First in human trials of a CART cell using a llama single domain ab construct targeting mesothelin in solid tumors.
@cyrilpedia an innovative but still small ray of light for patients having urgent unmet needs.
@lymphomation I agree - in general I am hopeful but very skeptical about any approach targeting a single antigen.
@cyrilpedia invaluable for hem cancers with antigens normally and broadly expressed and arising from mature blood cells (cd20, 19...)
@lymphomation Yes, absolutely! But unfortunately even there the recurrence rate is still over 50% and a lot of it is due to loss of target antigen or epitope.
I wrote a bit about bispecifics that are coming out (including a cool story involving Francis Crick) that are a potential improvement:
@lymphomation It's a strength of the T cell mRNA vaccination approaches coming up that they target multiple epitopes, for Moderna, over 30 per patient.
@cyrilpedia Yes, however (just my understanding) the number of Tumor-associated antigens and associated dysregulation of growth & survival pathways are described as an avalanche in most cancers.
...Add to this the heterogeneity of same within tumors in the same patients.