Dr. Ahmed on Optimizing Treatment With Axi-Cel in LBCL

Sairah Ahmed, MD, associate professor, director of the CAR T Program, and inpatient medical director, Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma and Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses optimizing treatment with axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) in large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL).

Currently, clinical trials are evaluating methods to utilize axi-cel earlier for patients with LBCL, as well as how to minimize the toxicity and improve efficacy associated with the CAR T-cell therapy, says Ahmed. Findings from an analysis, which were presented during the 2021 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings, demonstrated that patients with LBCL who did not derive a complete response to any line of prior therapy predicted for inferior outcomes with axi-cel.

As such, these data suggest that more aggressive therapeutic intervention should be utilized prior to or after CAR T-cell therapy administration in certain patient populations, Ahmed explains. Although CAR T-cell therapy remains a relatively new modality to manage LBCL, it is important that the field develops a greater understanding of how to tailor treatment to individual patient populations, concludes Ahmed.