What we presented is an update of the PORTIA study. The PORTIA study is intended to add in a checkpoint inhibitor, pembrolizumab, to the currently approved indication for tisa-cel in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The idea is to enhance T-cell activity. What was done in the PORTIA study was that we added in the pembrolizumab in the first cohorts post-CAR T-cell treatment, and in the last cohort, pembrolizumab was administered one day before the CAR T-cells were given...
What we presented is an update of the PORTIA study. The PORTIA study is intended to add in a checkpoint inhibitor, pembrolizumab, to the currently approved indication for tisa-cel in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The idea is to enhance T-cell activity. What was done in the PORTIA study was that we added in the pembrolizumab in the first cohorts post-CAR T-cell treatment, and in the last cohort, pembrolizumab was administered one day before the CAR T-cells were given. This was an early-Phase study with four patients per category.
What we saw is that there were three out of four responses in the day -1 cohort showing some indication that there the addition of pembro may be active. There was no indication in the late post-CAR-T cohorts that this adds very much to the regular tisa-cel treatment. And in the end, it seems that also toxicity was not negligible in the day -1 cohort, so that it was decided that this is probably not the ideal way to go forward. There may be some patients who profit from the addition of checkpoint inhibitors, but like in other studies, it seems that there could be better ways of enhancing the tisa-cel.