Clinical Data Published in 'Science' Show Tumor Regressions in Relapsed Lymphoma Patients Treated with T Cell Engaging BiTE Antibody Blinatumomab
Thursday August 14, 2:01 pm ET
First T cell engaging antibody (BiTE) showing clinical benefit in cancer patients; Blinatumomab enables patients own T cells to recognize and attack cancer cells
BETHESDA, Md., Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Micromet, Inc. (Nasdaq: MITI - News), a biopharmaceutical company developing novel, proprietary antibodies for the treatment of cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, today announced publication of a Phase 1 clinical study(1) on its BiTE® antibody blinatumomab (MT103/MEDI-538) in this week's issue of Science. The article is available at www.sciencemag.org. Blinatumomab is being co-developed with MedImmune.
Blinatumomab is a novel antibody therapy that activates a patient's T cells to seek out and destroy cancer cells. The phase 1 study demonstrated tumor regression, and in some cases, complete remission, in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients who relapsed after previous treatments and were considered to have incurable disease. Most of the remissions are reported to continue, with the longest remission ongoing for more than one year. Results from this ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial with the CD19-specific BiTE antibody blinatumomab show that all seven patients treated to date at 0.06 mg/m2 per day achieved complete or partial responses. The safety profile observed in this study supports continued blinatumomab development.
"These results represent significant progress of a T cell engaging antibody for treatment of lymphoma patients as single agent therapy. We observed tumor regression in patients at serum levels of blinatumomab, which are approximately five orders of magnitude lower than serum levels needed by conventional monoclonal antibodies for achieving a tumor regression in this disease. This may relate to the high anti-tumor activity of cytotoxic T cells recruited by blinatumomab," commented Micromet Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer Patrick Baeuerle.
"This first observation of durable objective responses in relapsed, incurable patients indicates the potential blinatumomab and BiTE antibodies in general may have in fighting cancer," added Micromet Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Carsten Reinhardt, M.D.
Typically antibodies cannot engage T cells because T cells lack the appropriate receptors for binding antibodies. Previous attempts have shown the potential of T cells to treat cancer, but the therapeutic approaches tested to date have been hampered by cancer cells' ability to escape recognition by T cells. The use of antibodies that are specifically designed to engage T cells for attacking cancer cells may provide a more effective anti-tumor approach than conventional monoclonal antibodies, which require much higher doses and are typically combined with chemotherapies.
Micromet has additional clinical trials with BiTE antibodies underway, including a phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate blinatumomab for the treatment of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and a phase 1 trial investigating MT110, a BiTE antibody targeting EpCAM, in patients with lung or gastrointestinal cancers.
Micromet will host a webcast and a conference call on Monday, August 18 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, (4:00 p.m. Central European Time), to discuss these results. The webcast can be accessed at: www.micromet-inc.com/sciencepub. To participate in the conference call, dial 866-202-4367 (U.S.) or 617-213-8845 (international), passcode: 31176615.
(1) Bargou R et al. (2008) Tumor regression in cancer patients by very low doses of a T cell-engaging antibody. Science 321: 974-977 (2008) |
