This article was originally published by Targeted Oncology.
C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, chief of Myeloma Service and hematologic oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and CAR natural killer (NK) cells in the multiple myeloma setting.
As with every therapy, there are pros and cons to the use of NK cells and CAR T cells, according to Landgren. One of the challenges when it comes to CAR T cells is the practical delivery of these agents since patients usually need to be hospitalized. These patients also have to undergo procedures if they are being treated with autologous CAR T cells. This therapy implies patients have to come in, go through CAR T-cell harvesting, and then come back about a month later when they can receive these CAR T cells in the hospital.
Landgren says that with allogeneic CAR T cells, there is no need to harvest the cells because they come from donors. That is also true for treatment with NK cells.