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EHA 2026 | Advice for community oncologists referring patients with lymphoma for CAR-T
In this video, Megan Melody, MD, Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, FL, comments on the importance of educating local oncologists about the evolving guidelines for CAR T-cell therapy to ensure patients are referred at the right time. Dr Melody emphasizes the need for early referral of high-risk patients to academic centers, even if they may not ultimately receive CAR-T, to facilitate a smooth transition to second-line treatment options if needed. This interview took place at the 31st Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in Stockholm, Sweden.
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Transcript
Something that was really surprising was the data that I think came out at the end of 2024 showing that only about 20% of eligible patients are actually receiving CAR-T cell therapy. And so I think the people who are seeing those patients in the frontline setting or early relapsed disease are our local oncologists. And so making sure that we really partner with our local oncologists to educate them on the ever-evolving guidelines...
Something that was really surprising was the data that I think came out at the end of 2024 showing that only about 20% of eligible patients are actually receiving CAR-T cell therapy. And so I think the people who are seeing those patients in the frontline setting or early relapsed disease are our local oncologists. And so making sure that we really partner with our local oncologists to educate them on the ever-evolving guidelines. So, you know, when ZUMA-7, and TRANSFORM studies came out, patients who were eligible for CAR-T were those who were eligible for autologous stem cell transplantation. But over the past decade, we’ve seen that data evolve to include patients who have comorbidities, such as decreased ejection fraction, kidney dysfunction, even patients on dialysis, patients of advanced age. CAR-T cell therapy has been demonstrated to be safe and effective in patients over the age of 89. And so really helping to inform our local providers of these ever-evolving inclusion criteria for CAR-T cell therapy I think is really important. I think that making sure that local oncologists know that early referral does not necessarily mean that those patients are going to go for CAR-T cell therapy. So if you’re seeing someone with really high-risk disease, really noisy disease that really doesn’t seem to be developing that full, complete response on the interim PET scan, it’s okay for a referral at that time point so that way patients are already established with an academic center they can, you know, if they are not achieving that CR at the end of treatment, that they are already established and they are easily able to transition from frontline therapy to second-line treatment options.
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