This result adds to the presentation of PeproMene Bio's clinical trial of PMB-CT01 in relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at last month's American Society of Hematology annual meeting in San Diego. The trial results, presented by Elizabeth Budde, M.D., Ph.D., City of Hope associate professor, Division of Lymphoma, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, generated considerable excitement because all three patients achieved durable complete remissions with minimal toxicity (https://ash.confex.com/ash/2023/webprogram/Paper183032.html).

The trials are taking place at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, which also developed the therapy.

During the first month of treatment, the patient only experienced low grade treatment emergent toxicities, including grade 1 cytokine release syndrome ("CRS") resolved without intervention, and no immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome ("ICANS").   

"We are excited about the treatment outcomes as this patient had a relapsed B-cell ALL after prior treatment with chemotherapy and blinatumomab. His relapsed disease was both CD19- and CD22-negative, implying very limited available therapeutic options for him," said Ibrahim T. Aldoss, M.D., City of Hope associate professor, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and the principal investigator of this single-center, dose escalation with expansion trial (NCT04690595).

"He tolerated the treatment of BAFFR-CAR T Cells really well with only minimal and anticipated toxicities.  Additionally, he achieved complete remission and clearance of minimal residual disease (MRD), indicating an excellent response to this effective therapy."

"PeproMene has achieved an exceptional milestone in the development and evaluation of PMB-CT01 with the observation of the acceptable safety profile and complete response in this PMB-CT01 treated B-ALL patient. These initial clinical outcomes are supported by City of Hope preclinical research data published in Science Translational Medicine in 2019, which shows BAFFR-CAR T Cells can effectively eliminate various B-cell malignancies including B-ALL and different subtypes of B-lymphomas," said Hazel Cheng, Ph.D., COO of PeproMene.

PMB-CT01 was invented by the laboratory of Larry W. Kwak, M.D., Ph.D., vice president and deputy director of City of Hope's Comprehensive Cancer Center and PeproMene's scientific founder and compensated chair of its Scientific Advisory Board. Kwak has an equity interest in PeproMene.

City of Hope holds an interest in the investigational compound 'BAFFR(EQ)BBζ/EGFRt+ CAR T Cells', the compound being studied in this research.