Steven Katz, MD, on Tackling TME Immunosuppression, Intratumoral Pressure

“Solid tumors, particularly in the liver or pancreas, can have very high pressures that make it very difficult to deliver drugs at the concentrations that we would like to achieve. The patient's heart can only generate a certain level of pressure. And if you're unable to overcome that, then a technological solution can be very helpful... Our delivery technology is an interventional radiology catheter system.”

Trisalus Life Sciences is developing technologies to combat 2 common issues in treating solid tumors with cell therapies: immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment and intratumoral pressure that makes it difficult to deliver sufficient concentrations of therapy to the tumor. Data on the company’s pressure-enabled drug delivery (PEDD) system and immunomodulatory therapy were presented at the World Oncology Cell Therapy Congress (WOCTC) held April 25-26 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Steven Katz, MD, chief medical officer, Trisalus, and associate professor of surgery, Brown University.

The PEDD system is an interventional radiology catheter system and SD-101, the immunomodulatory therapy, is a toll-like receptor 9 agonist. The PEDD system is FDA-cleared and is being used in clinics today with standard therapies such as chemoebolization. SD-101 is being studied in phase 1 trials in primary liver cancers, liver metastases, and primary pancreatic cancers.

CGTLive spoke with Katz to learn more about how the PEDD system and SD-101 work to address these challenges in solid tumors. He discussed the clinically validated advantages of the PEDD system and noted that Trisalus is studying SD-101 to be used in combination with the PEDD system as well as systemic checkpoint inhibitors.

Click here to read more coverage of WOCTC 2023.

REFERENCE

Katz S. Immunotherapies to treat liver and pancreatic cancers. Presented at: WOCTC; April 25-26; Boston, Massachusetts.