Photo courtesy of GOSH
Layla Richards, the first person treated with UCART19
LISBON—Early results from a phase 1, pediatric trial of UCART19 expand upon results observed in children who received the therapy via a compassionate use program.
Two patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) received UCART19, a “universal,” donor-derived chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, via the program.
Both achieved remission and were still alive at last follow-up, more than 2 years after proceeding to transplant.
In the phase 1 trial, 5 of 6 B-ALL patients have achieved remission and gone on to transplant.
Three of the patients are still alive, and 2 are still negative for minimal residual disease (MRD) at 10 months and 11 months after UCART19 infusion.
However, 2 patients died of progression, and 1 died of transplant-related complications.
Paul Veys, MBBS, of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in London, UK, presented these results, from the PALL trial, at the 44th Annual Meeting of the EBMT (abstract OS18-5*).
The trial is sponsored by Servier. In 2015, Servier acquired exclusive rights from Cellectis for UCART19, which is being co-developed by Servier and Pfizer.
Prior experience
Researchers previously reported results with UCART19 in 2 infants with relapsed/refractory B-ALL who had exhausted all other treatment options and received UCART19 via a compassionate use program.
Both patients achieved remission after UCART19 and proceeded to allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT).
When these results were published, in January 2017, both patients were still alive and leukemia-free at last follow-up—12 months and 18 months after UCART19 infusion.
Dr Veys provided an update, noting that these patients were still alive and in remission at 24 months and 30 months after allo-HSCT.
Phase 1 patients and treatment
Thus far, the phase 1 trial has enrolled and treated 6 patients with relapsed B-ALL. They had a median age of 3.75 (range, 0.8-16.4).
All patients had morphological disease or an MRD level of at least 1 x 10-3 (via flow cytometry and/or qPCR) at baseline.
One patient had received 1 prior therapy, 2 had 3 prior therapies, and 3 had 4 or more prior therapies. Two patients had prior inotuzumab ozogamicin, and 2 had prior allo-HSCT. Both had relapsed within 6 months of allo-HSCT.
Five patients had less than 10% bone marrow blasts prior to lymphodepletion, and 1 had greater than 50% blasts.
Patients underwent lymphodepletion with fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and alemtuzumab (n=5) or fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (n=1).
The patients received UCART19 at doses of 2 x 107 total cells or 1.1 to 2.3 x 106 cells/kg.
Toxicity
All 6 patients developed cytokine release syndrome (CRS), including grade 1 (n=1), grade 2 (n=4), and grade 3 (n-1) CRS. However, all 6 cases resolved completely.
Three patients had neurotoxic events, 2 grade 1 and 1 grade 2. One patient had grade 3 febrile neutropenia.
Three patients had grade 4 prolonged cytopenia. This was defined as persistent neutropenia and/or thrombocytopenia beyond day 42 after UCART19 infusion, except if the patient had >5% bone marrow blasts.
One patient had grade 1 adenovirus infection, 1 had grade 3 cytomegalovirus infection, 2 had grade 3 BK virus hemorrhagic cystitis, and 1 had grade 4 metapneumovirus infection.
One patient had grade 1 acute cutaneous graft-versus-host disease.
Efficacy
All 6 patients achieved a complete response at day 28 to 42 after UCART19 infusion. Five patients achieved MRD negativity according to flow cytometry, and 3 were MRD-negative according to PCR.
The 5 flow-MRD-negative patients went on to receive an allo-HSCT between 49 days and 62 days after UCART19 infusion. Conditioning consisted of total body irradiation and fludarabine, with or without cyclophosphamide and antithymocyte globulin. All of these patients received a dose of rituximab as well, which was intended to target any remaining UCART19 cells.
Two patients relapsed 3 months after transplant and died at 7 months and 8 months after UCART19 infusion. One of these patients was CD19-, and 1 was CD19+, but both were MRD-positive by PCR prior to receiving their transplant.
A third patient died 2.5 months after allo-HSCT from transplant-related complications, including thrombotic microangiopathy, BK hemorrhagic cystitis, and nephritis.
The remaining 3 patients are still alive at 1.5 months, 10 months, and 11 months after UCART19 infusion. Two are still MRD-negative, and 1 is MRD-positive. The MRD-positive patient has not undergone allo-HSCT.
*Data in the abstract were updated in the presentation.