Immunotherapy side effects

Studying the cognitive and psychiatric effects of CAR T-cell therapy

Dr Thomas Pollak is a Reader in Immunopsychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, and an Honorary Consultant Neuropsychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

CAR T-cell therapy is a process whereby a patient’s own immune cells are removed from their body, modified in a lab so they can better recognise and attack cancer cells, and then returned to the patient’s bloodstream. This treatment can be life-saving, but it can also lead to brain-related side effects in some patients which can severely impact thinking, speech, memory, mood, sleep and movement.

Through monitoring patients receiving CAR T-cell therapy with a range of cognitive, neurological and wellbeing assessments, and working closely with lived experience experts, Dr Thomas Pollak and his team will get a better understanding of how these side effects emerge. They aim to identify who is most at risk, how side effects can be detected earlier during treatment, and how NHS teams can offer more targeted support.