Choosing the Best Treatment for You
- CAR T-Cell Therapy and bispecific antibodies are two immunotherapy treatment approaches offering new hope to patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
- CAR T-Cell Therapy re-engineers a patient’s own T-Cells to fight cancer while bispecific antibodies bind immune cells with cancer cells so the immune system can effectively fight cancer.
- When choosing a treatment, it’s important to think about practical things like how close you are to a treatment center, who can help care for you, and the specific details of your disease.
Choosing Between Two Lymphoma Treatments
Patients dealing with a recurrence of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma have more options than ever before, as two immunotherapy approaches—bispecific antibodies and CAR T-cell therapy—have received FDA approval for additional use cases.“I think most people want to know what is the best treatment for me, given that the stakes are so high,” says Dr. Loretta Nastoupil, an oncologist and expert on non-Hodgkin lymphoma at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “How do we choose when we have more than one option that’s equally exciting in lots of ways?”
Read More“For patients who … progress after [CAR T-Cell Therapy], bispecific antibodies are, in my opinion, the most effective and exciting treatment options we have. Fortunately, they’re now FDA approved,” she adds.
Not everyone will be eligible for these innovative treatments, though, Dr. Nastoupil points out. For CAR T-Cell Therapy, it’s important to consider the following factors that may affect whether you can get the treatment:
- Access (there are geographic regions in the U.S. where there are a lack of centers that can provide CAR T-cell therapy)
- Caregiving (after CAR T-cell therapy, a patients needs to have a caregiver with them 24 hours a day for four weeks)
- Disease-specific features (patients shouldn’t begin CAR T-cell therapy with disease that is rapidly progressing)
Dr. Nastoupil adds that due to factors such as the above, there are definitely situations in which she would recommend a bispecific antibody over CAR T-cell therapy.
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