Project description
Targeting residual ALK-positive cancer cells
The anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene produces a receptor protein which is important for nervous system development and can be aberrantly expressed by certain cancers. When mutated or fused, ALK drives uncontrolled cell growth, causing some lung cancers, lymphomas, neuroblastomas, and other malignancies. ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) can initially shrink tumours and maintain minimal residual disease (MRD), but relapse is common and prognosis poor. The ERC-funded A-PONTE project aims to eliminate residual ALK-positive cells before relapse using ALK-directed T cell immunotherapies. CAR-T cells target tumour-surface ALK, while TCR-T cells recognise peptides generated by intracellular ALK. Combined with vaccines or other methods, they may clear MRD during remission, offering potential cures.
Objective
Cancers driven by the oncogenic activation of the ALK gene include subsets of non-small cell lung cancer, lymphoma, neuroblastoma, melanoma, glioblastoma, thyroid cancer, stromal tumors and other hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. Typically, these cancers affect children or young adults in healthy conditions with a long expectancy of life. They are currently treated with ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) either in first line or at relapse after other standard therapies. ALK TKIs reduce tumor burden dramatically, and often induce a prolonged state of minimal residual disease (MRD) resulting in several years of extended survival. Eventually, most ALK+ tumors become resistant to ALK TKIs by different mechanisms. Relapses occur in >90% of patients that are then left without efficacious therapies and face a dismal prognosis. This common pattern of evolution of ALK+ tumors, characterized by a prolonged state MRD before the fatal relapse, provides a window of opportunity to develop therapies that might be curative should ALK+ persister cells be fully eradicated.
In this proposal, we will develop, test and validate a portfolio of ALK-directed T cell immunotherapies to achieve eradication of residual ALK+ cells during the MRD state induced by ALK TKIs. These immunotherapies include potentiated ALK.CAR-T cells for tumors that express ALK on the surface, and ALK.TCR-T cells for tumors that express ALK internally in the cytoplasm. ALK-directed T cell immunotherapies will be tested alone or in novel modalities of combination between them, with ALK vaccines or with other approaches to further potentiate their anti-tumoral efficacy. We will empower these ALK immunotherapies to eradicate MRD based on the ALK genetic alteration that is specific to each tumor. We envision that the combination of ALK TKIs with ALK-directed T cell immunotherapies could achieve a complete cure in a large subset of patients with ALK+ tumors before the onset of relapse or metastatic spread.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology skin cancer melanoma
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs vaccines
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology immunotherapy
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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10124 Torino
Italy
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