Nature publishes study on AbelZeta's GPC3 CAR-T therapy for liver cancer
Nature published clinical findings for AbelZeta's armored autologous GPC3 CAR-T therapy (C-CAR031/AZD7003) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
Global biopharmaceutical company AbelZeta Pharma announced that the scientific journal Nature has published results of a first-in-human clinical study evaluating the safety and efficacy of C-CAR031. This therapy is a glypican-3 (GPC3)-targeted autologous CAR-T cell therapy, previously co-developed by AbelZeta and AstraZeneca in China, and now solely developed by AstraZeneca as AZD7003.
The therapy, now known as AZD7003, is designed to target advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The published study reports a manageable safety profile and encouraging anti-tumor activity in 36 patients who had received a median of four prior lines of treatment for advanced HCC.
The study found tumor regression in 32 out of 36 patients, with a median best tumor reduction of 41.6% in target lesions. The objective response rate (ORR) was 44.4%, and the median duration of response (DOR) was 4.4 months. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 4.2 months, and median overall survival (OS) was 14.2 months.
Two patients experienced Grade 3 cytokine release syndrome (CRS), and nine patients had Grade 3 or higher non-hematological adverse events. AbelZeta and AstraZeneca initially partnered on the China development in 2023, with AstraZeneca later acquiring the remaining China development and commercialization rights, leading global development of the investigational product.This publication in Nature substantiates prior preliminary data, offering deeper insights into the therapy's potential for patients with difficult-to-treat liver cancer.