The Non-Malignant Channel is supported with funding from Agios (Gold).
VJHemOnc is an independent medical education platform. Supporters, including channel supporters, have no influence over the production of content. The levels of sponsorship listed are reflective of the amount of funding given to support the channel.
CAR-T Meeting 2026 | An update on the rapidly evolving field of CAR T-cell therapy in autoimmune diseases
Raffaella Greco, MD, PhD, San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy, discusses the evolving field of CAR T-cell therapy in autoimmune diseases, highlighting encouraging results in conditions such as lupus, myositis, and systemic sclerosis, as well as in neurological autoimmune diseases such as myasthenia gravis and multiple sclerosis. Dr Greco notes that CAR T-cell therapy may also represent a promising approach for the treatment of hematological autoimmune diseases, including autoimmune hemolytic anemia, immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), and some cases of hemophilia. She notes that guidelines for CAR T-cell therapy are being updated at the European level to reflect new results and recommendations. This interview took place at the EBMT-EHA 8th European CAR T-cell Meeting, held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
These works are owned by Magdalen Medical Publishing (MMP) and are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All rights are reserved.
Transcript
It is really a pleasure for me to give an update on the developments of CAR-T cell in autoimmunity during the CAR-T meeting that will be held in Palma this year. It is a rapidly evolving field. We started in 2020 with the first patient treated, and now we are moving with many more indications. Initially, it was tested in rheumatic disease, then the field moved also to neurological indications, and nowadays also to hematological autoimmune diseases...
It is really a pleasure for me to give an update on the developments of CAR-T cell in autoimmunity during the CAR-T meeting that will be held in Palma this year. It is a rapidly evolving field. We started in 2020 with the first patient treated, and now we are moving with many more indications. Initially, it was tested in rheumatic disease, then the field moved also to neurological indications, and nowadays also to hematological autoimmune diseases. So I think really we have great promise in that kind of approach. Generally, for those severe and refractory diseases that are chronic, we have adopted in the past 25 years transplantation, autologous transplantation, and there are two main indications at the moment that are standard, MS patients and systemic sclerosis patients. Apart from that, in the other indications, the treatment is not widely adopted worldwide. And in the antibody-driven diseases that are refractory to standard treatment, the CAR T-cell field is rapidly moving and giving really excellent results.
So we observed a really great achievement for lupus patients, for myositis patients. Also, we started to see great results for systemic sclerosis, but this should be also compared with transplantation, having another standard indication for cellular therapy in that specific disease. Also, good results are coming from antibody-driven neurological autoimmune diseases like myasthenia gravis or NMO. And also, we have seen great results for rare indications like Stiff Person syndrome or autoimmune encephalitis. Regarding MS patients, I think that at the moment, the results of transplantation are really so excellent that the CAR T-cells are nowadays entering that we need really to better see which is the best patient to be a good candidate for that strategy, but given also the good results of B cell-driven therapies in that context, we may expect that for sure there will be some patients that may have a benefit from the CAR T-cell approach. But I think that in that sense, we need more research and more trials.
Regarding hematological autoimmune diseases, we have seen some good results in very refractory cases of ITP and autoimmune hemolytic anemia and also some cases interesting on hemophilia. So we are looking forward also to see what can be in the next future also for that rare indication in which we have for sure new drugs, but there are, and we know very well, cases that are not responding at all to multiple treatments. So we are doing so. I think that in a sense, CAR T-cells may represent really a great approach.
During the presentation, we will cover all these indications, more in detail. So also giving quite an overview on the most recent applications and the results with a longer follow-up as compared to the past. We have nowadays also a case series coming from Germany, from the Erlangen team that enlarged the cohort of patients and also the duration of the follow-up. And we are going also to go more in depth on the guidelines that we are providing at European level in the most recent years for the field of CAR T-cells that are going to be updated also this year. So we can expect also an update very soon on that, because we have new results available and this also will translate in an update of the recommendations for sure. And I think that for this year, we will be able to clearly show which are the kind of products that we are adopting and the type of antigen and the type of disease with the main big indications and which can be the main criteria to select the right patient.
This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.
Read more...
