Advantages of T-Cell Immunotherapy Over CAR T-Cells

“[Tab-cel] is actually really advantageous because when [patients] get the therapy, there's no special things people have to do. There's no premedication, you infuse therapy, watch the patients for 2 hours for vital stats, and if they walked in to get their therapy, they walk out and go back home. It's a very different administration profile than some of the other therapies.”

Atara Biotherapeutics is assessing tabelecleucel (tab-cel) for the treatment of Epstein-Barr virus-associated post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (EBV+ PTLD) in the phase 3 ALLELE study (NCT03394365). They are reporting updated data at the upcoming American Society of Hematology 2021 Meeting, December 11-14.

Independent objective response rate was 50% (95% CI [33.4, 66.6]; n = 19) in the ALLELE study, which has enrolled 38 evaluable, heavily pretreated patients with EBV+ PTLD as of May 2021. Median duration of response could not yet be assessed, but 11 patients had a duration of response of at least 6 months. Investigators observed no new safety signals or concerns, and safety findings were consistent with previously published data.

GeneTherapyLive spoke with AJ Joshi, MD, chief medical officer, Atara Biotherapeutics, to learn more about tab-cel and the advantages the therapy offers over other T-cell therapies, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies.

REFERENCE

Atara Biotherapeutics to present eight abstracts at the 63rd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, including first presentation of Tab-cel® pivotal phase 3 (ALLELE) data. News release. Atara Biotherapeutics. November 4, 2021. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211104005811/en/Atara-Biotherapeutics-to-Present-Eight-Abstracts-at-the-63rd-American-Society-of-Hematology-ASH-Annual-Meeting-Including-First-Presentation-of-Tab-cel%C2%AE-Pivotal-Phase-3-ALLELE-Data