The Use of Transplant in the Post CAR T Setting

Robert J. Soiffer, MD, the chair, Executive Committee for Clinical Programs, vice chair, Department of Medical Oncology, chief, Division of Hematologic Malignancies and institute physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as the Worthington and Margaret Collette Professor of Medicine in the Field of Hematologic Oncology, Harvard Medical School, discusses the role of transplant in the post chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) setting for patients with hematologic malignancies.

According to Soiffer, transplant is a modality which has been used for over 40 years and remains the standard of care (SOC) for many hematologic malignancies.

However, increasing information and data regarding CAR T-cell therapy may change this SOC as the non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma settings have already had CAR T-cell products approved by the FDA.

Transcription:

0:08 | This is an evolving area, and I think that if we were to have this discussion last year, the answer would have been different. And if we were to have this discussion again next year, the answer will be different again, so, this is a snapshot in time.

0:23 | CAR T cells were approved for treatment in lymphoma and acute leukemia about 3 or 4 years ago, and these work for patients who either didn't have a transplant and were refractory, or who had relapsed after their transplant. CAR T cells are commonly used for patients who had an autologous transplant, say for lymphoma, or now for multiple myeloma, they relapsed after that and they may have had other therapies subsequent to that, but they can be treated with CAR T cells. There are a number of products out there that can be treated successfully, to induce remissions, and in many patients, long term remissions and what appears to be a cure. That is for patients with recurrent disease after an auto or an allo transplant.