A peer-reviewed study published in Nature Cancer describes GCAR1, an experimental CAR T-cell therapy that targets a protein called GPNMB, found on alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS) and a rare form of kidney cancer. CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy) is an immunotherapy in which patient’s own immune cells are engineered to kill the patient’s own cancer cells. Before testing GCAR1 in a patient, researchers showed it could effectively kill tumor cells in the lab and in animal models. In an early-phase, single-patient trial, GCAR1 then kept a patient with relapsed, metastatic ASPS stable for up to 3 months, shrank several tumors outside the main target lesion, was well tolerated, and remained detectable in the bloodstream for at least a month. The researchers also found that combining GCAR1 with an existing immunotherapy drug boosted its effectiveness in animal models, pointing to a possible way to improve future treatment. Together, the findings offer early proof of concept that CAR T-cell therapy, already used in blood cancers, can be extended to solid tumors by targeting surface proteins linked to specific cancer-driving gene fusions,  a strategy that may apply more broadly to other GPNMB-expressing cancers and other fusion-driven tumor types.

A Clinical trial of “GCAR1” CAR T-Cell Therapy is expected to open soon. See NCT06789081

Yosef Landesman Ph.D.,
President and Cancer Research Director of Cure Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma International,
E-mail: landesmany@yahoo.com