CAR T-Cell Therapy

The Canada Foundation for Innovation has awarded C$5,187,685 to the Canadian Cancer Trials Group at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, to fund the infrastructure for a new research platform to coordinate the development of new cancer cell therapies.

Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has approved lisocabtagene maraleucel, a CAR T-cell therapy designed to target CD19, for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, as well as relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma.

The FDA has approved idecabtagene vicleucel as the first BCMA-directed CAR T-cell therapy for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma after 4 or more prior lines of therapy, including an immunomodulatory agent, a proteasome inhibitor, and an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody.

Jesus G. Berdeja, MD, director of Myeloma Research, principal investigator, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the FDA approval of the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

M Lia Palomba, MD, discusses the data from the TRANSCEND-NHL-001 trial and projected how lisocabtagene maraleucel could fit into the treatment paradigm for patients with MCL.

Matthew Lunning, DO, discusses discussed the findings from pivotal CAR T-cell therapy trials in LBCL, the potential to utilize these agents in the outpatient setting, how off-the-shelf allogeneic products could further transform outcomes, and the importance of shortening brain-to-vein time for this patient population.

The real-world utilization of axicabtagene ciloleucel demonstrated favorable outcomes and less frequent toxicity events compared with those reported in the pivotal ZUMA-1 trial and other real-world studies.

Axicabtagene ciloleucel elicited a high objective response rate of 85%, with a complete response rate of 74% when used as a first-line therapy in patients with high-risk large B-cell lymphoma.

A risk-adapted CD19 CAR T-cell therapy dosing approach allowed pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphocytic leukemia to maintain a high rate of remission, while reducing the risk of severe toxicities among those with a high initial disease burden

A phase 2 clinical trial has been initiated to evaluate Descartes-11, an mRNA CAR T-cell therapy, as a consolidative therapy in patients with newly diagnosed, high-risk multiple myeloma who have residual disease after induction therapy.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to axicabtagene ciloleucel for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed/refractory indolent follicular lymphoma after 2 or more lines of systemic therapy.

Natural killer cells can offer several advantages over T cells for CAR therapy in that the former uses both a CAR dependent and independent mechanism for tumor eradication, has better safety, and off-the-shelf feasibility—all at a potentially lower cost.

CD19-targeted CAR T-cell therapies have yielded durable remissions in approximately half of all patients with aggressive relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphomas.

Treatment with chimeric antigen receptor T cells has induced unprecedented overall response rates and complete response rates in patients with relapsed/refractory B cell malignancies.

Since the publication of the pivotal ELIANA trial in pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the field of CAR T-cell therapy has grown significantly and left providers better equipped to understand and manage treatment-related adverse effects, such as cytokine release syndrome.

February 24, 2021 - The CAR T-cell product KTE-X19 continues to demonstrate durable clinical benefit in patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma, with an overall response rate of 92%.

Binod Dhakal, MD, discusses the potential impact of ide-cel, orva-cel, and cilta-cel in multiple myeloma therapy.

February 23, 2021 - AbbVie and Caribou Biosciences, Inc have entered into a collaboration and license agreement for the research and development of chimeric antigen receptory T-cell therapeutics.

Yi Lin, MD, PhD, discusses promising data with CAR T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma.

Marc J. Braunstein, MD, PhD, discusses the evolution and promise of immunotherapeutics in multiple myeloma.

February 17, 2021 - Carl H. June, MD, and Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, have received the 2021 Dan David Prize Laureate for their research in oncology. They, along with Zelig Eshhar, an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, will share a prize of $1 million.

CAR T-cell therapy has shown robust responses and curative potential in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, regardless of cytogenetics or age.

Scott R. Solomon, MD, discusses the effects of lisocabtagene maraleucel in patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma who were previously treated with CD19-directed therapies.

February 9, 2021 - Responsiveness to treatment received immediately prior to CAR T-cell therapy may not be associated with post–CAR T outcomes in patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who receive axicabtagene ciloleucel.

February 8, 2021 - Prior exposure to anti-CD19 therapy did not impact response to the CAR T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel in patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma.