Dr. Jacobson on the Benefit of Axi-Cel in Relapsed/Refractory Follicular Lymphoma

Caron Jacobson, MD, medical director, Immune Effector Cell Therapy Program, and physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses the benefit of axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) in patients with relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma.

Interim results from the phase 2 ZUMA-5 trial presented at the 2020 ASCO Virtual Scientific Program showed that the CAR T-cell product induced a high overall response rate of 95% and a complete response (CR) rate of 81% in the cohort of patients with relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma. The median follow-up was 15.3 months and 68% of patients in this cohort had an ongoing response as of the data cutoff.

These are early data for an indolent disease where it’s understood that patients could relapse many years after therapy; however, the data appear to be very promising and remissions may prove to be durable, concludes Jacobson.