The Impact of Prominent Treatments in ALL

Hagop M. Kantarjian, MD, professor, and chair of the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the Samsung Distinguished Leukemia Chair in Cancer Medicine, discusses the impact of prominent treatments in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Kantarhijan highlights how the space for treating patients with ALL has moved away from chemotherapy to more targeted therapies, like the Bcr-Abl kinase inhibitor ponatinib (Iclusig), and combination therapies with chemotherapy. He also discusses the potential devoplpment of therapies that are tri-speicfic T-cell engagers allowing for more robust targeting of biomarkers CD19, CD20, and CD22.

Transcription:

0:07 | New generations of Bcr-Abl kinase inhibitors like ponatinib, are showing very promising results in combinations with antibodies like blinatumomab. The antibody cocktails with chemotherapy in pre-BALL are very promising. I'm also interested in the potential development of tri-specific T-cell engagers, instead of bi- specific T cell engagers, meaning that you get the CD3 cells to target CD19 or CD22. So instead of bytes, it will be Trites, where the molecule can target CD19 and CD20 or CD19 and CD22. The same applies for the CAR T-cells, as the CAR T-cells can target more than 1 cluster designation, meaning they could be designed to target both CD19 and CD22, or CD19 and CD20.

1:06 | I think the tri-specific T cell engagers and the CAR T-cells having more than 1 leukemia target are going to be the future "nuclear bombs" against ALL. They will selectively kill the leukemia without the need for maybe intensive chemotherapy, and they should be very effective if they are well designed.