Study of ATL001 Plus ICI Therapy Now Enrolling Patients with Metastatic Melanoma

Source: Targeted Oncology, May 2022

Enrollment of patients with metastatic malignant melanoma has begun in cohort B of the THETIS clinical trial, which is evaluating the use of personalized clonal neoantigen-reactive T cells (cNET) with the novel agent ATL001 administered in combination with PD-1 checkpoint inhibition, according to a press release by Achilles Therapeutics.

Administration of the cNET agent in the study is approached with the VELOS Process 2. VELOS is a unique process designed to make manufacturing closed and automated. It utilizes dendritic cells to provide a personalized, and definite T-cell-based therapy that can selectively target more than one clonal neoantigen with better T cell fitness and less need for high-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) compared with other processes.

“… Initiating enrollment in THETIS Cohort B, which will evaluate cNeT in combination with a PD-1 inhibitor, are major milestones for Achilles. Our personalized cell therapy has been developed to address the hardest to treat cancers, including NSCLC and melanoma, which often become resistant to other treatments,” said Iraj Ali, PhD chief executive officer of Achilles Therapeutics, in a press release. “Our VELOS Process 2 has been shown to deliver increased cNeT doses while retaining T cell fitness. We are excited by the therapeutic potential of our higher-dose cNeT monotherapy and cNeT combination treatments and look forward to reporting clinical data in the second half of 2022.”

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