Dr. Botta on the Evaluation of CT041 in Gastric and Pancreatic Cancer

Gregory Botta, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, associate professor of medicine, University of California, San Diego Health (UCSD), discusses the evaluation of CT041 in patients with advanced gastric and pancreatic cancers in a phase 1b trial (NCT04404595).

In the open label, multi-center study, investigators evaluated CT041, a CAR T-cell therapy that targets Claudin18.2 (CLDN18.2).

Heavily pretreated patients in the population were able to achieve responses up to 60% in the salvage line setting, Botta says. Moreover, patients who have been on multiple lines of chemotherapy and present with various comorbidities were able to safely complete the CAR T-cell therapy and lymphodepletion, Botta explains.

The patient population had previously been treated with years of chemotherapy, and by moving to CAR T-cell therapy, patients have the potential to be off of chemotherapy for up to 10 months, Botta continues. Overall, during the chemotherapy holidays patients saw a marked improvement in quality of life, representing a component of nonchemotherapeutic efficacy that is being observed in these patients, Botta concludes.