Today’s Food and Drug Administration approval of Bristol Myers Squibb’s liso-cel for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a milestone in the development of T-cell therapies as potential cures for cancer.
Dr. Stanley Riddell, an immunologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, carried out early CAR T-cell research that contributed to the development of this “living drug,” made by genetically engineering the patient’s own immune cells to target malignant blood cells.
That technology was first licensed to Hutch spinoff Juno Therapeutics, now a Bristol Myers Squibb company. A Fred Hutch statement regarding the FDA decision is available here.
Prior to that decision, we sat down to talk with Riddell, who recently moved his lab to the Steam Plant, the Hutch’s newest research facility, where he continues to look for ways to improve immunotherapies. Below are excerpts of that interview, edited for brevity and clarity, on the next generation of T-cell therapies.
Q: Now that this technology has led to an FDA-approved drug, what lies ahead for CAR T-cell therapy research?
A: I think the trials going on in multiple myeloma are very promising, and I think that that’s going to be the next disease for which CAR T cells are going to have an impact and are likely to get approved in 2021. Once it is approved, the field will have to determine how do we best position the therapy to benefit the most patients. We have a large grant at the Hutch with Drs. Geoffrey Hill and Damian Green, as well as investigators at Emory University, to develop next generation approaches in multiple myeloma.
