The Future of Cell Therapy
- Cell therapies have demonstrated the potential for long-lasting remission with a single infusion, offering new hope for patients with several types of blood cancer.
- With a type of cell therapy known as CAR T-cell therapy, T cells are removed from the body and modified to recognize and attack cancer cells.
- “Cell therapy has revolutionized the way that we’ve treated certain hematologic diseases, and we’re thinking about the next step and going beyond hematology to other disease areas like autoimmune conditions that are really debilitating for a lot of patients,” Dr. Roseanna Ricafort, Vice President of Cell Therapy at Bristol Myers Squibb, tells SurvivorNet about the future of this treatment approach.
At the 2024 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, SurvivorNet sat down with Dr. Roseanna Ricafort, Vice President of Cell Therapy at Bristol Myers Squibb, to learn a bit more about how those in the industry are pushing for more progress in cell therapy — and possibly expanding the use of these groundbreaking treatments beyond blood cancers.
Read MoreGetting Progress to Patients
Given that cell therapies are complex, patients often have questions about the logistics of receiving and monitoring such treatments. Several different medical professionals may be involved in finding the right candidates for these types of treatment, which may include collaboration between hematologists, oncologists, immunologists, and primary care physicians.
Dr. Ricafort pointed out that while education and collaboration is key, cancer centers have made a huge amount of progress when it comes to implementing cell therapies safely.
“We’ve seen with our autologous cellular therapy products, in the beginning, there was concern about the ability to meet the needs of all of our patients,” she explained. “But we’ve made tremendous strides in expanding our manufacturing capabilities, both in terms of expanding the facilities, expanding our vector network so that we are able to provide more patients the hope and the promise that this revolutionary therapy could bring.”
If cell therapy is an option for your cancer treatment, consider discussing the following topics with your provider:
- Therapeutic Goals and Benefits: Ask your doctor to explain the rationale behind “one-time infusion” strategies that could potentially lead to durable remissions.
- Possible Side Effects: CAR T-cell therapies, for instance, can cause cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity, which must be managed promptly. Patients must be made aware of these potential risks.
- Long-Term Follow-Up: Ask how you will be monitored for side effects (late effects) after treatment is complete.
Future Directions and Ongoing Research
The success of cell therapy in hematologic cancers has inspired extensive research into targeting solid tumors and autoimmune diseases. Additionally, combination regimens that integrate checkpoint inhibitors, oncolytic viruses, or bispecific antibodies are being explored to optimize therapeutic outcomes.
“We are still in a lot of ways in the beginning where we need to think about how we expand access to our cellular therapy products to patients who would need them the most. And that starts with education to referring physicians and also education to patients of what it means to receive a cellular therapy product,” Dr. Ricafort added.
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