EHA 2019 | Combining IMiDs and BiTEs or CAR T to improve outcomes for patients with R/R AML

At the 24th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA), Hee-Je Kim from The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, KR, talks about combining immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) and bispecific T-cell engagers (BiTEs) or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to improve outcomes for patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Hee-Je Kim stressed the importance of bi- and tri-specific therapies, many of which are under investigation in clinical trials. Importantly, it was noted that these therapies are not perfect yet, and are sometimes anergic to the tumor microenvironment. Therefore it is important to combine these therapies with checkpoint inhibitors, CAR NK-cells / CAR T-cells and other novel first-in-class agents. He concluded that in the near future, patients with AML will likely have more options for life-prolonging therapies.