CAR T therapy announcement at ASH 2017

Kite, a Gilead Company has announced long-term follow-up data from the pivotal ZUMA-1 study of Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) in patients with refractory large B-cell lymphoma. With a minimum follow-up of one year after a single infusion of Yescarta (median follow-up of 15.4 months), 42 percent of patients continued to respond to therapy, including 40 percent with a complete remission. Detailed results from this updated analysis were simultaneously presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in Atlanta and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Yescarta is the first chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy to be approved by the FDA for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) not otherwise specified, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, high grade B-cell lymphoma and DLBCL arising from follicular lymphoma. Yescarta is not indicated for patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma.

To evaluate the durability of Yescarta responses, an updated analysis was conducted when patients in ZUMA-1 had been followed for a minimum of one year (n=108). In this updated analysis, 82 percent of patients had responded to Yescarta, including 58 percent of patients who had achieved complete remission. At a median of 15.4 months post-infusion, 42 percent of patients remained in response, including 40 percent in complete remission. The median duration of response was 11.1 months (95 percent CI: 3.9 months to not estimable [NE]); in patients who have achieved a complete remission, the median duration of response was not reached (95 percent CI: NE). Median overall survival had not been reached (95 percent CI: 12 months to NE) with an overall survival rate at 18 months of 52 percent (95 percent CI: 41 to 62). In the updated analysis, 12 percent of patients experienced Grade 3 or higher cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and 31 percent experienced neurologic toxicities respectively.

The most common Grade 3 or higher reactions were neutropenia (79 percent), anemia (45 percent) and thrombocytopenia (40 percent). Ten patients experienced a serious adverse event six months after Yescarta infusion, including eight patients with infections. No new onset CRS or neurologic events related to Yescarta were observed in the updated analysis.

Yescarta has been granted Priority Medicines (PRIME) regulatory support for DLBCL in the European Union. A Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for axicabtagene ciloleucel is currently under review with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and potential approval is expected in the first half of 2018.

See- "Axicabtagene Ciloleucel CAR T-Cell Therapy in Refractory Large B-Cell Lymphoma"- Sattva S. Neelapu, M.D., Frederick L. Locke, M.D., Nancy L. Bartlett, M.D., Lazaros J. Lekakis, M.D., David B. Miklos, M.D., Ph.D., Caron A. Jacobson, M.D., M.M.Sc., Ira Braunschweig, M.D.,et al.,.December 10, 2017DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1707447.