Researchers at MD Anderson Cancer Center reported that a new chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy achieved complete or partial responses in 91 percent of patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who had failed multiple prior treatments. The therapy, which engineers a patient's own immune cells to recognize and destroy cancer cells, builds on the CAR-T platform but incorporates modifications that improve persistence and reduce exhaustion of the engineered cells.
The trial enrolled 78 patients who had a median of four prior lines of treatment. At 18-month follow-up, 62 percent of complete responders remained in remission. Side effects including cytokine release syndrome and neurological toxicity occurred at expected rates and were manageable with current supportive care protocols. The investigators are planning a larger confirmatory trial and seeking accelerated FDA review.
