Introduction: Autologous anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR19) have shown dramatic clinical responses in relapsed-refractory large B cell lymphomas, but more than 50% of patients will have disease progression. Here we characterize the observed mechanisms of treatment failure following Axicabtagene Ciloleucel (Axi-cel) therapy.

Methods: Sixty-nine patients with refractory large B cell lymphoma were referred for CAR19 therapy from October 2017 to June 2018. The WHO diagnosis and B cell antigen expression on lymphoma cells were assessed by immunohistochemistry and/or flow cytometry before and at the time of progression. We assessed peripheral blood CAR-T cell numbers at Days 7, 14, 21, and 28 by flow cytometry immunophenotyping and monitored disease response with PET-CT at Day 28, 3 months, and 6 months post-infusion.

Results: Twenty-two patients who received CAR19 therapy, including patients with transformed large B cell lymphoma (N =5), diffuse large B cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (N =11), high grade B cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (N = 2), primary mediastinal large B cell lymphoma (N = 2), and high grade B cell lymphoma with rearrangement of MYC and BCL2 or BCL6 (N =2). The Day 28 ORR was 86%: 10 patients had complete response, 9 had a partial response, 1 had stable disease, and 2 had progressive disease. There was no statistically significant difference in age, gender, underlying disease, or number of prior treatment regimens between patients who achieved a clinical response versus those who failed therapy. Both patients (2 of 2) with progressive disease at Day 28 showed dim or partial CD19 expression prior to CAR-T infusion but nonetheless demonstrated robust Axi-cel expansion. In contrast, one patient with Day 28 stable disease showed no CAR-T cell expansion despite intact CD19 expression. Overall, there was no statistical difference in relative or absolute CAR+ T cells in patients who responded versus those who did not at Day 28 (Figure 1).

Day 90 response was available for 12 patients with either CR or PR at Day 28. Five patients (26%) developed progressive disease, and 4 of 5 underwent repeat biopsy. Of these patients, 2 had complete loss of tumor CD19 (Figure 2) and another had downregulation of CD19 with variable expression of other B cell antigens.

Conclusion: Eight of 22 (36%) of patients who underwent CAR19 infusion did not respond or relapsed after Day 28 response. Five patients (62%) who failed therapy had loss or downregulation of CD19, which emphasizes that single target antigen loss is a common mechanism of CAR-T failure. However, lack of CAR-T cell expansion was noted in multiple patients, suggesting that there may be T cell intrinsic causes of treatment failure. Further studies are necessary to help identify and predict which patients will benefit from targeted immunotherapy.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.