Multi-Antigen Targeted T Cell Therapy Shows Promise Against Pancreatic Cancer
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions have announced promising results from a Phase 1/2 trial of a novel immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer. The TACTOPS trial investigated the safety and clinical efficacy of autologous T cell therapy designed to target multiple tumor antigens. Unlike other immunotherapies that struggle to identify pancreatic cancer as "foreign," this treatment hones the immune system on five specific tumor-associated antigens to address the disease's complex nature.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, enrolled 37 participants across three distinct cohorts. Patients in Arm A, who were already responding to frontline chemotherapy, demonstrated a significant 84.6% disease control rate. Additionally, two out of nine patients who underwent surgical resection (Arm C) have remained disease-free for more than five years. In contrast, patients with refractory disease in Arm B showed a 25% disease control rate.
Safety remains a highlight of the findings, as the therapy was extremely well-tolerated. Across all cohorts, only one possibly treatment-related serious adverse side effect was documented. Dr. Benjamin Musher emphasized that the therapy helps the immune system attack cancer cells in ways previous treatments could not.
According to the sources, clinical success was directly linked to how well the infused T cells expanded and persisted in the patient's blood. Data showed these cells remained present for up to 12 months post-treatment. Marker Therapeutics, which holds the license for this non-genetically modified technology (referred to as MAR-T cells), plans to initiate further pancreatic cancer clinical programs in early 2026. Dr. Ann Leen credited the success to strong collaboration between clinical labs and manufacturing facilities.
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Keywords: Multi-antigen targeted T cell therapy
Multi-antigen targeted T cell therapy
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