Dr. Garfall on Impact of CAR T-Cell Therapy in Hematologic Malignancies

Alfred L. Garfall, MD, MS, assistant professor of Medicine, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the impact of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in hematologic malignancies.

The use of CAR T-cell therapies for patients with hematologic malignancies has become a very remarkable and translational medicine story that has played out over the last 20 years, Garfall explains. This type of treatment has also come into clinical application use in the last 5 years with pilot and multicenter studies that are targeting CD19 with CAR T cells in patients with various B-cell malignancies, he adds. Another target includes BCMA in multiple myeloma. Soon, the community could see the first FDA approval of CAR T-cell therapy.

An ongoing conversation among oncologists is discussing the various data available for CAR T-cell therapies explored in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and comparing the response rates and safety profiles, he adds.