Friends and CLL Society supporters: This is a difficult piece for me to write, but after consulting with my wife, my family, my closest friends and key supporters of the CLL Society,
There are multiple excellent choices between limited-duration and continuous targeted therapies that all can offer durable disease control.
The FDA’s mandatory plans to manage drug risks or REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies) were dropped for CAR-T, making it more accessible in CLL.
CAR-T is an option for CLL. Its expense and complexity make it inaccessible to many. Making CAR-T cells in the body (in vivo) changes everything.
By never freezing the locally produced CAR-T cells, disappointing response rates for relapsed/refractory CLL and Richter’s Syndrome patients are greatly improved
CAR-T is an effective but underused option in cancer. Successful engineering of CAR-T cells in vivo in nonhuman primates has now been achieved.
For patients with Richter’s transformation, the combination of ibrutinib, venetoclax, and obinutuzumab may be most useful as a bridge to other therapies.
FDA approved lisocabtagene maraleucel, the first CAR-T for relapsed / refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL).
This research shows that senescence (biological aging) can occur in CAR-T cells, reducing their ability to kill cancer cells.
