Dr. Bruce Dezube, senior vice president and head of clinical development at Mustang Bio, spoke to ScienceBoard.net at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 2022 annual meeting in Washington, DC, about the targeting of the CD20 antigen.
"CAR T cells have revolutionized the life of the relapsed/refractory lymphoma patients; 50% of them do survive," said Dezube, who has been an oncologist for 36 years. "For the 50% who don't survive, that's a problem. And, so, the way we are personally addressing it is we're going after a different target."
While CD19 and B-cell maturation antigen are the only antigens for which there are U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved CAR T-cell therapies, Dezube called CD20 a "very well validated antigen in the lymphoma field" and noted that "it is not lost," whereas patients treated with CD19 CAR T therapy "approximately a third of them will lose their antigen over time."
Listen to the audio recording below to learn more.