Dr. Bosse on Immunotherapy in Pediatric Cancers

Kristopher Bosse, MD, attending physician, Division of Oncology, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, discusses the use of immunotherapy in the treatment of pediatric patients with cancer.

Immunotherapy has garnered a lot of interest in both pediatric and adult cancers, but antibody-based therapy is a particular area of interest in pediatric cancers, says Bosse. This may include antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, or bispecific antibodies that target differentially expressed molecules, explains Bosse. Physicians are learning that there are a lot of molecules that have yet to be discovered.

The ADC that targets the GPC2 molecule is one of the first molecules to be discovered and linked to promising preclinical data. This is likely just the tip of the iceberg, explains Bosse. The hard part, explains Bosse, comes in developing appropriate therapies for these molecules. Through further research, physicians may uncover that ADCs are more appropriate for solid tumors or even CAR T cells, but there is still a lot to learn.