Considerations For Future Liso-Cel Research Across Clinical Characteristics

Despite there not being significant differences in efficacy with lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel; Breyanzi) across real-world and clinical trial settings, more can be done to deliver optimal outcomes to patients not treated in a clinical trial setting, according to Irtiza N. Sheikh, DO.

Sheikh, an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics - Patient Care, Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Section of the Division of Pediatrics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discussed considerations for reducing discrepancies in outcomes between patients treated in the real-world vs those treated in a trial setting. First, he explained that differences in clinical characteristics between institutions may help to identify where inequalities reside.

Next, he posed multiple questions for consideration for future liso-cel research, including why differences exist in the receipt of liso-cel based on when it’s used in the treatment course, the impact of chemotherapy-refractory disease in the outpatient setting, and how comorbidities differed between treatment settings. Sheikh concluded by expressing his hope that real-world settings will continue to gain access to liso-cel, and that they will be more proactive about their use of the agent in earlier lines of therapy.

Transcript:

It’d be interesting to see if there are differences in clinical characteristics between institutions that are using liso-cel strictly on a clinical trial basis vs those who are giving it as standard of care. That may help answer where these inequities are coming from. We know that those in the real-world setting received at least 1 more lines of prior systemic therapy compared with the clinical trial patients; it was a 3 vs 2 respective difference.

It was interesting to see; why did that [difference] exist? Why aren’t patients in the real-world setting going to liso-cel sooner? Of those who received liso-cel in the outpatient setting, how many had chemotherapy-refractory disease? Of those in the clinical trial setting, how many had more than 1 comorbidity, considering [at least half] in the real-world setting… did have more than 1 comorbidity? We don’t have those data for those who were enrolled on a clinical trial.

Overall, my hope is that we can make the cell therapy more accessible to centers that may not be classically associated with clinical trials and clinicians in other settings, including those who are focused on the outpatient setting. We want to communicate to them that they can feel comfortable giving liso-cel sooner [rather] than later in patients and not delay therapy, which is the whole crux of our project. That includes patients who may have been heavily pretreated [or] have multiple comorbidities because it does seem at least safe and effective in those populations.

Reference

Sheikh IN, Patel K, Perales MA, et al. Clinical outcomes of lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel) in younger patients (Pts) with relapsed or refractory (R/R) large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL). Presented at: 2026 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR; February 4-7, 2026; Salt Lake City, UT. Abstract 210.