VIDEO: CAR-T could work as first-line therapy in lymphoma

Editor’s note: This is a previously posted video, and the below is an automatically generated transcript to be used for informational purposes. Please notify editor@healio.com if there are concerns regarding accuracy of the transcription.

I love this question because I look at the world from a very different prism. So I am a hematologist, but I also work as a vice president of government affairs. So, you know, we're really engaged with Medicare in figuring out how do you deliver care equitably, effectively, but also efficiently, in a way that represents best financial stewardship. And what we see in the myeloma space is that standard therapy approaches. When you look at a three or four drug regimen utilizing monoclonal based antibodies with immunomodulatory agents and other drugs which have proven to be of profound value, the cost of delivering those treatments is quite high. So if you could demonstrate that for a population of patients you can deliver value by bringing that CAR-T cell product upstream, the value add of not giving very expensive therapy is very powerful from an economic and value point of view. So I think the thinking has to be twofold. One is first, always do what's right for the patient. So if we can identify those patients analogous to those with high risk lymphomas for whom I think there are data that validate the use of CAR-T cells as part of first-line therapy, I suspect that we will find that there's a population of myeloma patients for whom earlier treatment, if not upfront than you know at first relapse, that this is a great population where CAR-T cells demonstrate the most effective approach, but also can be validated. And this is a study that we're working on at City of Hope right now as bringing higher care, total care value to that patient. 'Cause I think this is really important. I saw an article two years ago that was posted in MedLife, I thought was really provocative. And the question was, can we afford the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma? And it was looking at cancer care and myeloma care, specifically from a policy and economic point of view. I think of the case of CAR-T cells. These can be in fact great value-laden ways of treating patients. Figuring out where in the context of that person's journey represents the highest value integration point for care, is something that I think is extremely exciting.