Alison Sehgal, MD, Describes the Phase II PILOT Study of Patients with Relapsed or Refractory LBCL

Alison Sehgal, MD, an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center specializing in the treatment of lymphoma and leukemia, discussed the phase II PILOT study at the 65th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition.

The PILOT study included patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) who were not intended to receive a stem cell transplant and had failed one prior line of therapy. In this final analysis, 61 patients received liso-cel treatment. Most patients were over 70 years of age and had very specific comorbidities and decreased organ function.

“We felt this was important because patients who are not intended to receive a stem cell transplant have a pretty limited arsenal of treatments that they can receive, and so they historically have a pretty poor prognosis,” Dr. Sehgal explained.

Following liso-cel treatment, the overall response rate was 80% and the complete response (CR) rate was around 50%. The duration of response was 23 months for the whole cohort and not reached for patients who achieved CR.

Dr. Sehgal also noted that no new safety signals were observed in this study.

“The study showed that patients [who] are in this transplant-not-intended group, who are an older and sicker group, actually did quite well with liso-cel infusion, and they tolerated it well…we think that this should continue to be a really good option for these older patients,” she concluded.