Dr. Shaughnessy on Challenges With CAR T-Cell Therapy in Hematologic Malignancies

Paul J. Shaughnessy, MD, hematologist, oncologist, and medical director of Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, at the Methodist Hospital, discusses challenges with CAR T-cell therapy in relapsed/refractory hematologic malignancies.

Often, patients who require CAR T-cell therapy have experienced multiple relapses, are refractory to available treatments, and have rapidly growing disease, says Shaughnessy. Moreover, in some cases, patients are unable to wait for their lymphocytes to be collected, engineered, and grown into CAR T cells.

Improving time-to-treatment with CAR T-cell therapy is an area of significant development, adds Shaughnessy. For example, allogeneic CAR T cells are a potential off-the-shelf option that would allow the product to be offered more readily.

Another challenge is preventing patients from relapsing following CAR T-cell therapy, Shaughnessy says. Some potential strategies to increase the durability of the therapy include dual-targeting antigens and augmenting CAR T with immunotherapy or radiation.