CAR-Related T-Cell Malignancies Rare, Another Study Finds

Of 3,066 patients with B-cell lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or multiple myeloma who received chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy over a 6-year period, only one developed a T-cell cancer following treatment, according to a French study, suggesting that the risk of these malignancies after CAR T-cell therapy is very low (Nat Med 2025 Jan 08 [Epub ahead of print]). The patient was diagnosed with anaplastic lymphoma 3 years after receiving tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah; Novartis) for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and was found to have an integration of a CAR transgene into a tumor suppressor gene. Concerns over secondary malignancies associated with CAR T-cell therapy prompted the FDA to require black box safety warnings on them last year, although other studies have also found only a minimal link between the therapy class and secondary cancers (Cancer Discov 2024 Feb 01 [Epub]) .