The purpose of this study is to test the safety and efficacy of iC9-GD2-CAR T-cells, a third generation (4.1BB-CD28) CAR T cell treatment targeting GD2 in paediatric or young adult patients affected by relapsed/refractory malignant central nervous system (CNS) tumors. In order to improve the safety of the approach, the suicide gene inducible Caspase 9 (iC9) has been included.
The study will consist of a Phase I, dose escalation phase aimed at evaluating the safety and feasibility of intravenous injections of autologous iC9-GD2-CAR T-cells in patients with refractory/relapsed malignant CNS tumors. Considering the peculiar potential risks associated with the treatment of CNS tumors, the study has been designed to enrol patients in 3 different arms depending on the histology and location of the disease. This model of enrollment is aimed at testing the safety sequentially, starting from categories of patients at lower risk of severe intracranial hypertension first, and subsequently proceeding with patients at proportionally increased risk. In particular, the three arms explored will be relapsed or refractory: * ARM A: MB/other embryonal tumor * ARM B: Hemispheric HGG * ARM C: Thalamic HGG, DMG, DIPG and other rare CNS tumors not included in Arm A and B Eligible patients will undergo leukapheresis in order to harvest T cells, which will be manufactured to obtain the autologous CAR T product iC9-GD2-CAR T-cells, a GD2-targeting CAR T product. Briefly, the patients will be treated with a lymphodepleting regimen containing conventional chemotherapic agents and subsequently will receive a single infusion of GD2-CART01. Moreover, the product contains a suicide gene safety switch (namely inducible Caspase 9): in case of relevant toxicities, the patient will receive the dimerizing agent in order to activate the apoptotic pathway in the infused T cells. After infusion of CAR T cells, the patients will enter a 5-year active follow-up period (for disease follow-up). A conventional 15-year follow-up will be performed as per regulatory requirements in patients receiving gene therapy.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
54
Following a lymphodepleting treatment with conventional chemotherapy, patients will be treated with 1.0 to 6.0 x 10⁶/kg GD2 Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) positive T cells, infused i.v. as a single dose
Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù
Roma, Italy, Italy
RECRUITINGSafety and definition of the MTD/RD
To evaluate the safety of the infusion of iC9-GD2-CAR-T cells at different escalating/de-escalating doses and establish the dose limiting toxicity (DLT) and the maximum tolerated dose/recommended dose (MTD/RD) of the cellular product
Time frame: 4 weeks after CAR T cell infusion
In vivo expansion and persistence
To assess the in vivo persistence and expansion of the infused CAR T-cells in the peripheral blood (PB) and CSF using immunoassays and transgene detection (Droplet PCR), both for the whole population and the specific T cells subsets
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Tumor infiltration
To evaluate the tumor infiltration of the infused T cells by immunohistochemistry (IHC), flow cytometry and/or transgene detection (Droplet PCR), whenever the tumor sample is available after the treatment
Time frame: Up to 5 years
iC9-GD2-CAR-T cells clearance after AP1903 infusion
To assess the kinetic of iC9-GD2-CAR-T cells clearance after AP1903 infusion
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Serum cytokine profiling
To define the serum and CSF cytokine profile and its correlation with CRS in order to identify a possible predictive profile
Time frame: Up to 3 months
Time to progression (TTP)
To evaluate the TTP after infusion
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Event-free survival (EFS)
To evaluate the EFS after infusion
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Overall survival (OS)
To evaluate the OS after infusion
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Disease outcome according to the Response assessment in pediatric neuro-oncology (RAPNO) criteria
umor response assessment through the RAPNO criteria
Time frame: Up to 5 years
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