Joshua Richter, MD, and Marco Davila, MD, PhD, closed their conversation about advances in CAR T-cell therapy for patients with multiple myeloma by recapping the current state of the field. Despite the advent of novel cellular therapies, the experts detailed ongoing challenges related to toxicities, access to care, and referrer-provider relationships, which must be addressed through ongoing communication across academic and community oncology standpoints. Ultimately, Davila expressed his excitement regarding other potential advances in the next 5 to 10 years that may continue to bolster patient outcomes.
Davila is physician–scientist and service chief of the Lymphoma–Myeloma Adoptive Cell Therapy Service at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Richter is associate professor of medicine at the Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and director of Myeloma at the Blavatnik Family Chelsea Medical Center at Mount Sinai.
Transcript:
Richter: CAR T-cell therapy is now deeply entrenched in the world of relapsed myeloma, soon likely to be entrenched in the newly diagnosed world. These are therapies that I think we’re all going to need to embrace, whether from an academic standpoint or a community standpoint, and having that ongoing communication back and forth, especially as the field is moving so quickly, is absolutely key in providing optimal care for our patients.
Davila: Yeah, well said. I really enjoyed this conversation. We hit on what the obstacles are for patients: toxicities, referrer access in terms of distance, and referrer-provider and cell therapy clinician communication. There are lots of issues that we’re working out, but the motivation behind this is that the technology is powerful. It delivers long-term remissions for many patients, and the goal of this discussion is just being able to share this information: what’s working from my end and from your end, and where do we see the pathways for improvement? Hopefully, sharing this information can spark some ideas from other referrers or cell therapy centers that might figure out even better ways to do this. I’m very excited about what cell and gene therapy has been doing for myeloma and excited for the next 5 to 10 years to see what further advances we’re going to have in the space. I’m very happy that we’re able to deliver on this promise of research improving outcomes for patients.
Thanks to everyone that’s tuning in to this podcast. Hopefully, you’re able to learn something. Any questions for me, feel free to send me an email, and I’m happy to talk through cell and gene therapy.
