Brexucabtagene autoleucel, sold under the brand name Tecartus, is a cell-based gene therapy medication for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL)[10][11][7] and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
[10] The most common side effects for the treatment of ALL include fever, CRS, hypotension, encephalopathy, tachycardias, nausea, chills, headache, fatigue, febrile neutropenia, diarrhea, musculoskeletal pain, hypoxia, rash, edema, tremor, infection with pathogen unspecified, constipation, decreased appetite, and vomiting.
[10] The FDA label carries a boxed warning for cytokine release syndrome (CRS), which is a systemic response to the activation and proliferation of CAR-T cells causing high fever and flu-like symptoms, and for neurologic toxicities.
[10] The most common Grade 3 or higher reactions were anemia, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, hypotension, hypophosphatemia, encephalopathy, leukopenia, hypoxia, pyrexia, hyponatremia, hypertension, infection – pathogen unspecified, pneumonia, hypocalcemia, and lymphopenia.
[15][16][17] Approval was based on ZUMA-2 (NCT02601313), an open-label, multicenter, single-arm trial of 74 participants with relapsed or refractory MCL who had previously received anthracycline- or bendamustine-containing chemotherapy, an anti-CD20 antibody, and a Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor.
[11] The primary efficacy outcome measure was objective response rate (ORR) per Lugano [2014] criteria as assessed by an independent review committee.