Dr. Goy on the Clinical Implications of CAR T-Cell Therapy in MCL

Andre Goy, MD, Physician in Chief Hackensack Meridian Health Oncology Care Transformation Service, Chairman & Chief Physician Officer - John Theurer Cancer Center, Lydia Pfund Chair for Lymphoma, Academic Chairman Oncology - Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Professor of Medicine – Georgetown University, Hackensack, NJ, discusses the clinical implications of CAR T-cell therapy in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

In July 2020, initial results of the phase 2 ZUMA-2 trial led to the FDA approval of brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus) for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory MCL. Updated results from the study, which were presented during the 2021 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings, showed that at a median follow-up of 17.5 months, the overall response rate was 92%, with a complete response rate of 67%.

Taken collectively, these data highlight the importance of referring patients who fail on standard therapy to clinical trials involving CAR T-cell therapy, says Goy. Currently, patients with MCL who progress on standard treatment options have poor outcomes, says Goy. CAR T-cell therapy has demonstrated high response rates that appear durable, Goy explains.

Additionally, many patients with MCL are too old for an allogeneic stem cell transplant, and the risk of developing chronic graft-versus-host disease with transplant is high, says Goy. As such, the integration of CAR T-cell therapy for this patient population with MCL that has a high risk of relapse is critical, concludes Goy.