Date Posted
Speaker
Laura Oswald, Ph.D.
Department of Health Outcomes and Behavior
Moffitt Cancer Center
Dr. Laura Oswald is a tenure-track Assistant Member in the Department of Health Outcomes and Behavior at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL. She earned a PhD in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Miami and completed an NCI-funded T32 postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Prevention and Control at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. At Moffitt, Dr. Oswald leads a research program in behavioral oncology with the overarching goals of understanding and improving cancer survivorship outcomes, such as symptom burden, among novel and underrepresented populations. Her accomplishments to date include almost 100 peer-reviewed publications, several national awards and recognitions, and she was recently awarded her first NCI R01 as Principal Investigator.
Abstract:
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR-T) is a revolutionary treatment that harnesses a patient’s immune system to kill cancer. Since 2021, two CAR-Ts were FDA-approved for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). However, real-world data about how CAR-T affects patient-reported outcomes (PROs), such as symptom burden, is limited. Our team conducted the first study of longitudinal PROs among real-world RRMM CAR-T recipients, starting pre-CAR-T and through 90 days post-infusion (a key clinical endpoint). Subsequently, we explored relationships between PROs, immune activation, and common clinician-graded CAR-T toxicities, including cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity. In an R01-funded study and guided by a psychoneuroimmunology framework, we are prospectively investigating the dynamics of psychosocial and immune-related factors in relation to key survivorship outcomes in a large cohort of real-world RRMM CAR-T recipients over one year. Findings will elucidate targets and critical times for implementing evidence-based behavioral supportive care interventions to improve outcomes and modify immune-related factors.