Lori Leslie, MD, Discusses CAR T-cell therapy and DLBCL

Lori Leslie, MD, of the John Theurer Cancer Center, sat down to discuss the relationship between chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) at the 61st American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, held December 7-10, in Orlando, Florida.

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So, I think in DLBCL right now CAR T-cell (therapy) is very exciting (and) really has revolutionized how we treat patients with relapsed/refractory disease. There’s some very interesting CAR T information being presented at ASH. 

I’m interested in the mechanisms of resistance. So even though CAR T is an effective therapy, long-term remissions overall are about 40%. So is it the loss of CD19, different CD19 epitopes, that leads to (patients’) progressions or lack of responses (that) is really changing development of CAR T(-cell therapy). 

How do we combine therapies? How do we create different targets? Maybe dual specific targets for CAR T(-cell therapy) to help increase the overall efficacy of long-term (complete responses) and potentially cure patients.