Armin Ghobadi, MD, on Helping Expand CAR T Cells With NT-I7

“NT-I7 enhances the proliferation of the T cells and function of them, not only in the peripheral blood, but also in the tissue. So, the idea here was you give the patient's CART and maybe they don't expand enough,or they go down quickly. We are trying to add this booster with the hope that it helps with the proliferation and expansion of CAR T cells and bystander T cells and hopefully yields better complete response rate and better progression free survival.”

NT-I7 (efineptakin alfa; NeoImmune Tech), a long-acting human IL-7, was well-tolerated in patients with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma (r/r LBCL) and increased absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell expansion when administered after tisagenlecleucel (tisa-cel; Kymriah). Updated data from a phase 1b study (NCT05075603) of the combination were presented at the 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, held December 10-12, 2022, in New Orleans, Louisiana by Armin Ghobadi, MD, associate professor medicine, Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine.

CGTLive spoke to Ghobadi to learn more about NT-I7 and how it could help improve outcomes for patients with r/r LBCL after CAR T infusion. He discussed the favorable safety profile seen so far in the study and the increased ALC and CAR T cell counts.

Click here to read more coverage of the 2022 ASH meeting.

REFERENCE

Ghobadi A, Budde EL, Galal A, et al. A phase 1b dose expansion study evaluating safety, preliminary anti-tumor activity, and accelerated T cell reconstitution with NT-I7 (Efineptakin Alfa), a long-acting human IL-7, administered following tisagenlecleucel in subjects with relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma. Presented at: 64th ASH Annual Meeting, December 10-12, 2022, New Orleans, Louisiana.