Show Notes
In the latest ASCO in Action Podcast, ASCO CEO Dr. Clifford A. Hudis is joined by Dr. Jason Westin, member of the Government Relations Committee of the Association of Clinical Oncology, to discuss CAR T-cell therapy, a groundbreaking and lifesaving cancer treatment that comes with significant side effects, a jaw-dropping price tag, and limited locations where treatment is currently available. "This is potentially home run therapy for patients who have decades of life left to go," says Dr. Westin. While he stresses that CAR T is a major step forward in ridding the world of cancer, Dr. Westin worries about the high cost of the treatment, which "is an incredible amount put upon the system." Subscribe to the ASCO in Action podcast through iTunes and Google Play.
Transcript
Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.
Dr. Clifford Hudis: Welcome to the ASCO in Action podcast brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network, a collection of nine programs covering a range of educational and scientific content and offering enriching insights into the world of cancer care. You can find all of the shows, including this one, at podcast.asco.org.
The ASCO in Action podcast is ASCO's podcast series where we explore the policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer-care deliver team and the individuals we care for--people with cancer. My name is Clifford Hudis, and I'm the CEO of ASCO as well as the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series.
For this podcast I am really pleased to have Dr. Jason Westin as my guest. Dr. Westin is a member of the Association for Clinical Oncology's Government Relations Committee. And he is the director of lymphoma clinical research in the Department of Lymphoma Melanoma within the Division of Cancer Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Today Dr. Westin and I will discuss chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR T-cell therapy. Two years ago, ASCO named CAR T-cell therapy as our advance of the year in our annual Clinical Cancer Advances Report. CAR T is a groundbreaking and life-saving treatment for children and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and also for adults with diffuse large B cell lymphoma.
But it comes with serious side effects, an extraordinary price tag and a limited number of places--at least in the United States--where the treatment is currently available. Today Dr. Westin and I will discuss the current state of the science on CAR T-cell therapy, as well as access issues that are facing those patients who are seeking treatment with this new modality. Welcome, Dr. Westin, and thank you for joining me today.
Dr. Jason Westin: Thank you for having me. Before we begin, I'd like to disclose that I have clinical trial funding disclosures that are listed on the ASCO conflict of interest website. Those that I view to be specifically relevant for today's discussion include advisory work as well as clinical trial research funding for CAR T-cell companies including Kite/Gilead, Novartis and Juno. I also do clinical trial work with Celgene, Genentech, AB V, Amgen, MorphoSys, Curis, and 47 Inc.
Dr. Clifford Hudis: Thank you very much for that. We appreciate that. Let's get into the real focus of our conversation today. And let's start, of course, with CAR T-cell therapy. What is it, for those who might not be familiar? How would you describe it? And further, what makes it so potentially transformative in oncology?
Dr. Jason Westin: CAR T-cell therapy is an incredible breakthrough for our patients fighting cancer. The word car--c a r--stands for chimeric antigen receptor. W
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