Micrograph showing DLBCL
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued a draft guidance recommending against the use of axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) in England.
Axicabtagene ciloleucel is a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy that was just approved by the European Commission to treat patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) or primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) who have received two or more lines of systemic therapy.
However, NICE has said it isn’t clear how much of a benefit axicabtagene ciloleucel may provide over salvage chemotherapy.
Additionally, the cost of axicabtagene ciloleucel is too high for the therapy to be considered a cost-effective use of National Health Service (NHS) resources.
NICE’s draft guidance points out that there is no standard treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL or PMBCL who have received two or more systemic therapies. These patients receive best supportive care, which usually includes salvage chemotherapy.
Results from the ZUMA-1 trial suggest the majority of DLBCL/PMBCL patients given axicabtagene ciloleucel do respond to treatment.
However, there is no direct data comparing axicabtagene ciloleucel with salvage chemotherapy, so the benefit of the CAR T-cell therapy over chemotherapy is unknown.
The draft guidance also notes that axicabtagene ciloleucel meets NICE’s criteria to be considered a life-extending treatment at the end of life.
However, the CAR T-cell therapy cannot be considered a cost-effective use of NHS resources. The cost-effectiveness estimates for axicabtagene ciloleucel, compared with salvage chemotherapy, were above £50,000 per year of quality adjusted life gained, the upper limit of the specially extended range of cost-effectiveness for cancer treatments.
Furthermore, axicabtagene ciloleucel does not meet the criteria for inclusion in the Cancer Drugs Fund. NICE said axicabtagene ciloleucel does not have the plausible potential to be cost effective, which would be necessary for inclusion in the fund while further evidence of the treatment’s longer-term benefits is collected.
“Although promising, there is still much more we need to know about CAR-T, and, unfortunately, in this case, we are not able to recommend axicabtagene ciloleucel for use in the NHS in England at the cost per patient set by Kite Pharma,” said Meindert Boysen, director of the centre for health technology evaluation at NICE.
The consultation period for the draft guidance runs until September 18, 2018.