The value of axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta), an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, in treating R/R MCL will be tested in the multi­center phase II ZUMA-2 clinical trial (NCT02601313).
Axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta), an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, was previ­ously approved for the treatment of patients with certain types of large B-cell lymphoma who had not responded to other therapies. This success led investigators to test the treatment in patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (R/R MCL), a rare B-cell non-Hod­gkin lymphoma that affects 4200 new patients in the United States each year.1
Patients with MCL frequently fail several therapy options and often do not live as long as a year. Their average survival is about 8 months.
RATIONALE
Results of the ZUMA-1 phase I/ II trial (NCT02348216) presented at the 2017 AACR Annual Meeting showed an objective response rate of 82%, with a complete response (CR) rate of 54%; after 8.7 months of follow-up, 39% of patients remained in CR.2 In phase II of the ZUMA-1 clinical trial, axi-cel demonstrated promising activity in patients with large B-cell lymphomas. Updated long-term results showed that axi-cel induced an objective response rate of 82%, with a CR rate of 58%.3
The value of axi-cel in treating R/R MCL will be tested in the multi­center phase II ZUMA-2 clinical trial (NCT02601313).
TRIAL DESIGN
Patients will receive a fixed dosage of fludarabine and cyclophosphamide— conditioning chemotherapy daily, followed by a single infusion of axi-cel administered intravenously. The primary endpoint of the trial is the overall response rate, with duration of response, best objective response, and progression-free survival as sec­ondary endpoints.
WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
The phase II Zuma-2 trial will enroll about 130 patients with an ECOG performance score of 0 or 1 who have received no more than 5 prior therapies. Eligible participants must have received an anthracycline- or bendamustine-containing chemothe-rapy, anti-CD20 monoclonal anti­body therapy, and Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy with ibru­tinib (Imbruvica) or acalabrutinib (Calquence).
MCL is an aggressive and often incurable disease, and much hope and expectation rests on axi-cel for success in this trial. Results from ZUMA-2 could be available in 2019.
REFERENCES
Acalabrutinib Plus Chemoimmunotherapy Improves PFS in Mantle Cell Lymphoma
May 6th 2024Patients with untreated mantle cell lymphoma treated with acalabrutinib plus bendamustine and rituximab had significant improvements in progression-free survival compared with bendamustine and rituximab alone.