Bijal Shah, MD, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL, discusses ways in which chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy may be optimized. Firstly, Dr Shah expresses that optimization could be achieved by administering CAR T-cell therapy earlier, when the disease burden is lower and the treatment could have greater efficacy and lower toxicity. Another avenue for optimizing CAR T-cell therapy is to elucidate ways to manage and limit toxicity, as well as to manage the correct dosing of drugs that limit T-cell proliferation such that a point of no return is not reached, and a patient can still have T-cell production after cessation of such drugs. In order to increase efficacy, further research into T-cell characteristics, composition, and signaling within the tumor microenvironment and other factors that mitigate healthy T-cell function and anti-tumor activity is necessitated. This interview took place at the virtual European Hematology Association (EHA) Congress 2021.

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