PRESENTED at EBMT 2025 Annual Meeting, a new study explored the long-term effectiveness of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell cocktail therapy for patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma (r/r DLBCL). This abstract was recognised as one of the ‘Best Young Abstract Awards’ for outstanding poster presentations.
The researchers aimed to evaluate the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy alone and in combination with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) through two clinical trials, with 124 patients enrolled between January 2018 and December 2020. The trials compared two approaches: one using CD19/CD22 CAR-T cell therapy alone (Trial A), and the other combining CAR-T cell therapy with ASCT (Trial B).
The study found no significant differences in toxicities between the two groups. However, Trial B demonstrated superior outcomes with an overall response rate of 84.5% at day 30, compared to 54.2% in Trial A (P=0.0006). Long-term results were also promising, with Trial B achieving a 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) of 64.57% and a 3-year overall survival (OS) rate of 82.62%, significantly higher than the 20.00% PFS and 46.72% OS seen in Trial A.
Multivariable analysis showed that a complete response at 3 months and the combination therapy strategy were associated with improved PFS and OS. Notably, patients with high-risk factors, such as elevated LDH levels or bulky disease, showed better outcomes with the combined approach.
These findings suggest that CAR-T cell therapy combined with ASCT offers a more durable and effective treatment option for patients with r/r DLBCL.
Reference
Zhang X et al. Abstract B339. Presented at EBMT 2025 Annual Meeting; 31 March -2 April; Florence, Italy.
