Axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) and tisagenlecleucel (tisa-cel) have both demonstrated impressive clinical activity in relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). In this study, we analyzed the outcome of 809 patients with R/R DLBCL after two or more previous lines of treatment who had a commercial chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells order for axi-cel or tisa-cel and were registered in the retrospective French DESCAR-T registry study (NCT04328298). After 1:1 propensity score matching (n = 418), the best overall response rate/complete response rate (ORR/CRR) was 80%/60% versus 66%/42% for patients treated with axi-cel compared to tisa-cel, respectively (P < 0.001 for both ORR and CRR comparisons). After a median follow-up of 11.7 months, the 1-year progression-free survival was 46.6% for axi-cel and 33.2% for tisa-cel (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.61; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.46–0.79; P = 0.0003). Overall survival (OS) was also significantly improved after axi-cel infusion compared to after tisa-cel infusion (1-year OS 63.5% versus 48.8%; HR = 0.63; 95% CI, 0.45–0.88; P = 0.0072). Similar findings were observed using the inverse probability of treatment weighting statistical approach. Grade 1–2 cytokine release syndrome was significantly more frequent with axi-cel than with tisa-cel, but no significant difference was observed for grade ≥3. Regarding immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), both grade 1–2 and grade ≥3 ICANS were significantly more frequent with axi-cel than with tisa-cel. In conclusion, our matched comparison study supports a higher efficacy and also a higher toxicity of axi-cel compared to tisa-cel in the third or more treatment line for R/R DLBCL.

Primary cardiac lymphoma (PCL) represents a rare subset of extranodal lymphomas for which the primary lesion arises from the heart and/or the pericardium. Fundamental characteristics of PCL remain uncertain, regarding optimal diagnosis strategy, pathological features, treatments, as well as prognostic factors. This is a single-institution retrospective study of patients with histologically proven lymphoma, presenting with exclusive or predominant myocardial invasion at time of diagnosis. Thirteen patients were included, all of whom had symptoms related to cardiac tumour location with chronic chest pain in six (46%), dyspnea in seven (54%) and arythmia in three (23%). Sub-acute and acute congestive heart failure were noticed in respectively nine (70%) and one (9%). PCL was identified at transthoracic echocardiography and computed tomography scan in 80 and 100% of patients, respectively. Most frequent location was the right atrium in 10 (77%) patients. Pericardial effusion was identified in 10 (77%). Pathological diagnosis-diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in 12 cases and Burkitt in 1 case-was made on cardiac surgical biopsies in 9 cases and by intravascular procedure in 2 cases. All patients received first-line chemotherapy, with a complete response rate of 62%. Recurrences occurred in 55% of patients, mostly at extracardiac extranodal sites. Our data confirm that PCL harbours specific clinical and anatomical features. The aggressiveness of PCL mainly results from the possible onset of acute cardiac events. Further molecular characterization may help to further individualize PCL among diffuse and intrathoracic lymphomas. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.