Real-world evidence from the French DESCAR-T registry has shown an overall response rate (ORR) of 76.9% and complete response rate (CR) of 57.7% in large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) patients treated with axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta).

Axicabtagene ciloleucel was also associated with less than 5% grade ≥3 cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and 9% grade ≥3 neurotoxicity, respectively.

“For people with large B-cell lymphoma who do not respond to first-line treatment or have an early relapse, outcomes are often poor,” said Professor Roch Houot, Head of Haematology Department, University Hospital of Rennes, France. “These analyses provide further insight on the use of CAR-T cell therapies in a real-world setting and further investigations will prove vital in strengthening our understanding of the use of these treatments for patients who are living with large B-cell lymphoma.”

Brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus), which is used to treat B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic (BCP-ALL) leukaemia, demonstrated a CR of 77% at a median follow-up of 13 months, a median relapse-free survival (RFS) of 12.9 months and overall survival (OS) of 15.6 months.

The DESCAR-T registry collects data of all patients treated with approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies across 22 centres.

“The DESCAR-T registry provides valuable insights into the real-world use of available CAR-T cell therapies for patients living with difficult-to-treat blood cancers who currently face a poor prognosis,” said Dominique Tonelli, Executive Director, Head of Medical Affairs, Australia, Canada and Europe (ACE), Kite.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently reviewing the safety of both therapies as part of its review of BCMA- or CD19-directed autologous CAR-T cell immunotherapies, following reports of T cell malignancies.

The findings were presented during the 2023 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in San Diego, USA.