Dr. Andreadis on the Current State of CAR T-Cell Therapy in Lymphoma

Charalambos (Babis) Andreadis, MD, MSCE, associate professor of clinical medicine, Department of Medicine, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in lymphoma.

In 2017, 2 novel CAR T-cell therapies were approved by the FDA for patients. For non-Hodgkin lymphoma, axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) was approved in October of 2017 for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory lymphoma patients. This approval was based off of the single-arm ZUMA-1 study, in which axi-cel demonstrated an objective response rate of 82% and a complete response rate of 54%.

In the lymphoma sphere, these therapies are producing long term responders, says Andreadis, with some patients experiencing responses of more than 6 months.

The goal right now, Andreadis says, is to determine whether these patients can be cured with CAR T-cell therapy. Due to the specificities and toxicities of the treatment, only specialized centers are currently authorized to use this therapy. Andreadis says that this has contributed to an increase in referral patterns to accommodate patients that may be eligible.