ASH 2021 | Will CAR-T therapy take over from autologous transplantation in lymphoma?
Is there still a role for autologous stem cell transplantation in lymphoma? Stephen Ansell, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MI, shares his thoughts on this pertinent subject. With the emergence of highly active novel therapies, the use of autologous transplantation has come into question. Several studies have directly compared the use of CAR-T therapy versus transplantation, with mixed results. Further investigations are needed to determine if there are select populations who may benefit more from one approach or the other. This interview took place at the 63rd ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition congress in Atlanta, GA.
Transcript (edited for clarity)
A very good question as to whether transplant is going away and I think there are two kinds of transplants that most people are familiar with, an allogeneic transplant. I think cellular therapies, certainly that is a cellular therapy that has been very effective. I think the key question is autologous transplant and its role, particularly as a number of different trials were reported, are being reported here at the ASH Meeting...
A very good question as to whether transplant is going away and I think there are two kinds of transplants that most people are familiar with, an allogeneic transplant. I think cellular therapies, certainly that is a cellular therapy that has been very effective. I think the key question is autologous transplant and its role, particularly as a number of different trials were reported, are being reported here at the ASH Meeting. So these are comparing autologous stem cell transplant in large cell lymphoma compared to CAR T-cell treatment. And I think we have yet to kind of hear all of the data, but there is a developing consensus that CAR T-cell therapy looks very promising, potentially even as a replacement for autologous stem cell transplant.
Two of the trials showed a very clear benefit for patients receiving CAR T-cell therapy instead of receiving an autologous transplant, one study did not. So that’s why seeing the complete data, especially when it’s presented and then published will be important to be able to tell, is this true for everybody or are there subsets of patients who would still benefit from a transplant over CAR T-cell therapy? But I think at a high level, CAR T-cell therapy is moving up as it were in the list of when treatments are given and is now becoming a second-line approach.
Read more...
