Despite the curative potential of CAR T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma and other hematologic cancers, only a fraction of eligible patients currently receive it. At the recent American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, Jason Westin, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discussed the CAR T Vision project, aimed at expanding access to CAR T-cell products by uniting stakeholders across the healthcare spectrum.
In this MedPage Today “Future Focus” video, Westin describes the project’s goals and its call to action for providers, payers, and systems alike.
Following is a transcript of his remarks:
CAR T-cell is a breakthrough new therapy, it’s been approved in many hematologic indications for about 7 or 8 years. However, unfortunately, despite it being a curative therapy, only about 20-25% of people who should get it are currently getting it.
[CAR T Vision] is a program working with all the relevant stakeholders, trying to get them on the same page, trying to get them all together to work on the problem as a whole group as opposed to individual components.CAR T Vision project is bringing stakeholders together, including physicians, patient advocates, payers, hospital organizations, all the relevant groups with a single goal of trying to double the number of patients who get CAR T-cell therapy by the year 2030. The goal is achievable, it’s bold, but the aim to try and help more people with what we think is one of the best treatment options for some certain cancers is doable if we work together as a group.
And so success would look like growing the number of people getting CAR T cells, but we want to aim high and we want to double that number within the next 5 years.
So one thing I’d like viewers to take away from this interview is that the [CAR T Vision] project is a living document. This is something that we encourage those that are listening to learn more by visiting the CAR T Vision website or seeing us on LinkedIn. On the website, or on any of the platforms, there is a white paper from the steering committee group, which I was privileged to serve on, where we outline the problems, the stakeholders, some potential solutions, and call to action for others to get engaged.
So if you’re watching this and curious about CAR T cells, a way that you could help and help solve this problem would be to visit the [CAR T Vision] website and learn more at that site.
