Preliminary clinical results of TCR-T cell therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma are positive

Today, Adaptimmune Therapeutics announced at the International Liver Cancer Association 2021 annual meeting (ILCA2021) that the company’s T cell receptor (TCR)-T cell therapy was obtained in the phase 1 clinical trial ADP-A2AFP for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocytes.

Adaptimmune's TCR-T cell therapy platform is called SPEAR (Specific Peptide Enhanced Affinity Receptor)

Adaptimmune's technology platform firstly identifies the antigen fragments displayed by the cancer cell's unique HLA, and then screens out the TCRs that bind to this antigen fragment and performs further genetic engineering on them to enhance the affinity of the TCR and the antigen fragment, thereby increasing the TCR Activation of cells

▲Adaptimmune's engineered TCR-T cell therapy (picture source: Adaptimmune official website)

The company's TCR-T cell therapy ADP-A2AFP targets alpha-fetoprotein, which is overexpressed in liver cancer cells

In cohort 3 and the extended study, 1 patient achieved complete remission, 6 patients had stable disease, 4 patients had disease progression, and 2 patients had not yet obtained scan results

Among patients who had received at least one scan, the disease control rate was 64% (7/11), and two patients with stable disease lasted more than 16 weeks

In terms of safety, ADP-A2AFP exhibits acceptable safety characteristics, and no significant T cell-related liver toxicity and dose-limiting toxicity have been reported

Adverse events (AE) that occurred in two or more patients include neutropenia, leukopenia, lymphopenia, fever, anemia, cytokine release syndrome, febrile neutropenia, platelets Hypoxia, elevated aspartate aminotransferase, elevated alanine aminotransferase

Two patients reported a total of 3 serious treatment-related AEs, including cytokine release syndrome (grade 1), infusion-related reactions (grade 2), and febrile neutropenia (grade 3)

Reference materials:

[1] Adaptimmune Updates Data from its Phase 1 Trial for Liver Cancer at ILCA Showing Clinical Benefit.

[2] Adaptimmune.