Of course, the landscape of treatments for CLL is dominated by small molecules, and for a good reason. They are very efficacious and they can maintain disease response for many years, so they’re certainly a great solution for many patients. However, what we know about long-term results of small molecules is that very few patients we can consider cured. So patients will have to continuously receive a drug for the rest of their life...
Of course, the landscape of treatments for CLL is dominated by small molecules, and for a good reason. They are very efficacious and they can maintain disease response for many years, so they’re certainly a great solution for many patients. However, what we know about long-term results of small molecules is that very few patients we can consider cured. So patients will have to continuously receive a drug for the rest of their life. And then the other thing is that there are certainly patients relapsing during this treatment, and importantly, there are patients that cannot tolerate this treatment, this oral small molecule. So the idea of having a CAR-T therapy that is working in CLL, of course it would be very exciting, because there could be the opportunity to have, in one shot, one cure. In other words, one infusion of these engineered T-cells that could potentially lead the patient to get a complete response and maintain the complete response in long-term, because as you know, these CAR-T cells can persist at long-term.
Let’s regard, for example, there was a recent publication by the group here at the University of Pennsylvania, Carl June and Jos Melenhorst showing 10-year follow-up of two patients that got CAR 19 for CLL, and they are still in remission now, and you can still detect CAR 19 cells in the blood of these patients. Just to tell you that it’s one infusion, but these CAR-T cells can persist in the long-term. So again, while more studies are needed to find the right product, the right combination for CLL, I do think that the opportunity to use CAR-T cells is very exciting, because it potentially can lead to long-term cures.