Brian Van Tine, MD, PhD, on Looking Ahead on Cell Therapy for Sarcomas

“The good news is this has gotten complex. The good news is we're answering these questions. And I think the bad news is that the questions being answered lead to more questions. But the good news is that the partnership and the interest in this field within trying to figure out what goes where and how is really happening now.”

The SPEARHEAD-1 trial (NCT04044768) is assessing afamitresgene autoleucel (afami-cel; AdaptImmune) T-cell receptor SPEAR T-cell therapy in patients with advanced synovial sarcoma (SS) and myxoid/round cell liposarcoma. The trial most recently demonstrated a survival benefit in patients with advanced SS and Van Tine presented these data at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2023 Annual Meeting, held June 2-6, in Chicago, Illinois.

CGTLive spoke with Brian Van Tine, professor, medicine and pediatrics, Washington University in St. Louis, during July’s Sarcoma Awareness Month to learn more about the future challenges and road ahead for the field of cell therapy in sarcoma. Besides SPEARHEAD-1, he mentioned the potential future findings from the SURPASS clinical trial (NCT04044859) that is also evaluating cell therapy for MAGE-A4–expressing tumors, similarly to the SPEARHEAD-1 trial. He discussed how centers may adapt to being able to accommodate treating sarcoma patients with cell therapy if approved in the future. He also touched on a number of interesting research and findings presented at the ASCO meeting.

REFERENCE

Van Tine BA, Ganjoo KN, Blay JY, et al. The SPEARHEAD-1 trial of afamitresgene autoleucel (afami-cel [formerly ADP-A2M4]): Analysis of overall survival in advanced synovial sarcoma. Presented at: ASCO 2023 Annual Meeting; June 2-6; Chicago, Illinois. Poster #497