Mustang Bio Announces City of Hope Opens First-of-Its-Kind Multiple Myeloma CAR T Cell Therapy Trial Targeting CS1 Protein

Mustang Bio (NASDAQ:MBIO) has announced that City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment center, has started enrolling patients with relapsed or treatment-resistant multiple myeloma in a CS1 chmeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy (MB-104) trial.

As quoted in the press release:

The Phase 1 clinical trial is the first autologous CAR T trial to target the CS1 protein, which is expressed by cancer cells in nearly all multiple myeloma patients. CS1 also has a low expression on normal tissues, preventing those cells from being severely damaged during treatment.

“Multiple myeloma accounts for 10% of all blood and bone marrow cancers. CS1 is a very promising target for multiple myeloma patients who currently have few viable treatment options,” said Xiuli Wang, Ph.D., City of Hope research professor in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. Dr. Wang’s team developed the CS1 CAR T and tested it successfully in preclinical and translational research.

To qualify for the trial, multiple myeloma patients will need to have tried three other treatment options and experienced a relapse or found that the disease is treatment-resistant, and they must test positive for the CS1 antigen. During the trial, the patients’ T cells will be collected intravenously and reengineered in a City of Hope good manufacturing practice (GMP) facility to express CS1 CARs. The CAR T cells will then be multiplied in a lab and infused back into the patient, where they are expected to proliferate inside a patient’s body and better recognize and kill cancer cells.

Manuel Litchman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Mustang, said, “This groundbreaking CS1 CAR T trial represents an exciting development for multiple myeloma patients. We look forward to learning more about its potential to address this difficult-to-treat disease.”

Click here to read the full press release.