Gene therapy of lymphoma
Yescarta CAR T-cell Therapy Method (axicabtagene ciloleucel) reduced the number of cancer cells to an undetectable level in almost 80% of patients with progressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in phase 2 clinical trials. This was reported by researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at the 62nd Annual conference of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), held online.
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma tends to be slow-moving, but patients often relapse after standard treatment, which underscores the need for new treatments. According to the researchers, the effectiveness of Yescarta in study participants who experienced relapse or resistance to other drugs is especially encouraging. In addition, the treatment showed a persistent and long-lasting effect.
Yescarta is produced by collecting the patient's T-lymphocytes and their genetic modification in the form of placement on the outer shell of a specialized receptor. The receptor is needed so that modified T cells can attach to cancer cells and destroy them. These CAR-T cells are then injected into the patient. In previous clinical studies involving patients with diffuse large-cell B-cell lymphoma, therapy reduced the number of cancer cells below the detectable level, achieving a complete response in many patients.
In the current study, dubbed ZUMA-5, researchers administered Yescarta to 146 patients with follicular lymphoma or marginal zone lymphoma – two slow–growing forms of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - at several U.S. medical centers. All participants had progressive lymphoma, despite receiving repeated treatment earlier.
On average, 17.5 months after treatment with Yescarta, 92% of the trial participants showed a noticeable reduction in tumor size and 76% showed complete recovery. On the day of the end of data collection, the effect remained in 62% of all treated patients.
Almost all patients had undesirable side effects, while 86% had side effects of grade 3 or higher. 7% had cytokine release syndrome of grade 3 or higher, and 19% had neurological disorders of grade 3 or higher. The response rate was slightly higher and the frequency of side effects was slightly lower in patients with follicular lymphoma compared to patients with marginal zone lymphoma.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute: CAR T-cell therapy found highly effective in patients with high-risk non-Hodgkin lymphoma.