James Gerson, MD

CAR T-cell therapy is an innovative treatment for some types of blood cancers that engineers a patient’s own infection-fighting white blood cells (T cells) to target and kill cancer cells. However, a recent FDA statement and black box warning has raised questions about the possible development of T-cell lymphomas, including CAR-positive lymphoma, in patients treated with CAR T-cell therapy.
     
James Gerson, MD, and colleagues, address these concerns in a new report published in Nature Medicine, which identifies a patient who was treated with CAR T-cell therapy and subsequently diagnosed with a T-cell lymphoma. Through additional studies they determine that the T-cell lymphoma was not CAR-positive. Gerson and colleagues also analyzed nearly 500 patients treated with CAR T-cell therapy to determine the prevalence of T-cell lymphomas after CAR T-cell therapy and find that the risk of T-cell lymphomas following CAR T-cell therapy is minute. This work suggests that the risk benefit analysis for this potentially lifesaving therapy overwhelmingly favors the positive benefit it can have on patients’ lives, supporting continued use of the treatment. To learn more read the full report here.