ICML 2025
LUGANO
We are excited to be at ICML 2025 to share our latest data, and engage and learn with the scientific community, solidifying our goal to bring the promise of cell therapy to as many eligible patients as possible.
To learn more about our cell therapy abstracts and data, please visit the congress website.
This non-promotional educational symposium, intended for healthcare professionals only, is organised and fully funded by Kite, a Gilead Company, through Gilead Sciences Europe Ltd., and may include discussion of investigational therapies and/or indications/uses. These have not been approved by regulatory authorities and their safety and efficacy for use in humans have not been established yet.
Advancing the frontiers
of curative potential
with CAR T
Join Dr Claire Roddie, Prof. Jason Westin, Prof. Marie José Kersten and Prof. Michael Dickinson as they explore the latest advancements in DLBCL. They will be discussing emerging treatments, how to optimise outcomes with CAR T-cell therapy, and practical ways of improving patient access to this potentially curative treatment.
Join us on:
Tuesday 17 June, 11:30-13:00 CEST
In Room B1, Palazzo dei Congressi
Agenda (with Q&A throughout)
Chair: Dr Claire Roddie
University College London, United Kingdom
11:30 –11:40
The quest to cure DLBCL: Past, present and future
Prof Jason Westin
MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States
11:40 –12:05
Can we improve the curve?
Prof Marie José Kersten
Amsterdam University Medical Center,
the Netherlands
12:05 –12:30
Can we optimise for cure with CAR T?
Prof Jason Westin
MD Anderson Cancer Center, United States
12:30 –12:55
Can we enhance access to CAR T?
Chair: Dr Claire Roddie
12:55 –13:00
Summary and close
MEET THE FACULTY

Dr Claire Roddie
Claire Roddie is a Consultant Haematologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Haematology at University College London with a particular interest in Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cells for Cancer. She completed a PhD in Cellular Immunotherapy at UCL in the laboratory of Professor Karl Peggs and subsequently undertook a Clinician Scientist post in Dr Martin Pule’s Laboratory to work on the UCL CAR T-cell program. Her current role involves pre-clinical development of novel CAR T projects, GMP CAR T-cell manufacture and Clinical Trial design for academic CAR T-cell studies at UCL. She is also responsible for the development of a clinical service at UCLH to support patients recruited to CAR T-cell studies.

Prof Jason Westin
Professor Westin works at the University of Texas as the leader of the research team exploring DLBCL at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma. Prof Westin obtained his Microbiology degree and his Medicine degree from the University of Florida, USA. He then went on to study Clinical and Translational Sciences at the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. His post-graduate training included his clinical residency at The University of North Carolina, his clinical fellowship in haematology/oncology at MD AndersonCancer Center where he was also chief fellow, and his research fellowship in Advanced Scholar-Lymphoma at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Prof Westin is an active member of many institutional committees and acts or has acted as a board member or chair of several boards and societies. Prof Westin has also been the recipient of many honours and awards from many prestigious societies and foundations. Prof Westin also has a substantial number of publications across many respected journals.
He is an active member of the American Association for Physician Leadership, American Association for Cancer Research, Association for Patient-Oriented Research, American Society of Haematology, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Prof Marie José Kersten
Marie José Kersten is a professor of haematology at the department of Haematology at Amsterdam UMC in Amsterdam. B cell malignancies are the main focus of research in this department, which together with the departments of Pathology and Experimental Immunology forms the basis for the LYMMCARE Institute (Lymphoma and Myeloma Centre Amsterdam). Marie José Kersten is involved in several research projects and she is the principal investigator for several phase I/II clinical trials focusing on the biology and treatment of NHL, Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia and Hodgkin lymphoma. She is the past chair of the EHA (European Haematology Association) Scientific Working Group Lymphoma and a co-founder and chair of the Lunenburg Lymphoma Phase I/II Consortium (LLPC) and also the co-chair of the HOVON immune effector cell WG. The main focus of the LLPC is to perform early clinical trials (from first-in-man trials to early phase II trials) in patients with lymphoma. She has been and is involved in many CAR T-cell clinical trials and in several research projects concerning side effects and quality of life in CAR T-cell treated patients.
Watch related videos
Charting a course in the CAR T age: SoC in 2L R/R DLBCL