Novel Personalized Immunotherapy to Start Clinical Testing Across Cancer Types

Immatics recently announced patient enrollment into a phase 1 clinical trial of its adoptive cellular therapy (ACT) IMA101, which uses its ACTolog approach.

The clinical trial is the first to use products consisting of autologous cytotoxic T lymphocytes that target tumor antigens using Immatics’ target warehouse, according to a press release.

IMA101 is a personalized investigational immunotherapy being evaluated for the treatment of multiple cancers, including ovarian, gastric, esophageal, non-small cell lung cancers, and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Immatics noted that IMA101 may be tested in additional cancers in the future.

The novel study is open for enrollment at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Immatics expects to enroll up to 20 patients with relapsed and/or refractory solid cancers that have no current treatment options, according to the release.

The ACTolog approach is based on the action of expanding specific endogenous T-cells and includes multiple innovative features, according to the release.

As a part of the approach, the antigens were validated as being present in solid tumors through the use of the XPRESIDENT target discovery platform, according to the release.

The ACTolog technique also creates multiple cell therapy products to target each antigen, which may be more effective than targeting a single antigen, Immatics reported.

The selection and creation of the ACTolog cell therapy drug is tailored for each patient, making the treatment precise. It is personalized by measuring the presence of 8 tumor-specific antigens, according to the release.

The primary objective of the new study is to assess the safety and tolerability of the ACTolog therapy in patients with target-positive solid tumors, according to the release. Secondary objectives include, feasibility, persistence of T-cells in vivo, and assessment of anti-cancer activity, and biomarkers.

“Entering clinical development with our first adoptive cell therapy program is a significant step for Immatics, and highlights the ability of the XPRESIDENT platform to identify novel and true tumor antigens directly from a patient’s tumor,” said Harpreet Singh, PhD, chief scientific officer and CEO at Immatics US. “We are very excited to be combining our unique target discovery capabilities with the world-leading expertise of key investigators from the MD Anderson Cancer Center. We believe that attacking multiple cancer targets simultaneously using our tailored approach may lead to promising new treatment options for cancer patients with significant unmet medical need.”