Matthew Frank, MD, PhD, on Evaluating CD22-directed CAR-T CAR22 in R/R B-cell Malignancies

“...The top-line [finding] is that this an effective CAR for patients who have relapsed after CD19 therapy, it appears to be as safe as CARs come, [and] this is a CAR that appears to have the potential for curative intent where very few things in the CAR-after-CAR space [do]… I think this could achieve [curative intent potential] and I look forward to seeing what it looks like in a phase 2 multicenter trial.”

Although CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies have provided a transformative new treatment option for some patients with hematological malignancies, patients whose disease relapses after treatment with these therapies, due to the cancer cells’ loss of CD19 expression, often have limited options for further treatment. As such, there has been an interest in developing CAR-T therapies that target other antigens commonly expressed in hematological malignancies.

Matthew J. Frank, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at Stanford University, gave a presentation entitled “CD22 CAR T cell therapy is safe and effective in patients with large B cell lymphoma who have relapsed after CD19 CAR T cell therapy” at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2023 Congress, held June 8-11, both virtually and in Frankfurt, Germany. The talk covered results from a phase 1 clinical trial (NCT04088890) evaluating CAR22, an investigational CD22-directed CAR-T therapy, in adult patients with relapsed/refractory (r/r) B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia or relapsed/refractory aggressive B-cell nonHodgkin lymphoma. The conference presentation specifically focused on the subset of patients with r/r large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL).

In an interview with CGTLive™’s sister publication OncLive™, Frank discussed the rationale behind the study and the main results that he presented at the congress. He noted that among 38 patients with r/r LBCL, 37 of whom experienced disease relapse following prior treatment with CD19-directed CAR-T therapy, the overall response rate was 68% and the complete response rate was 53%. Frank also discussed the key safety findings and future plans for the research.

Click here for more coverage of EHA 2023.

REFERENCES
1. Frank M, Baird J, Kramer A, et al. CD22 CAR T cell therapy is safe and effective in patients with large B cell lymphoma who have relapsed after CD19 CAR T cell therapy. Presented at: the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2023 Congress, June 8-11, held both virtually and in Frankfurt, Germany. Abstract #S230