Dr. Neelapu on Axi-Cel in the ZUMA-1 Trial for Refractory Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Sattva Neelapu, MD, associate professor, Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, Division of Cancer Medicine, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the ZUMA-1 trial investigating axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; KTE-C19) for patients with refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Axi-cel is an autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product that can eliminate any CD19-expressing cells. Axi-cel was evaluated in patients with refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the ZUMA-1 trial, explains Neelpau.

For existing therapies in this patient population, the overall response rate (ORR) is 26%, the complete response (CR) rate is 8%, and the median overall survival is 6.5 months. The ZUMA-1 trial investigating axi-cel met its primary endpoint of overall response.

Of the 101 patients who were enrolled in this study, the ORR was 82% and the CR rate was 54%. According to Neelapu, these responses were quite durable and at a median follow-up of 8.7 months, 55% of the patients had ongoing responses.