Cited by 605CAR-T cell therapy researchCancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersOccupational and environmental lung diseases

A Phase I Trial of Regional Mesothelin-Targeted CAR T-cell Therapy in Patients with Malignant Pleural Disease, in Combination with the Anti–PD-1 Agent Pembrolizumab

Open access
Adusumilli, Prasad S., Zauderer, Marjorie G., Rivière, Isabelle, Solomon, Stephen B., Rusch, Valerie W., O'Cearbhaill, Roisin E., Zhu, Amy, Cheema, Waseem +22 more·2021·Cancer Discovery

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Malignant pleural diseases, comprising metastatic lung and breast cancers and malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), are aggressive solid tumors with poor therapeutic response. We developed and conducted a first-in-human, phase I study of regionally delivered, autologous, mesothelin-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Intrapleural administration of 0.3M to 60M CAR T cells/kg in 27 patients (25 with MPM) was safe and well tolerated. CAR T cells were detected in peripheral blood for >100 days in 39% of patients. Following our demonstration that PD-1 blockade enhances CAR T-cell function in mice, 18 patients with MPM also received pembrolizumab safely. Among those patients, median overall survival from CAR T-cell infusion was 23.9 months (1-year overall survival, 83%). Stable disease was sustained for ≥6 months in 8 patients; 2 exhibited complete metabolic response on PET scan. Combination immunotherapy with CAR T cells and PD-1 blockade agents should be further evaluated in patients with solid tumors. Significance: Regional delivery of mesothelin-targeted CAR T-cell therapy followed by pembrolizumab administration is feasible, safe, and demonstrates evidence of antitumor efficacy in patients with malignant pleural diseases. Our data support the investigation of combination immunotherapy with CAR T cells and PD-1 blockade agents in solid tumors. See related commentary by Aldea et al., p. 2674. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 2659

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1158/2159-8290.cd-21-0407

Cites

37 of 37 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • A phase 1 study demonstrated that CAR-T cell therapy combined with α-PD-1/PD-L1 had confirmed antitumor activity in patients with malignant pleural diseases.

    “The results of phase 1 study demonstrated CAR-T cell therapy combined with α-PD-1/PD-L1 had confirmed antitumor activity in patients with malignant pleural diseases [344].”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [32]Cherkassky L, Morello A, Villena-Vargas J, Feng Y, Dimitrov DS, Jones DR, Human CAR T cells with cell-intrinsic PD-1 checkpoint blockade resist tumor-mediated inhibition. J Clin Invest 2016; 126(8): 3130– 44. 27454297 PMC4966328

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Adusumilli, P. S., Zauderer, M. G., Rivière, I., Solomon, S. B., Rusch, V. W., O'Cearbhaill, R. E., Zhu, A., Cheema, W., Chintala, N. K., Halton, E., Pineda, J., Perez-Johnston, R., Tan, K. S., Daly, B., Araujo Filho, J. A., Ngai, D., McGee, E., Vincent, A., Diamonte, C., Sauter, J. L., Modi, S., Sikder, D., Senechal, B., Wang, X., Travis, W. D., Gönen, M., Rudin, C. M., Brentjens, R. J., Jones, D. R., & Sadelain, M.
Affiliations
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
  • 6Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
  • 5Michael G. Harris Cell Therapy and Cell Engineering Facility, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York.
Corresponding author
Adusumilli, Prasad S.
Venue
Cancer Discovery
Published
2021-07-15
Volume
11
Issue
11
Pages
2748-2763
ISSN
  • 2159-8274 (ISSN-L)
  • 2159-8290
OpenAlex
W3179214161
Cited by
605
References
37
Citations by year
2026: 124 · 2025: 119 · 2024: 131 · 2023: 125 · 2022: 90 · 2021: 15
FWCI
32.88
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cancer Discovery (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • NIH (P30 CA008748, R01 CA236615-01, R01 CA235667)
  • U.S. Department of Defense (BC132124, LC160212, CA180889)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › CAR-T cell therapy research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Occupational and environmental lung diseases
Keywords
mesothelin, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, CAR T-cell therapy, malignant pleural mesothelioma, malignant pleural effusion, pembrolizumab, anti-PD-1 therapy, intrapleural administration, combination immunotherapy, autologous T cells, safety and tolerability, overall survival
MeSH terms
Mesothelin, Humans, Mesothelioma, Pleural Diseases, Immunotherapy, Adoptive, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review