Jae Park, MD

Jae H. Park, MD, hematologic oncologist and attending physician at the Leukemia Service and Cellular Therapeutics Center of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the role of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in leukemias and how he sees this treatment evolving in the coming years.

Park says there is a lot of excitement surrounding CAR T cells right now. While immunotherapy has made a big impact on the treatment landscape for a variety of cancer, but these CAR T-cell therapies targeting CD19 appear promising for the treatment of leukemias.

In the beginning, there were a lot of questions on whether CAR T cells would hold a place in the treatment landscape, but Park says the treatment is here to stay. However, there are still some limitations and challenges that need to be addressed in this space.

For CAR T-cell therapy to be a viable and definitive treatment option, we need to achieve durable responses, says Park. There are many groups now working toward this, so he is hopeful that in the next few years, we will better understand the mechanism of resistance and will be able to address limitations.

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Videos

Jae H. Park, MD, discusses the role of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in leukemias and how he sees this treatment evolving in the coming years.

CAR T-Cell Therapy Evolves in Leukemia Treatment Landscape

Jae Park, MD, a hematologist oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses adverse events associated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies, such as neurotoxicity, for patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL).

Park says that investigators are looking into how to reduce the risk of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity in adult patients with ALL. The clinical development of CAR T-cell therapy for adults has been slower than in pediatric patients because of the risk of these toxicities since older adult patients have poor tolerability of severe CRS and neurotoxicity. 

Researchers for clinical trials are trying to improve the currently available CAR T-cell therapy in ongoing studies. They want to mitigate or completely prevent neurotoxicity and CRS by targeting interleukin-1 receptor inhibitors or JAK inhibitors such as upadacitinib (Rinvoq), granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor antibody, or early intervention with a corticosteroid. The ultimate goal is to deliver a safer treatment to adult patients with ALL by exploring these different options, according to Park.

<< View more resources and information regarding leukemias

Jae Park, MD, discusses adverse events associated with chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies, such as neurotoxicity, for patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Analyzing CAR T-Cell Neurotoxicity in Adult Patients With ALL

Jae Park, MD, a hematologist oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses his key takeaways from chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in the treatment landscape of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

The important message is that there is a lot of interest in CAR T-cell therapy in patients with ALL, says Park, and more so than there had been in the past. However, there are rightful concerns regarding the toxicity of these therapies. It is important to think of this when considering administering a CAR T-cell therapy to a patient. It may not be the right therapy to all patients with ALL who relapse, but a lot of factors go into this, Park explains.

It is important to think about using CAR T-cell therapy early in patients with ALL, and they should be consulted early. ALL is a rare disease, so Park strongly encouraged physicians and patients to reach out to cancer centers that administer CAR T cells. For patients who do not have access to clinical trials for CAR T-cell therapy, centers like Memorial Sloan can assist in finding local centers that do have these studies available.

Jae Park, MD, discusses his key takeaways from chimeric antigen receptor T cells in the treatment landscape of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Exploring the Current Role of CAR T Cells in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Jae Park, MD, assistant attending physician, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses toxicities associated with CAR-modified T cell therapy.

There are unique toxicities associated with CAR-modified T cell therapy, such as cytokine release syndrome.

Cytokine release syndrome can cause a patient to experience fever, low blood pressure, and breathing problems.

There are now ways for a physician to predict the occurrence and severity of cytokine release syndrome.

IL-6 receptor inhibitors or steroids can effectively manage cytokine release syndrome.

Toxicities Associated With CAR-Modified T Cell Therapy

Jae Park, MD, assistant attending physician, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses CAR T-cell therapy for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Adult patients with relapsed ALL have a poor prognosis  overall survival is less than 10%.

This CD-19-targeted CAR modified T-cell therapy elicited an 80% complete remission rate.

The vast majority of these responses were MRD-negative.

Articles

CAR T-Cell Therapy for ALL

Jae Park, MD, attending physician, Leukemia Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, describes the design of a trial analyzing vemurafenib for the treatment of patients with hairy cell leukemia.

This phase II trial has 13 patients enrolled and is still accruing

Patients in the trial will receive the same dose of vemurafenib that is approved for the treatment of late-stage melanoma

Following three cycles of therapy, disease response is assessed, and patients can continue on vemurafenib for three additional cycles