CAR-T in B-Cell Lymphomas: The Past, Present, and Future

Aggressive B-cell lymphomas including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma make up the majority of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma globally. While more than half of these patients can be cured with modern chemoimmunotherapy regimens, the outcomes of relapsed or refractory disease continue to be very poor. Despite significant developments in targeted cancer therapies and immuno-oncology, the attainability of a cure remained an elusive goal outside of incorporating high doses of chemotherapy followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, for patients who have chemosensitive disease. The development of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy changed that paradigm and introduced a new field of therapeutic possibilities for these patients. In this review, we will discuss the current state of this therapeutic modality in B-cell lymphomas and provide opinions on where future efforts need to focus in order to further improve their clinical utility.