Dr. Miklos on the Results of the ZUMA-2 Trial in MCL

David Miklos, MD, associate professor of medicine, and clinical director of Cancer Cell Therapy at Stanford University Medical Center, discusses the results of the phase II ZUMA-2 trial with KTE-X19 in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

In the trial, patients with relapsed/refractory MCL were treated with KTE-X19, an investigational CAR T-cell product. After a single infusion of the product, the best objective response via independent radiologic central review among 60 evaluable patients was 93%, with 67% of patients having achieved a complete response, says Miklos. The patients who had been followed for at least 2 years are showing durable disease responses, adds Miklos.

In MCL, where leukemic phase serves as a very important measurable aspect of the lymphoma, blood next-generation sequencing technologies can be applied to detect the number of cancer cells down to 1 in 1 million, says Miklos. Forty percent of patients who were tested in that manner were found to have achieved undetectable minimal residual disease, according to Miklos.

Notably, these are still early data so additional long-term follow-up is needed to determine the durability of these responses; however, the data seen thus far are very promising, concludes Miklos.