CAR T-Cell Therapy Offers Rapid QOL Improvements in Younger Patients
Children and young adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) reported rapid improvements in quality of life (QOL) after treatment with tisagenlecleucel, a CAR T-cell therapy, according to the results of a study published in Lancet Oncology (https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30493-0).
Researchers gave 58 patients aged 8–23 years two validated QOL questionnaires at baseline and at multiple intervals for the first year after a single treatment with tisagenlecleucel. Patients began reporting higher QOL scores as early as day 28; the improvements were clinically meaningful by month 3 and increased over time through month 12.
The questionnaires focused on overall health and psychosocial well-being. Highest improvements were seen on the emotional functioning scale (7.3 points), whereas the lowest were in physical functioning (0.2 points). Patients who developed severe cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity had smaller QOL improvements for the first 28 days but reached similar QOL scores at months 3, 6, and 12 as those who did not experience the adverse events.