Citation

Kaczanowska S, Murty T, Alimadadi A, Contreras CF, Duault C, Subrahmanyam PB, Reynolds W, Gutierrez NA, Baskar R, Wu CJ, Michor F, Altreuter J, Liu Y, Jhaveri A, Duong V, Anbunathan H, Ong C, Zhang H, Moravec R, Yu J, Biswas R, Van Nostrand S, Lindsay J, Pichavant M, Sotillo E, Bernstein D, Carbonell A, Derdak J, Klicka-Skeels J, Segal JE, Dombi E, Harmon SA, Turkbey B, Sahaf B, Bendall S, Maecker H, Highfill SL, Stroncek D, Glod J, Merchant M, Hedrick CC, Mackall CL, Ramakrishna S, Kaplan RN. 2024. Immune determinants of CAR-T cell expansion in solid tumor patients receiving GD2 CAR-T cell therapy. Cancer cell. 42(1):35-51.e8. Pubmed: 38134936 DOI:S1535-6108(23)00402-6

Abstract

Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-Ts) have remarkable efficacy in liquid tumors, but limited responses in solid tumors. We conducted a Phase I trial (NCT02107963) of GD2 CAR-Ts (GD2-CAR.OX40.28.z.iC9), demonstrating feasibility and safety of administration in children and young adults with osteosarcoma and neuroblastoma. Since CAR-T efficacy requires adequate CAR-T expansion, patients were grouped into good or poor expanders across dose levels. Patient samples were evaluated by multi-dimensional proteomic, transcriptomic, and epigenetic analyses. T cell assessments identified naive T cells in pre-treatment apheresis associated with good expansion, and exhausted T cells in CAR-T products with poor expansion. Myeloid cell assessment identified CXCR3 monocytes in pre-treatment apheresis associated with good expansion. Longitudinal analysis of post-treatment samples identified increased CXCR3 classical monocytes in all groups as CAR-T numbers waned. Together, our data uncover mediators of CAR-T biology and correlates of expansion that could be utilized to advance immunotherapies for solid tumor patients.
Published by Elsevier Inc.

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Franziska Michor uses the tools of theoretical evolutionary biology, applied mathematics, statistics, and computational biology to address important questions in cancer research.

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