Lisocabtagene maraleucel for 2nd line DLBCL: real-world data from the French DESCAR-T registry

In the TRANSFORM-2 study, lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel) demonstrated superior efficacy over standard of care chemotherapy in the 2nd line treatment of transplant-eligible patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL). During the 2025 ICML meeting, Dr Gabriel Brisou presented French real-world data of DLBCL patients treated with 2nd line liso-cel in the French DESCAR-T registry.

Between September 2022 and February 2024, liso-cel was ordered for 49 patients of whom 44 patients were infused. Most patients included in this analysis had primary refractory disease (66%), with three quarters of patients having stage III-IV disease. The median vein-to-vein time was reported at 50 days, explaining why 96% of patients received bridging therapy prior to the liso-cel infusion. In total, 13 patients (31%) suffered disease progression while receiving bridging therapy.  With respect to efficacy, a complete response rate of 76.9% was reported, with an additional 20.5% obtaining a partial response. The liso-cel treatment was well tolerated without any grade ≥3 cytokine release syndrome or neurotixicity. 

The median follow-up for this analysis was very short at only about 3 months. Nevertheless, these early real-world data with 2nd line liso-cel are very promising, confirming the findings reported with this CAR-T construct in the pivotal TRANSFORM-2 trial.