A new drug is showing potent results in hard-to-treat blood cancers and was able to trigger a complete response – meaning the cancer became undetectable – for more than a third of patients.

All patients in the Phase I / II clinical trial of glofitamab had Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) and their cancer had relapsed or was no longer responding to conventional treatments, including CAR T-cell therapy.

Peter Mac treated the first patients in the world with glofitamab and was a major recruitment site for this international and multi-centre study of 155 patients, led by Associate Professor Michael Dickinson. Results of the trial have just published overnight in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Overall, and at a median follow-up a year (12.6 months) after Glofitamab treatment, 39% of the patients had a complete response. This was consistent (35% complete response rate) among 52 of these patients who had earlier received CAR T-cell therapy.

Associate Professor Dickinson said glofitamab‘s effects were also durable, as for many (78%) patients with a complete response this was ongoing for 12 months or more.

“We are greatly encouraged by these data which show a fixed course of glofitamab therapy can induce durable, complete responses for many patients who have faced disappointment from their disease not responding to multiple prior rounds of treatments, including CAR T-cell therapy,” says Associate Professor Dickinson, who is Lead of the Aggressive Lymphoma Disease Group within Clinical Haematology Department at Peter Mac and Royal Melbourne Hospital.

“Glofitamab is also exciting because it offers potential of an effective ‘off the shelf’ option for patients with hard-to-treat blood cancers and who live in parts of the world that may not have ready access to CAR T-cell therapy due to the complexity of delivering this highly tailored treatment.”

Australians with DLBCL who meet eligibility criteria may have funded access to CAR T-cell therapy – which involves collecting the patient’s T-cells, re-engineering these to fight their cancer, and infusing these back into the patient. About 40% of DLBCL patients achieve a durable remission after CAR T-cell therapy.

Glofitamab is a bispecific antibody treatment that engages the patient’s T-cells to fight their blood cancer. Patients receive a fixed course of intravenous infusions available “off-the-shelf” as opposed to CAR T-cell therapy which is uniquely prepared for each patient.

Read the paper titled “Glofitamab for Relapsed or Refractory Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma”.

Associate Professor Dickinson is also leading a Peter-Mac sponsored Australian trial of glofitamab as part of front-line treatment for DLBCL that is recruiting at sites across Australia.

Note: Associate Professor Dickinson is currently in the US presenting at the 64th ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition and so availability for follow-up interviews may be limited 

Contacts

For more information contact the Peter Mac Communications team on 0417 123 048

About Peter Mac

Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is a world-leading cancer research, education and treatment centre and Australia’s only public health service solely dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer.