Chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) is the most common hematologic malignancy. More than 20,000 people in United States, more than 37,000 people in Europe and more than 199,000 people worldwide die of NHL every year. Recent advances in immunotherapeutic approaches for cancer have resulted in development of new classes of very effective immunotherapeutic approaches including chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy that are designed to bypass cancer immune evasion. Here, we review recent advances in CAR-T cell therapy for NHL. US food and drug administration (FDA) recently approved axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) a CD19 CAR T cell therapy for treatment of relapsed refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), high grade lymphoma, and primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma (PMBCL). Approval of Yescarta and rapid development of other CAR T cell therapies at various stages of development are opening up the door for a new wave of CAR T cell therapies that will dramatically change the way we treat NHL and hopefully other malignancies in the near future.