Safety and Efficacy of CT041 in Patients With Refractory Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer: A Pooled Analysis of Two Early-Phase Trials

PURPOSE CT041 is a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)–modified T-cell therapy that specifically targets claudin18.2 in solid tumors. Here, we report the pooled analysis results of two exploratory clinical trials to evaluate CT041 in patients with previously treated pancreatic cancer (PC). PATIENTS AND METHODS These two multicenter, open-label phase I/Ib trials (CT041-CG4006, CT041-ST-01) have a similar target population and evaluation schedule. The primary objective was to assess the safety and tolerability of CT041, whereas secondary objectives included efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and immunogenicity. RESULTS The combined cohort comprised 24 patients with advanced PC. Among them, five patients (20.8%) had previously received one line of therapy, whereas 19 (79.2%) received ≥2 lines of therapy. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events of grade 3 or more were preconditioning-related hematologic toxicities. Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and GI disorders were most reported grade 1 or 2 adverse events. The overall response rate and disease control rate were 16.7% and 70.8%. The median progression-free survival (mPFS) after infusion was 3.3 months (95% CI, 1.8 to 6.2), and the median overall survival (mOS) was 10.0 months (95% CI, 5.5 to 17.6). The median duration of response (mDoR)was 9.5 months (95% CI, 2.6 to Not reached), with a DoR rate at 12 months of 50% (95% CI, 5.8 to 84.5). The mPFS (6.0 v 1.0 months, P < .001) and mOS (17.6 v 4.0 months, P < .001) were prolonged in patients achieving partial response/stable disease than the progressive disease group. CA19-9 levels had reduced by at least 30% in 17 (70.8%) patients. CONCLUSION In patients with metastatic PC after progression on previous therapy, CT041 demonstrated a tolerable safety profile and encouraging anticancer efficacy signals. Response benefit observed here needs to be ascertained in the future.