Yescarta, Breyanzi Offer Practice-Changing Options For Second-Line LBCL

Phase III clinical trial results presented on 11 and 12 December at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting for two CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies – Bristol Myers Squibb Company’s Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel) and Gilead Sciences, Inc. subsidiary Kite Pharma, Inc.’s Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) – are being hailed as practice-changing for adults with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who were refractory or relapsed within 12 months of first-line treatment.

Each of the CAR-T products, both of which are approved after two or more prior lines of treatment, quadrupled event-free survival compared with the standard of care – salvage chemotherapy followed by high-dose chemotherapy then autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant – in patients with only one prior line of therapy