The UK’s National Centre for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended Kite’s CAR-T therapy Tecartus (autologous anti-CD19 transduced CD3+ cells) for the treatment of certain adult patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) on the NHS.

NICE’s technology appraisal committee has recommended Tecartus for use through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) for patients in England and Wales.

The managed access agreement will allow NICE to collect more data on the therapy while patients can access the ‘cutting-edge’ cancer treatment.

NICE has asked for this further data because it found that there is not enough evidence on whether lymphoma patients receiving the CAR-T therapy can be cured.

The additional data will be collected on markers including progression-free survival, overall survival and the age of patients when treatment starts.

“This will help to reduce the uncertainty in the evidence while the treatment is used on NHS patients,” said NICE.

NICE added that NHS England had received a confidential discount for use of the therapy from Kite.

The recommendation covers MCL patients who have previously received two or more lines of systemic therapy, including a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor.

Tecartus uses patient’s own white blood cells – which are re-engineered in a laboratory to enable them to recognise and attack cancer cells. These re-engineered white blood cells are then infused back into the patient.

“We are pleased to be able to recommend another revolutionary CAR T-cell therapy, this time for adults with mantle cell lymphoma, which represents a step forward for personalised medicine. Clinicians will be able to consider this innovative therapy for their patients because of joint working between NICE, NHS England and NHS Improvement and the company,” said Meindert Boysen, deputy chief executive and director of NICE’s centre for health technology evaluation.

“CAR T-cell therapy is expensive. The treatment is specific to each individual and could be a potential cure for some, although it is early days. Our recommendation for Tecartus, on the Cancer Drugs Fund, means people can benefit while more data is collected,” he added.