MAGEA3 T cell therapy safe, leads to responses in NCI study

In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers at NIH's NCI and colleagues reported that a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II-restricted melanoma-associated antigen A3 (MAGEA3)-targeted T cell receptor (TCR) T cell therapy from Kite Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:KITE) led to 4 objective responses while avoiding off-target toxicity among 17 patients with metastatic solid tumors.

Specifically, there was 1 complete response that was ongoing at 29 months in a patient with metastatic cervical cancer and 3 partial responses in patients with esophageal cancer, urothelial cancer and osteosarcoma. Patients received a lymphodepleting preparative regimen followed by adoptive transfer of purified CD4+ T cells transduced with MAGEA3-targeted TCRs plus systemic high-dose IL-2...