Promising Early Results: Allogeneic CAR-T for Relapsed Lymphoma! | Supriya Gupta, MD

Good morning. My name is Dr. Supriya Gupta. I'm a hematologist at the University of Minnesota. And at this year's ASH, I presented the results of a phase one study describing azarcaptogenes zaprolucil, which is an allogeneic CAR-T therapy for large B-cell lymphoma. Azarcell or azarcaptogenes zaprolucil is an allogeneic CAR-T, which essentially means this is derived from healthy donors and not from the patient's own T cells. And that's how it differs from other CAR-T therapies that are approved in large B-cell lymphoma. The main advantage of an allogeneic CAR-T is that it's available off the shelf. And so there's no manufacturing period, which shortens the time of this drug drastically. What our study found was that giving higher doses of lympho-depleting chemotherapy with two drugs, cyclophosphamide and fluterebin, for three days followed by cell infusion of azarcell and 14 days of low dose injections of interleukin-2, which is given under your skin, can result in deep remissions. The overall response, which is essentially the percentage of patients who respond to this treatment was 81 percent, and 44 percent of these patients achieved deep remissions consistent with a complete remission. The toxicity profile of this particular drug was very manageable. A majority of patients who received this, about 72 percent, experienced a toxicity known as cytokine release syndrome, which comprises of high fevers. The majority of these were short-lived and manageable. Neurotoxicity, which is another unique toxicity of CAR-T therapy, was only seen in 17 percent of patients and again very manageable and short-lived. Other side effects of this treatment includes low blood counts and infection risks. What we found is that the addition of the interleukin-2 injections for 14 days can drastically improve outcomes and also result in deep remissions with multiple patients not having any detectable, measurable, residual disease for a few consecutive times. So in conclusion, this particular study is very promising and offers a potential treatment for patients who have relapsed after receiving autologous CAR-T therapy and so more to come on this particular drug. If our videos have helped you in any way and you're able to, please consider making a donation to help us continue this important work. Your gift will go three times as far when we reach $500,000 by the end of the year. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference and we're deeply grateful for your support.