ASH 2024: CAR T-cell therapy demonstrates durable benefit in lymphoma

Kite, a Gilead Company has announced promising long-term data for its CAR T-cell therapy Yescarta ® (axicabtagene ciloleucel) in relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL).

Continued durable response and long-term survival was observed in patients following a median follow-up from a five-year analysis of the Phase II ZUMA-5 study.

The results “demonstrate the continued durable clinical benefit and manageable long-term safety profile of axi-cel and give us hope that it may have a curative effect on these difficult-to-treat blood cancers,” stated Dr Sattva Neelapu, lead investigator, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, US.

Key results from the CAR T-cell therapy analysis

In ZUMA-5, overall response rate to the CAR T-cell therapy was reported 90 percent in the median follow-up of 64.6 months. Complete response was 75 percent, according to the analysis.

Additionally, median progression-free survival in non-Hodgkin lymphoma was 62.2 months. At data cutoff, 55 percent of participants with this disease were alive with no new anticancer therapy. Overall survival estimate at 60-months was 69.0 percent.

Kite stated that one patient’s disease progressed post-data cutoff of the four-year analysis. Zero participants died of disease progression after the prior analysis.
Over the five years, no new safety signals related to Yescarta were reported.

“There is growing evidence that people with follicular lymphoma and marginal zone lymphoma can experience long-term survival after one Yescarta treatment,” commented Dominique Tonelli, Vice President, Global Head of Medical Affairs, Kite. “With no lymphoma-specific events in the five-year follow-up of ZUMA-5 patients, Yescarta may offer patients the chance to live longer without need for subsequent therapy and a potential cure.”

The data for the CAR T-cell therapy were presented during the 2024 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition.