Benjamin L. Schlechter, MD, on TAC01-HER2 in HER2-Positive Solid Tumors

“The worry when we started was that we wouldn't see benefit, but we've seen it. So this really does 2 things. Number 1, it's an avenue for treatment for a significant subset of patients with advanced malignancy... But significantly, if this strategy is successful, this may open the world of T-cell therapies to the solid tumor world, in a way that we really have not had access to [in a large scale with] CAR-T or tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapies, due to the limitations of those modalities.”

Triumvira Immunologics’ TAC01-HER2, an investigational HER2-targeted T-cell antigen coupler (TAC) T-cell therapy, is currently being evaluated in the phase 1/2 TACTIC-2 clinical trial(NCT04727151) for the treatment of patients with HER-2 positive solid tumors.

Benjamin L. Schlechter, MD, instructor, medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an investigator for the trial, recently presented data from TACTIC-2 at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2022, taking place September 9-13, in Paris, France, and virtually.

In an interview with CGTLive, Schlechter discussed the key findings that have come out of the clinical trial so far, highlighting a patient’s objective response at 29 days as particularly impressive. He also went over what he sees as the potential advantages of TAC01-HER2 compared to the current standard of care for patients with HER2-positive solid tumors. Schlechter additionally discussed some challenges of the current trial and potential areas for further study. He concluded by recommending a re-examination of immunotherapy naming conventions in order to make the terminology more descriptive and educational for both the broader clinical community and patients.