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/m² and cyclophosphamide 500 mg/m² (intravenously daily for 3 days), followed by intravenous CTX130 infusion at dose levels ranging from 3 × 10⁷ CAR+ T cells (dose level 1) to 9 × 10⁸ 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.