Axicabtagene ciloleucel, a first-in-class CAR T cell therapy for aggressive NHL

Abstract

The development of clinically functional chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy is the culmination of multiple advances over the last three decades. Axicabtagene ciloleucel (formerly KTE-C19) is an anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy in development for patients with refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), including transformed follicular lymphoma (TFL) and primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma (PMBCL). Axicabtagene ciloleucel is manufactured from patients’ own peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) during which T cells are engineered to express a CAR that redirects them to recognize CD19-expressing cells. Clinical trials have demonstrated the feasibility of manufacturing axicabtagene ciloleucel in a centralized facility for use in multicenter clinical trials and have demonstrated potent antitumor activity in patients with refractory DLBCL. Main acute toxicities are cytokine release syndrome and neurologic events. Axicabtagene ciloleucel holds promise for the treatment of patients with CD19-positive malignancies, including refractory DLBCL.

Keywords:

• CAR T cells
• axicabtagene ciloleucel
• adoptive cell transfer therapy
• refractory DLBCL
• immunotherapy
• KTE-C19

Acknowledgments

Medical writing assistance was provided by Skye Geherin of Nexus Global Group Science, LLC funded by Kite Pharma.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2017.1387905.