Gilead's CAR-T therapy Yescarta shows two-year response duration in large B-cell lymphoma

Gilead has gone head to head with Novartis at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting 2018, meeting the latter’s reveal of data on rival Kymriah with study findings of its own CAR-T therapy Yescarta (Axicabtagene Ciloleucel).

The findings revealed that after a minimum follow-up of two years after a single Yescarta infusion – and a median follow-up of 27.1 months – 39% of participants achieved an ongoing response in the treatment of refractory large B-cell lymphoma; in this group, 93% of those experiencing response at 12 months went on to maintain a response after 24 months.  

Furthermore, overall response rate was 83%, with 58% reaching a complete response, and median duration of response was recorded as 11.1 months. Median overall survival, however, was not reached during the study.

"With aggressive cancers such as refractory large B-cell lymphoma, our primary goal is to extend the lives of patients," explained Dr Sattva S Neelapu, co-Lead Investigator of the study and Professor, Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. "Outcomes with traditional standard of care for this highly refractory patient population have been extremely poor. Nearly 40% of patients in ZUMA-1 remain in response and half of the patients are still alive after at least two years of treatment with Yescarta."

Dr Alessandro Riva, Gilead’s Executive Vice President, Oncology Therapeutics and Head of Cell Therapy, remarked: "The two-year point is a another major milestone for Yescarta, which has extended the lives of a significant number of patients in ZUMA-1 and has yielded important learnings that inform further research and development of CAR T therapies. These data are not only significant for the lymphoma community, but also reinforce our leadership in cell therapy as we aim to transform the treatment of a variety of cancers with other investigational therapies in our pipeline."

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