Dr. Andreadis on CAR T-Cell Therapy in Relapsed/Refractory MCL

Charalambos (Babis) Andreadis, MD, MSCE, associate professor of clinical medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the emergence of CAR T-cell therapy in relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

The BTK inhibitors ibrutinib (Imbruvica), acalabrutinib (Calquence), and zanubrutinib (Brukinsa) are active in relapsed/refractory MCL and have shown significant response rates; however, patients continue to relapse on these regimens, explains Andreadis. The median duration of response for BTK inhibitors is 1.5 years. Therefore, new therapies are necessary for this patient population, says Andreadis.

The emergence of CAR T-cell therapy has shown significant benefit in patients with relapsed/refractory MCL who are heavily pretreated. The CAR T-cell therapies lisocabtagene maraleucel (JCAR017) and axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta), according to Andreadis, are showing 70% to 90% response rates and 50% to 60% complete response rates in patients with relapsed/refractory disease. Andreadis believes CAR T-cell therapy will be significant in the future of MCL treatment.