Yescarta: A New Era for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients

The use of conventional therapeutic approaches in patients with lymphoma demonstrates significant drug resistance leading to poor prognosis with reduced median survival period. T-cell immunotherapy has diverted huge attention of the researchers in recent times to engage in the stated research studies in the pool of chemotherapy-refractory lymphoma patients. B-cell antigen CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell products are approved for the treatment of non-Hodgkin B-cell refracting or relapsing lymphoma. The aim of this article is to give an idea about the use of FDA-approved anti-cancer gene therapy, Axicabtagene ciloleucel, marketed under the name of Yescarta®. Axicabtagene ciloleucel is developed from the patients’ mononuclear peripheral blood cells during which T cells are orchestrated to articulate a CAR that diverts them to identify CD19-expressing cells. It is used in patients with non-Hodgkin B-cell refracting or relapsing lymphoma who had no response to prior therapeutic regiment involving the use of chemotherapeutics. Here, we review the mode of action, safety, and efficacy of Yescarta.