FDA Broadens Breyanzi's Follicular Lymphoma Indication
The US Food and Drug Administration has granted accelerated approval to lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi, Juno Therapeutics /Bristol Myers Squibb) for adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who have received two or more prior lines of systemic therapy.
The approval broadens the use of the CAR T-cell therapy for follicular lymphoma. Previous approval was limited to relapsed/refractory grade 3B disease. Lisocabtagene maraleucel also carries relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoma and lymphocytic leukemia indications.
The new approval was based on the phase 2 single-arm TRANSCEND FL trial in 94 patients with relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including an anti-CD20 antibody and an alkylating agent.
Adequate bone marrow function and a performance score of 0-1 were required.
Patients received a single dose 2-7 days after completing lymphodepleting chemotherapy.
The overall response rate was 95.7%. The median duration of response was not reached after a median follow-up of 16.8 months.
The most common nonlaboratory adverse events, occurring in at least 20% of patients, were cytokine release syndrome, headache, musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, constipation, and fever.
Lisocabtagene maraleucel is available only through a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy program due to the risk for fatal cytokine release syndrome and neurologic toxicities.
A single treatment is almost a half million dollars, according to drugs.com.
M. Alexander Otto is a physician assistant with a master's degree in medical science and a journalism degree from Newhouse. He is an award-winning medical journalist who worked for several major news outlets before joining Medscape Medical News. Alex is also an MIT Knight Science Journalism fellow. Email: aotto@mdedge.com