The Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Channel is supported with funding from AstraZeneca (Diamond), AbbVie (Platinum), Johnson & Johnson (Gold), BeOne Medicines (Silver) and Lilly (Silver).
The Lymphoma Channel is supported with funding from AstraZeneca (Diamond), BMS (Gold), Johnson & Johnson (Gold), Takeda (Silver) and Galapagos (Bronze).
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.
ESH CLL 2026 | The potential of T-cell engagers and CAR T-cell therapy in Richter’s transformation
Adam Kittai, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, discusses the potential of T-cell engagers, including bispecific antibodies and CAR T-cell therapies, for the treatment of Richter’s transformation, highlighting their promising results in non-Hodgkin lymphoma and preliminary data in Richter transformation. This interview took place at the ESH CLL 2026 congress in Stockholm, Sweden.
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
For Richter transformation, I am really excited about the T-cell engagers, so the bispecific antibodies as well as the CAR T-cell therapies. And the reason this is that, number one, they look fantastic in normal, good old, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And additionally, some of the preliminary data, at least as single agent, they also look pretty good, especially for patients who’ve had many prior treatments for their Richter’s transformation...
For Richter transformation, I am really excited about the T-cell engagers, so the bispecific antibodies as well as the CAR T-cell therapies. And the reason this is that, number one, they look fantastic in normal, good old, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And additionally, some of the preliminary data, at least as single agent, they also look pretty good, especially for patients who’ve had many prior treatments for their Richter’s transformation. So there’s new data on epcoritamab as a single agent that’s been recently published, and there’s my data for CAR T-cell therapy and other data that’s recapitulated the same results for CAR T-cell therapy. So where do I see this going? I think that T-cell engagers for Richter transformation are going to be an ideal treatment, but I don’t think that they should be used alone. We do know that Richter transformation has a highly inflammatory component, and also because of the underlying CLL, leads to T-cell exhaustion. So when I’m using a T-cell engager like epcoritamab or considering CAR T-cell therapy, I will always pair it with a BTK inhibitor because there’s really good data to support using BTK inhibitor plus specific antibodies. And there’s also good data to support BTK inhibitor plus CAR-T cell therapy. So this is my general thought about where the future is headed. And there’s actually a clinical trial being run out of the German group as a partnership with a lot of European nations. And that’s going to be pirtobrutinib plus epcoritamab versus chemoimmunotherapy with crossover allowed. And so I think that this is probably the future that we are going to see. But I do think combination therapies using T-cell engagers are where we’re headed for patients with Richter transformation.
This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.
Read more...
