CAR T cell therapy leads to lasting remissions

With the latest update to a global clinical trial, encompassing 10 institutions on four continents, the personalized T cell therapy Kymriah® has been shown to lead to long-lasting remission in patients with lymphoma that hadn’t responded well to other treatments.

3-d illustration of cancer cells

The trial, known as JULIET, is led by the Perelman School of Medicine’s Stephen J. Schuster. Presenting the results at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, Schuster noted that the findings “are consistent with what we’ve shown in our single-site studies here at Penn, which is that the majority of patients who go into remission stay in remission.”

As part of the JULIET trial, 115 patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, received an infusion of CAR T cells. More than half responded, with 40 percent achieving a complete response. Kymriah has already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as well as by the European Commission, Health Canada, and Swissmedic. 

Read more at Penn Medicine News.