Dr. Ghosh on the Benefits of Lisocabtagene Maraleucel in Relapsed/Refractory NHL

Nilanjan Ghosh, MD, PhD, director of the Lymphoma Program and a physician with Levine Cancer Institute, discusses the utility of lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel) in relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

Currently, liso-cel has been examined in the phase 1 TRANSCEND-NHL-001 study, in patients with aggressive B-cell lymphomas which were relapsed/refractory after 2 prior lines of therapy. In this patient population, liso-cel demonstrated very good efficacy and fewer toxicities. Although these are not randomized comparisons, lower rates of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity have been observed with liso-cel in relation to other products.

The composition of liso-cel is different from other CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy products in that it consists of an equal proportion of CD8-positive and CD4-positive CAR T cells. It also uses 4-1BB costimulatory domain, but not CD28, so that may be one of the reasons why less CRS and neurotoxicity is observed.

Knowing that liso-cel has a lower toxicity profile, but good efficacy makes it an attractive agent for earlier lines of therapy, as well as a treatment option for a sicker group of patients who would have been poor candidates for autologous transplant, concludes Ghosh.