In this episode of Targeted Talks, Edwin Choy, MD, PhD, discussed the FDA approval of afamitresgene autoleucel for the treatment of patients with advanced synovial sarcoma.
In this episode of Targeted Talks, Edwin Choy, MD, PhD, director of the sarcoma program at the Division of Hematology Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of Mass General Brigham, and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, delves into the recent approval of afamitresgene autoleucel (afami-cel; Tecelra) for the treatment of patients with advanced synovial sarcoma.
“Afami-cel is a T-cell receptor therapy. What we do is we harvest the cell to the patient and then we modify the receptor to target a cancer protein called MAGE-A4. Once the T-cell receptor is genetically modified, we can reinfuse the T cells back into the cancer patient,” explains Choy.
The engineered T-cell receptor therapy gained accelerated approval from the FDA on August 1, 2024, for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic synovial sarcoma who have received prior chemotherapy, are HLA-A*02:01P, -A*02:02P, -A*02:03P, or -A*02:06P positive and whose tumor expresses the MAGE-A4 antigen as determined by FDA-approved or -cleared companion diagnostic devices.1
Findings from the phase 2 SPEARHEAD-1 trial (NCT04044768) supported this approval with approximately 39% of patients with heavily pretreated synovial sarcoma responding to afami-cel. In this cohort, the median duration of response was approximately 12 months, and the median overall survival was approximately 17 months.2,3
“The fact that we now have a treatment that has a 39% response rate in synovial sarcoma is a significant advantage over what we had available before this drug,” adds Choy.