Matt Sherer Highlights Muhammad Bilal Abid’s Insights on Immune Protection and CAR T Therapy

Matt Sherer, Director of Oncology Service Line at UMC Health System, shared a post on LinkedIn by M. Bilal Abid, Clinical Fellow, Hematology/Oncology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, adding:

“An excellent post by Dr. M. Bilal Abid which he will discuss at SOHO25. Additionally, UMC Health System and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center are looking forward to him joining our team next month in Lubbock! He is yet another disease expert joining us in elevating the cancer care being provided in West Texas. We are building something great here. The people of West Texas will benefit from our efforts.”

Quoting M. Bilal Abid‘s post:

“The Ying and Yang of the Immune System:

When the right hand prescribes an immunosuppressive therapy, the left hand should prescribe an immunoprorective regimen. As we head into SOHO25 this week, and discuss newer advances in cancer treatment, it is imperative to discuss strategies to safeguard the immune system of our patients! Here’s a teaser of the interview.

Thanks for the opportunity to weigh in on this timely issue, Society of Hematologic Oncology.

We, and others at large academic centers, showed in multiple vaccine studies that our severely immunocompromised (IC) patients do not respond to any number of vaccine doses (both seroconversion rates and titers). A few things to set the premise here.

• Although the COVID-19 attributable mortality is low in the general population, the mortality is still much higher in IC patients, depending upon the depth and net rate of immunosuppression.
• The oncology, transplant, cellular therapy, and the medical field in general, is moving towards T-cell immune-engaging therapeutic platforms. As we have witnessed, CAR T-Cells, TCEs, first make way in later lines and then move towards more frontline settings. This is relevant here in 2 ways:

1.  These patients develop profound compromise in their humoral arm of the immune system (responsible for mounting responses to vaccines).
2.  The duration of their B-Cell aplasia and hypogammaglobulinemia is prolonged, essentially as long as their CAR T-cells last also known as for as long as they can maintain clinical remission.

• The need for drug-free remissions is moving these highly immunosuppressive therapies to other specialties, including neurology, rheumatology, and others, adding to the pool of patients who fall within the immunocompromised bucket.
• Life expectancy in the West has also increased due to advancements in medical care. Weakening of the immune system, due to aging, immunosenescence, also plays its part.

Cumulatively, there is a critical need to develop strategies to prevent this vulnerable group of patients. To this end, novel mAb that consistently provide coverage to evolving viral variants are critical and should be incorporated into all protocols of all healthcare infrastructures providing care to IC patients.”

Title: Efficacy of Multiple SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Doses in Patients with B Cell Hematologic Malignancies Receiving Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Therapy: A Contemporary Cohort Analysis

Authors: Muhammad Bilal Abid, Micah Rubin, Aniko Szabo, Walter Longo, Timothy S. Fenske, Cole McCoy, Aaron Lorge, Sameem Abedin, Anita D’Souza, Binod Dhakal, Nirav N. Shah, Mehdi Hamadani

Read the Full Article in National Library of Medicine.

Title: Efficacy of a third SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine dose among hematopoietic cell transplantation, CAR T cell, and BiTE recipients

Authors: Muhammad Bilal Abid, Micah Rubin, Nathan Ledeboer, Aniko Szabo, Walter Longo, Meera Mohan, Nirav N. Shah, Timothy S. Fenske, Sameem Abedin, Lyndsey Runaas, Anita D’Souza, Saurabh Chhabra, Binod Dhakal, Mehdi Hamadani

Read Full Article.

Title: Clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 in haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation recipients: an observational cohort study

Authors: Akshay Sharma, Neel S. Bhatt, Andrew St. Martin, Muhammad Bilal Abid, Jenni Bloomquist, Roy F. Chemaly, Christopher Dandoy, Jordan Gauthier, Lohith Gowda, Miguel-Angel Perales, Stuart Seropian, Bronwen E. Shaw, Eileen E. Tuschl, Amer M. Zeidan, Marcie L. Riches, Gunjan L. Shah

Read Full Article.

Title: Efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 primary and booster vaccine doses in CAR-T recipients – targeting the target antigen

Authors: Bradley S. Uyemura, Muhammad Abbas Abid, Elizabeth Suelzer, Muhammad Bilal Abid

Read Full Article.

Title: SARS-CoV-2 vaccine response in CAR T-cell therapy recipients: A systematic review and preliminary observations

Authors:  Muhammad Abbas Abid, Muhammad Bilal Abid

Read Full Article.

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