ACR 2022 Tweet by David Liew

Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy has emerged as a transformative approach in modern medicine, demonstrating remarkable efficacy in targeting pathogenic B-cell lineages with unprecedented specificity. Originally developed for B cell malignancies, this innovative immunotherapy has…

Reuters and the Wall Street Journal report that both Novartis and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) have paused their autoimmune disease CAR-T cell trials due to safety concerns, including deaths.Novartis has halted their cellular therapy trials with rap-cel (multiple autoimmune indications) because of 3…

CAR T cell therapy took the centre stage in 2022 where data pertaining to a successful case series of 5 patients with refractory SLE were published by Prof Schett’s group. Since then, this area of therapeutic has expanded exponentially. Our growing enthusiasm was slightly dampened though when the FDA required all six approved CAR T-cell therapies in oncology to include a black box warning regarding the risk of second primary malignancies in January 2024. At ACR25, Prof Schett’s group described a new form of toxicity in patients with autoimmune disease receiving CAR T-cell therapy, most likely due to the cleansing of immune cells from the affected organs.