CAR T as Frontline Therapy for DLBC Lymphoma: Alex Herrera, MD

This content originally appeared on our sister site, OncLive.

OncLive spoke with Alex Herrera, MD, hematologist/oncologist, and assistant professor, Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope, about the potential for CAR T-cell therapy in earlier lines of treatment for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).

Standard salvage chemotherapy or autologous stem cell transplant are often used to treat patients with relapsed/refractory aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but several ongoing trials are examining whether autologous CD19-directed CAR T cells can be utilized earlier than these standards of care.

Herrera discussed ongoing trials such as the phase 3 ZUMA-7 trial (NCT03391466) examining axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) vs standard of care as second-line therapy in patients with relapsed/refractory DLBCL. He discussed how CAR T-cell therapy may become the standard second-line treatment for this patient population if these trials show positive results.

Additionally, the phase 2 ZUMA-12 trial (NCT03761056), which is evaluating CAR T cells in patients receiving frontline therapy who have a positron emission tomography scan that is positive after 2 cycles of systemic chemotherapy, has shown promising results, Herrera adds. CAR T-cell therapy will continue to be evaluated in high-risk groups of patients who are progressing, or who show signs of early progression with their frontline therapy, Herrera concludes.