Shannon Maude, MD, Discusses Unique Challenges Facing CAR-T Cell Therapy in Healio Article

Dr. Shannon Maude, an attending physician in the Cancer Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, provided expert insight on the unique challenges facing CAR T-cell therapy for pediatric indications in an article published in Healio’s February issue of Cell Therapy Next.

The first key issue is that cancers in children do not always act or respond to therapy the same way as cancers in adults. Second, the small size of the pediatric population in need of treatment for some diseases make it a less lucrative target for pharmaceutical companies.

A third challenge is that CAR T-cell therapies are labor-intensive and take a long time to develop. “In many cases, we can’t always use therapies that are being developed with adults in mind,” says Maude. “Instead, we have to develop something unique."

Lastly, Dr. Maude tells Cell Therapy Next that a lack of target antigens can hinder development of CAR T-cell therapy for pediatric patients. “Many pediatric malignancies develop out of normal embryonic tissues and – in many cases – do not have a lot of mutations.”

Read the full article here.