ASH 2017 | Six-month analysis of tisagenlecleucel in stubborn form of lymphoma shows sustained responses

Six months after receiving a single dose of tisagenlecleucel, a CAR T-cell therapy that targets CD-19, high response rates persist among adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to researchers.

This latest interim analysis of the international JULIET trial showed that for 46 patients with at least 6 months of follow-up, the overall response rate was 37 percent, with 30 percent achieving a complete response and 7 percent achieving a partial response. What’s more, according to researchers, this observation indicates that, among 81 patients treated, those whose signs of cancer had gone away at 3 months remained relapse-free at 6 months and beyond.

“While we don’t completely understand why these remissions are so durable, it’s exciting and will change how this disease is treated when conventional therapies fail,” said lead study author Stephen Schuster, MD, Professor of Hematology at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center. “We are going to be able to offer patients who don’t respond to standard therapies a form of therapy that may, after a single treatment, relieve symptoms and save lives.”