Safety and activity of CTX130, a CD70-targeted allogeneic CRISPR-Cas9-engineered CAR T-cell therapy, in patients with relapsed or refractory T-cell malignancies (COBALT-LYM): a single-arm, open-label, phase 1, dose-escalation study.

BACKGROUND

Effective treatment options are scarce for relapsed or refractory T-cell lymphoma. This study assesses the safety and activity of CTX130 (volamcabtagene durzigedleucel), a CD70-directed, allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immunotherapy manufactured from healthy donor T cells, in patients with relapsed or refractory T-cell lymphoma.

METHODS

This single-arm, open-label, phase 1 study was done at ten medical centres across the USA, Australia, and Canada in patients (aged ≥18 years) with relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma or cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, who had received at least one or at least two previous systemic therapy lines, respectively, and had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-1. Patients underwent lymphodepletion with fludarabine 30 mg/m and cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m (intravenously daily for 3 days), followed by intravenous CTX130 infusion at dose levels ranging from 3 × 10 CAR+ T cells (dose level 1) to 9 × 10 CAR+ T cells (dose level 4). The primary endpoint was the incidence of adverse events, defined as dose-limiting toxicities occurring within 28 days post-infusion. Secondary endpoints included objective response rate. Safety and activity analyses were performed on data from all patients who received CTX130. The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04502446) and EudraCT (2019-004526-25) and is closed to enrolment.

FINDINGS

Between Aug 28, 2020, and May 30, 2023, 41 patients were enrolled and 39 (95%) received CTX130. The median patient follow-up was 7·4 months (IQR 3·1-12·2). 21 (54%) of 39 patients were female and 18 (46%) were male. 24 (62%) patients were White, eight (21%) were Black, three (8%) were Asian, three (8%) were from other racial or ethnic groups, and one (3%) was not reported. The median number of previous lines of anticancer therapy was 2·5 (IQR 1·3-4·0) for patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma and 5·0 (IQR 5·0-7·0) for patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Cytokine release syndrome was the most common adverse event, occurring in 26 (67%) of 39 patients (23 were grade 1-2, two were grade 3, and one was a grade 4 dose-limiting toxicity at dose level 4). Grade 1-2 neurotoxic events were observed in four (10%) of 39 patients. The most common grade 3-4 adverse events were neutropenia (14 [36%]), anaemia (11 [28%]), and thrombocytopenia (six [15%]). Serious adverse events occurred in 25 (64%) patients, with CTX130-related serious adverse events in 14 (36%) patients, the most common related serious adverse event being cytokine release syndrome in 11 (28%) patients. 21 patients died, 16 from progressive disease and five from adverse events considered unrelated to CTX130 treatment. 18 of 39 patients (46·2% [95% CI 30·1-62·8) had an objective response. Of those treated at dose level 3 and higher, 16 of 31 patients (51·6% [33·1-69·8]) had objective responses, including six (19·4% [7·5-37·5]) with complete response and ten (32·3% [16·7-51·4]) with a partial response.

INTERPRETATION

In patients with heavily pretreated T-cell lymphoma, CTX130 showed manageable safety and a promising objective response rate. This study shows that allogeneic, readily available CAR T cells can be safely given to patients with relapsed or refractory T-cell lymphoma. A next-generation CAR T-cell therapy containing additional potency gene edits (CTX131) is in clinical development.

FUNDING

CRISPR Therapeutics.