Dr. Bezerra on Barriers to Enrollment for Clinical Trials in B-Cell NHL

Evandro D. Bezerra, MD, clinical fellow of Hematology, Mayo Clinic, discusses barriers to enrollment in clinical trials for patients with aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who have progressed on anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy.

This patient population has a poor prognosis and could benefit from new therapies explored in clinical trials. However, eligibility criteria can keep many of these patients with aggressive B-cell NHL from enrolling.

In a study of eligibility 4 landmark trials in relapsed/refractory B-cell NHL, researchers found 51% of patients who progressed or relapsed after anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy would not fit the patient edibility for these key trials, Bezerra says. The evaluation showed a major barrier to eligibility for this patient population would be blood counts, Bezerra explains.

About 40% of the patients would not meet the hematologic exclusion criteria of the trials, and by the time patients with aggressive B-cell NHL progress, many cannot meet the criteria for enrollment, Bezerra concludes.