Researcher Spotlight: Swetha Kambhampati, MD

CITY OF HOPE COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER

Eric Cohen Distinguished Scholar

Patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who experience relapse after chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy have limited treatment options, and there is a need for new therapies in this setting. The goal of Dr. Kambhampati’s LRF research is to study the effects of combination therapy with the antibodydrug conjugate loncastuximab tesirine and the bispecific antibody mosunetzumab in patients with relapsed/ refractory DLBCL, with the goal of improving treatment options for patients with advanced disease.

Dr. Kambhampati earned her medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope in Duarte, CA. “I was drawn to lymphoma research given the exciting bridge between immunotherapies, cellular therapies, and targeted therapies and the ability to cure patients with aggressive disease, even at an advanced stage,” she says.

Dr. Kambhampati hopes that her LRF research project and the support of the Lymphoma Scientific Research Mentoring Program will serve as a launch pad for her career as an academic clinical investigator, through which she hopes to develop and lead studies into novel therapies to help lymphoma patients. “I would like to be a clinical investigator focused on developing novel therapeutic combinations to improve outcomes of lymphoma patients, particularly those with DLBCL, follicular lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma,” she says. “The advancement we have made in immunotherapies such as cellular therapies and bispecific antibodies give me a lot of hope for the future.”