Prognosis: What are the prospects for patients after CAR T-cell therapy?

Author:  Julia Dobke, Editor:  Maria Yiallouros, English Translation:  Dr. med. Gesche Riabowol (geb. Tallen), Last modification: 2025/10/20 https://kinderkrebsinfo.de/doi/e217493

Since therapy with CAR T cells is still a very new therapeutic approach, prognostic data have been generated from small patient cohorts studied in early clinical trials. These prove that many of the patients respond well to the therapy at the beginning and that the treatment is effective with regard to eliminating the malignant cells.

Some patients, however, develop a relapse (recurrence‎) of the disease at a later time. The longer the CAR T cells circulate in the body, the lower the risk of relapse seems to be. Persistent B-cell aplasia‎ is a good sign that the CAR T cells are still circulating in the body and continue to destroy CD19-positive cells.

Currently, it is still being investigated which factors increase the risk of relapse after CAR T-cell therapy. The investigations take into consideration the type of cancer, the initial load of leukaemic blasts‎ and various other blood components prior to CAR T-cell reinfusion, for example. It is also being investigated which strategies can reduce the risk of relapse, such as performing an allogeneic haematopoietic‎ stem cell transplant [see allogeneic stem cell transplantation‎] in patients who have responded very well to CAR T-cell therapy.