliminate malignant B cells. I also discussed CAR T-cell therapy, where T cells are harvested autologously from the patient and then engineered to be reintroduced to the patient and have an anti-lymphoma effect.

1:08 | There are several different T-cell therapies that are being used in indolent lymphomas. The first is, of course, just simple antibodies, but what I really focused on were bispecific antibodies, and this includes 2 FDA-approved agents in follicular lymphoma, mosunetuzumab-axgb [Lunsumio] and epicoritimab-bysp [Epkinly], but I also discussed odronextamab [REGN1979], and then very slightly on glofitamab-gxbm [Columvi], where there is minimal data in the indolent subtypes of lymphoma.

1:36 | I also discussed CAR T-cell therapy, where there are now 3 FDA-approved products, including axi-cel [Axicabtagene ciloleucel; Yescarta], tisa-cel [tisagenlecleucel; Kymriah] and liso-cel [lisocabtagene maraleucel; Breyanzi].