Examining Benefits of Various Treatment Options for DLBCL Patients

An indirect comparison of treatment with the investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel) vs salvage chemotherapy for patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) showed favorable efficacy with liso-cel.

Researchers published their findings online in Advances in Therapy. 

The study used unanchored matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC) analysis to compare liso-cel, using individual patient-level data from the TRANSCEND NHL 001 trial, with salvage chemotherapy, using summary-level data from the SCHOLAR-1 study. 

Comparisons of clinical characteristics for efficacy outcomes before MAIC showed that most factors between the studies were balanced, although age and R/R to last therapy status differed and, consequently, required matching and adjusting for analysis validity, researchers wrote. 

According to base case analyses, patients treated with liso-cel had a significantly lower risk of mortality, with a hazard ratio of 0.5, than patients treated with salvage chemotherapy. Liso-cel was also associated with significantly higher rates of complete response: the study found a 12.9 odds ratio of complete response with liso-cel compared with salvage chemotherapy.  

Objective response rates, too, were significantly higher with liso-cel. Researchers reported an odds ratio of 7.0 for objective response for patients treated with liso-cel compared with salvage chemotherapy. 

“Overall, these results provide consistent evidence supporting the effectiveness of liso-cel for the treatment of patients with R/R DLBCL,” researchers concluded. 

Reference:
Salles G, Spin P, Liu FF, Garcia J, Kim Y, Hasskarl J. Indirect Treatment Comparison of Liso-Cel vs. Salvage Chemotherapy in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: TRANSCEND vs. SCHOLAR-1 [published online ahead of print, 2021 May 10]. Adv Ther. 2021;10.1007/s12325-021-01756-0. doi:10.1007/s12325-021-01756-0