Hi, my name is Lisa Herms. I am an Associate Director of Real-World Research with ONTATA. I'm very excited to present about our abstract and poster from ASH this year, where we looked at real-world patient characteristics and outcomes in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, DLBCL, pre and post approval of CAR T therapies. And so we were interested in understanding with the first approval of the first CAR T agents in around 2017, has there been any shift in the landscape of DLBCL patients as well as in outcomes. So we conducted a retrospective observational study using our I-NO-MED electronic health record system, including all DLBCL patients that were newly diagnosed or had a first visit within the US oncology network and non-network practices. And we divided them up into pre-CAR T and post-CAR T errors based on the date of first approval of CAR T. And so we compared the patient characteristics. We did not find any significant differences really, nor do we expect to find significant differences in patient characteristics. The absolute number of DLBCL patients did grow over time, which is likely more attributable to growth in the network and the practices that are participating in this research as opposed to any underlying epidemiology that's going on. So we saw higher absolute numbers of patients, no major differences in characteristics between the patients. And then we looked at some survival rates, one interior survival rates, and we also did not pick up any major signals there. I think it's a little bit early to pick up those signals given the approval date, given when CAR T is generally administered as well. So the next step is going to be to extend this research and extend the follow-up period. And then what we're interested in doing is looking specifically at patients who received CAR T versus who did not receive CAR T. So our research currently just looked at all DLBCL patients, divided them into cohorts based on just the time of their diagnosis. The logical next step, as we're now able to identify this in the data, is to look at patients who received CAR T and who did not receive CAR T. And are there differences in their characteristics, where they're located, are there differences in outcomes between those two patient groups as well. We identified patients based on a first diagnosis or first visit within our practices. So we did not restrict to a specific line of therapy. I think that's again another area of research where we have the capability to do this over time to look at specific lines of therapy. And that's going to allow us to then more directly compare the CAR T and non-CAR T patients as well, because we have to make sure that we're looking at patients that are at comparable stages in their journey. I think it's just, you know, it's happening. It's out there. It'll just take some time. There's some considerations that just make it difficult to implement. And just kind of keeping an eye out for how this evolves over time. Understanding who is and is not eligible for CAR T potentially, what are the alternative treatments out there? And ultimately, you know, monitoring what is the impact on outcomes with CAR T versus without CAR T to be able to make those informed decisions. And I think future data will get us there. We're just getting started.
HealthTree • December 23, 2024