Kidney cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, with approximately 50,000 patients diagnosed in the United States each year. That’s why researchers developed CTX130 (CRISPR Therapeutics), which is an allogeneic, CRISPR/Cas9-modified CAR-T therapy that targets CD70, an antigen known to be expressed by certain solid tumors and hematological malignancies. This treatment controlled disease in more than three-quarters of patients with advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma, according to results from a phase 1 trial. Data from the COBALT-RCC study presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer annual meeting also revealed that one patient with stage IV disease experienced a complete remission of more than 2 years after a single infusion of the experimental agent. The research group is already working on a second-generation version of the agent that is currently in preclinical testing.
