The Phase I portion of the ARYA-3 study is now open for enrollment.
Glypican 3 is a promising target for HCC therapies and is found in more than 70% of HCC cells.
The GPC3 protein is also expressed in other solid tumors including ovarian and lung cancer.
During the ECT204 ARYA-3 investigational study, a patient's T cells will be collected, engineered to express Eureka's proprietary ARTEMIS cell receptors targeting GPC3, and infused back into the patient's body to target and kill GPC3-expressing cancer cells.
The ARYA-3 trial is being run in parallel with Eureka's ongoing ET140203 ARYA-1 trial. With ET140203, the ARTEMIS receptor targets an alpha fetoprotein -peptide/HLA-A2 complex found on liver cancer cells using a TCR-mimic antibody.
With ECT204, since the antibody directly recognizes GPC3 and does not require the patient to be HLA-A2 positive, the therapy is potentially available to a larger liver cancer patient population.
The ARYA-3 study is an open-label, dose escalation, multi-center, Phase I/II clinical trial of ECT204 ARTEMIS T cell therapy to initially assess the safety and determine the recommended phase II dose in adult patients with advanced GPC3-positive HCC.
Liver cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death worldwide, accounting for an estimated 782,000 deaths in 2018.
About 43,000 new cases, and 30,000 deaths from liver cancer are expected to occur in the US in 2020. The rate of liver cancer diagnosis has more than tripled since 1980, according to the American Cancer Society. Patients with advanced HCC have a poor prognosis and limited treatment options.
Eureka Therapeutics, Inc. is a privately held clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel T cell therapies to treat cancers.
Its core technology centers around its proprietary ARTEMIS cell receptor platform and E-ALPHA antibody discovery platform for the discovery and development of potentially safer and more effective T cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.
ET140203 and ECT204, the company's lead assets, are currently in Phase I/II US multicenter clinical trials in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer.
Eureka Therapeutics, Inc. is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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