John Kuruvilla, MD, FRCPC, from the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, Canada, discusses integrating treatments around autologous transplantation at the International Workshop on Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (iwNHL) 2017, held in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Phase III trials have shown that autologous transplantation is superior to conventional chemotherapy, however, more research needs to be carried out to determine how to integrate novel therapies around transplant, because a large proportion of patients dont respond to treatment before transplant. This has been successful in Hodgkin lymphoma so far, however, this has not been mirrored in non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CAR T-cell therapy has been shown to have promising results for patients who are ineligible for, or had relapsed, after transplant.
What are the challenges of integrating therapy around autologous transplantation?
