Scientific report 2021 of the Cellular Therapy and Immunobiology Working Party (CTIWP)

The CTIWP activities and projects continue to grow along two main avenues:

1. Exploring biological phenomenon that underlie clinical efficacy and safety issues in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, mostly used a s immunotherapy of haematological cancers, and of autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation to support the administration of high-dose consolidation chemotherapy in selected subsets of patients with solid tumours.
    
2. Pave the way for accelerated access and thorough evaluation of the new generation of Immune Effector Cells (IECs) based therapies, of which autologous CAR-T cells remain the most publicized. Registrations of CAR-T Cells treated patients continues and now nears 2,000 patients. The CTIWP largely contributed to the production of the first reports for Post-Authorization Safety Studies sent to Novartis and Kite / Gilead, using aggregated data, while the CTO worked hard to establish contracts with CAR-T Cells treating centers in order to establish conditions that allow secondary use of data and center compensation, with a view to further improve the quality and utility of collected data. Scientific priorities, data access, Cellular Therapy Form revisions, harmonization of center qualification criteria and processes are some of the topics and work packages included in the GoCAR-T initiative that aims to bring all interested parties in the field of Immune Effector Cells – particularly CAR-T Cells – to join forces and cooperate in order to fully measure the medical value of these innovative therapies and remain competitive with our colleagues in the rest of the world.

The CTIWP also contributed to the EBMT COVID-19 Task Force, looking at some of the disruptive consequences of the pandemic on the supply chains for hematopoietic cell transplants and hematopoietic cellular therapies, as well as clinical consequences for patients / recipients and donors.