A CAR T-cell therapy approved for patients with large B cell lymphoma has produced positive results in a pilot study involving patients with relapsed, treatment-resistant central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma, Dana-Farber investigators report.

The research teams presented their findings at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, May 31-June 4, 2024.

The therapy, axicabtagene ciloleucel, was found to be safe and well tolerated in the 18 study participants and had an overall response rate of 94%.

The median progression-free survival – the time in which patients lived without the cancer worsening – was 14.3 months, and the median overall survival was 26.4 months.

The most common side effects, cytokine release syndrome and immune effector cell-associated neurologic syndrome (ICANS) that are inflammatory conditions often associated with CAR T-cell therapy, were manageable.

CNS lymphoma is a rare non-Hodgkin lymphoma in which malignant cells form in the lymph tissue of the brain or spinal cord.

Although initial treatment is often effective, better treatments are needed when the disease recurs.

CAR T-cell therapies use genetically modified versions of a patient's own immune system T cells to attack cancer cells in the body. 

Source: ASCO