Dr. Maloney on the Promise of CAR T-Cell Therapy in Hematologic Malignancies

David G. Maloney, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, Division of Oncology, University of Washington, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses the promise of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in hematologic malignancies.

CAR T-cell therapy has proved successful as a treatment for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and Maloney says that it has a potential role in the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), follicular lymphoma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

The anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta), which is FDA-approved for use in some patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, is currently being evaluated in patients with relapsed/refractory MCL in the ZUMA-2 trial. Axi-cel is indicated specifically for those with large B-cell lymphoma following 2 prior therapies, including those with DLBCL. Additionally, the CAR T-cell therapy can be used to treat primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, high grade B-cell lymphoma, and DLBCL transformed from follicular lymphoma.

Maloney says that high response rates have been seen in trials with CAR T-cell therapies in follicular lymphoma and CLL as well, solidifying its future in hematologic malignancies.