January 06, 2025
In early November, the Food and Drug Administration approved the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T-cell) therapy obecabtagene autoleucel, brand name Aucatzyl®, for use in treating relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The University of Kansas Cancer Center has been named among the initial 30 certified treatment centers for Aucatzyl.
The FDA based its approval of the treatment on the results of the FELIX trial – an open-label, multicenter trial that enrolled adults with relapsed or refractory CD-19 positive B-cell ALL. This is the second CAR T-cell therapy approved for use in adult patients with ALL. Aucatzyl is unique in that it is administered as a split-dose infusion on Day 1 and Day 10 based on bone marrow blast assessment. This may decrease the risk of side effects without impacting the treatment’s efficacy.
As with other CAR T-cell therapies, Aucatzyl is created using T cells that are removed from the patient’s body. Those cells are sent to a lab, where a chimeric antigen receptor is added to the T cells. Those cells are then reinfused into the patient’s body. The CAR provides the T cells the information they need to identify, attack and kill cancer cells.
“When you are diagnosed with a blood cancer, you need to be seen by a team of experts,” says Jeffrey Holzbeierlein, MD, FACS, physician in chief of the cancer center. “Our teams have more experience than anywhere else in the region, and we are one of the most experienced programs in the nation.”
The University of Kansas Cancer Center is the only cancer treatment center in the region authorized for all available FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapies. The cancer center has completed nearly 500 CAR T-cell treatments since 2017.
“We are in a remarkable and truly revolutionary time for cancer therapeutics,” says Joseph McGuirk, DO, director of hematological malignancies and cellular therapeutics.