CAR T-Cell Therapy For B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia:

Our next lecture for 2025 is on the “C-Word”… Cancer! What could be scarier? How about cancer in kids? Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children. It affects the B-cells in the bone marrow. Untreated, it’s rapidly fatal. Thanks to progress in treatment, odds of recovery have increased dramatically. One treatment is chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, T-cells modified to recognize and destroy cancer cells. A serious side effect—in ~50% of CAR patients-- is Immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). ICANS induces a wide range of mild to very severe neurologic symptoms. We will hear about an ongoing research study at CHLA that uses neuroimaging, including advanced magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), to characterize ICANS and to combine it with peripheral markers to predict which patients are at risk for ICANS. 

Our speaker, Dr. Ravi Bansal, is a highly successful master of advanced neuroimaging including MRS and a regular at our Seminars. Please join us to see cutting-edge imaging on the frontlines of pediatric oncology!