Evaluating an antibody therapy for recurrent or non-responding NHL

This study evaluated the safety and effectiveness of loncastuximab tesirine (LT) for recurrent or non-responding non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). This study found that LT showed promising effectiveness, with manageable side effects.

Patients with NHL often receive strong treatment to kill cancer cells. 60 to 70% of patients respond well to first-line treatment. However, for some patients, the cancer comes back or stops responding to treatment. These patients have limited treatment options.

Loncastuximab tesirine (ADCT-402) is an antibody therapy. This type of treatment specifically targets cancer cells that have a molecule called CD19. Previous studies suggest that LT is effective against cancer cells in laboratory settings such as in culture dishes, and in animal studies. Whether LT is effective for patients with NHL is unclear.

This study had 88 patients with NHL that came back or stopped responding to treatment. Patients were given LT once every three weeks. The first part of the study evaluated the best dosage of treatment and the second part of the study looked at how well patients responded. Patients were followed for an average of 7.5 months.

Overall, 59.4% of all patients responded to treatment. 40.6% had no signs of cancer after treatment. 69.7% had tumor shrinkage. On average, patients survived for an average of 11.6 months. Patients survived for an average of 4.8 months without tumor growth or spread.

Overall, 98.9% of patients had at least one side effect. Common side effects were low platelet levels (cells involved in blood clotting; 73.9%) and low white blood cell levels (62.5%). Fatigue (48.9%), and nausea (31.8%) were also reported.

Serious side effects occurred in 73.9% of patients. 41.4% of patients had seriously low white blood cell levels. Low platelet levels were also common (27.6%). 14.5% of patients stopped treatment due to side effects.

This study concluded that LT showed promising effectiveness for patients with NHL and had manageable side effects. The authors suggest that further clinical trials are needed to better evaluate LT for these patients.

Several of the authors are employees of ADC Therapeutics, the company that owns the patent to LT. This study had a small number of patients. More studies are needed to confirm these results.