Lymphoma patients to benefit from new CAR T Cell Therapy option now available in Australia

Kite, a Gilead company, today announced that its Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, Yescarta® (axicabtagene ciloleucel), is now publicly funded and available to patients in Australia.

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Yescarta is now funded for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory CD-19 positive; diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL), transformed follicular lymphoma (TFL) and high-grade B-cell lymphoma (HGBCL) who meet the eligibility criteria.

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Yescarta is now available for eligible patients at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne and Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane. Additional treatment sites will be available in Sydney in the near future. Patients should speak to their clinician about the appropriate treatment option for them.

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Haematologist and Lead of the Aggressive Lymphoma disease group at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospital, Associate Professor Michael Dickinson, said: “Many people living with these four forms of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, who have either not responded to treatment or where their cancer has returned, have an urgent need for new therapy options to treat this aggressive blood cancer.”

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Sharon Winton, CEO, Lymphoma Australia, commented “Until recently Australian patients with the approved four aggressive lymphoma subtypes had a very poor prognosis. To have access to another CAR T cell therapy option in Australia is very welcome news for these patients and their families”

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Media release: https://www.medianet.com.au/releases/205156/

 

Minister Hunt’s media release: https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/lymphoma-patients-to-benefit-from-new-cancer-therapy