There was a time when the remarkable responses to CAR-T therapy...

There was a time when the remarkable responses to CAR-T therapy held sway but it appears that the many challenges are now coming into sharp focus. Included in the list of side effects are life threatening toxicities as well as the serious risk of T-cell malignancy. The article As FDA puts CAR-T safety under microscope, researchers dig into adverse events record of BCMA therapies, published in Fierce Pharma on 11 December 2023, explores the particularly dangerous side effect called cytokine release syndrome [CRS].

The correlation of high tumor burden at baseline and the fast and high peak expansion of of the CAR-T cells potentially gives rise to CRS including neurotoxicity. One solution is to reduce the tumor burden at baseline through bridging therapies.

What kind of bridging therapies might work to reduce high tumor burdens to give autologous CAR-T therapies the best chance whilst managing the risk of CRS? For instance, the use of Blincyto as a bridging therapy has been analysed in paediatric leukaemia.

The optionality of the Imugene platform is also coming into sharp focus particularly as the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference comes into view.