EXPERT OPINION
Meet the Expert : CAR-T Roberta di Blasi
Roberta Di Blasi MD recently spoke with Hospital Pharmacy Europe to share her thoughts and perceptions on CAR-T therapy and its role in treating patients with lymphomas at her organisation and in the wider field
Q Please tell us a little about yourself and your institution ?
A Dr di Blasi is a haematologist at Saint Louis Hospital in Paris . First working at CHU Henri Mondor in Créteil , she developed a special interest in infections among haematology hosts . In 2018 , she moved to Saint Louis to take part in the CAR-T cell project .
Her hospital is a large , specialist haematology centre that has seven wards dealing with different haematological malignancies . She is part of a team of seven clinicians , of which two are based in the outpatient or day-care centre , caring for patients with lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia . The unit has 16 beds and treats patients with chemotherapy and CAR-T cell therapy . It is a busy department , which , according to Dr di Blasi , in 2021 , ‘ took care of ‘ 661 patients , which included 450 new patients .’
Q Could you provide a brief summary of CAR-T therapy ?
A Dr di Blasi described how CAR-T therapy is ‘ a form of immune therapy that makes use of the patient ’ s own T lymphocytes that are engineered to express an antigen that can recognise a target in the tumour cell .’ Although this target can vary depending on the pathology , she explained that ‘ with lymphomas , our target is CD19 , which is expressed on the cell surface of lymphomas . Consequently , the T cells are modified to express a receptor that can recognise the CD19 on tumour cells , link to the tumour cell , and ultimately destroy it .’ Dr di Blasi explained how CAR-T therapy is a relatively new approach to the treatment of lymphomas , but while it was only introduced into clinical practice in Europe in 2018 , the technology had been investigated in clinical trials for a much longer period of time prior to this .
Q How did you personally become interested in CAR-T cell therapy ?
A Dr di Blasi said that her own interest in CAR-T cell therapy began in 2017 when
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