Hackensack Meridian John Theurer Cancer Center Recruiting Patients for Clinical Trials of Novel CAR T-Cell Therapies for Solid Tumors

ATHENA and APOLLO trials evaluating CAR T-cell therapies for advanced liver and prostate cancers

December 11, 2024

Researchers at Hackensack Meridian John Theurer Cancer Center—part of the National Cancer Institute-designated Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University—are conducting two pivotal studies assessing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for advanced liver and prostate cancers.

The two new clinical trials currently enrolling patients at John Theurer Cancer Center are:

• ATHENA, a phase I/II study assessing AZD5851 CAR T-cell therapy for adults with metastatic or inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma that has grown or came back despite treatment. AZD5851 targets a protein on some liver cancer cells called GPC3; patients must have this protein on their cancers to participate.
• APOLLO, a phase I/II study evaluating AZD0754 CAR T-cell therapy for adults with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. AZD0754 targets a protein on prostate cancer cells called STEAP2, which drives cancer growth.

“We are pleased to offer these groundbreaking clinical trials for people with advanced liver and prostate cancers who have exhausted all other treatment options,” said medical oncologist Martin E. Gutierrez, MD, director of the Drug Discovery and Phase 1 Unit at John Theurer Cancer Center. “We hope that these treatments will be as beneficial as CAR T-cell therapies have been for patients with blood cancers.”

John Theurer Cancer Center was the first center in New Jersey to offer CAR T-cell therapy and pioneered its early assessment. To date, no CAR T-cell therapy has been approved by the FDA for solid tumors. Investigators at John Theurer Cancer Center are conducting clinical trials of novel CAR T-cell treatments for a range of solid tumors.

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