Dr. Jacobson on the ZUMA-5 Trial With Axi-Cel in High-Risk Relapsed/Refractory iNHL

Caron Jacobson, MD, a senior physician and medical director of the Immune Effector Cell Therapy Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, discusses the high-risk patient population within relapsed/refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL) included in the phase 2 ZUMA-5 study.

Targeting patients with relapsed/refractory iNHL in the third-line setting and beyond tends to draw upon what is observed in a higher-risk patient population, says Jacobson. Many patients with follicular lymphoma will experience multiple-year remissions following their first- or second-line therapy; as such, many of can be observed for several years. Therefore, accruing patients who already require a third line of therapy means highlighting a higher-risk group of patients to begin with, Jacobson explains.

Early data from the ZUMA-5 study with axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) examined many patient samples and disease characteristics to evaluate associations with response and toxicity. Further examination of these factors is required, says Jacobson. However, based on the early data reported, the most important aspects include the efficacy and adverse effect profile of the product, concludes Jacobson.