What happened
One of the better-performing biotech stocks of recent days and weeks, Alaunos Therapeutics (TCRT -2.68%) landed in positive territory on Tuesday. The company's share price inched up marginally, but that was good enough to beat the decline of the S&P 500 index. Investors were cheered by a clinical update from Alaunos.
So what
Alaunos, which concentrates on T-cell receptor therapies, announced early clinical findings from a phase 1/2 trial of its TCR-T Library. The trial aims to evaluate the effect of TCR-T cells designed and developed by the company on patients with a variety of cancers.
Alaunos said that the first patient dosed had a confirmed objective partial response to the treatment. This recipient has been diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer. The biotech quoted its CEO Kevin Boyle as saying that "This is the first time that an objective clinical response has been observed in a solid tumor cancer in connection with non-viral TCR-T cell therapy."
Alaunos added that a second patient, suffering from colon cancer, has also been dosed and has passed the 28-day safety window.
Now what
The investor response to this news was likely muted because these results derive from a very early stage of the TCR-T cells' testing. Nevertheless, at this point the development of these potentially ground-breaking therapies continues to look encouraging.
Alaunos said it will continue enrolling patients for the trial. It also said it will present additional data at the annual CRI-ENCI-AACR International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference, an industry gathering, on Friday, Sept. 30.
