CuraCell TX has reported new findings supporting its personalised tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy platform, following publication of data from a pancreatic cancer patient treated through the company’s CytoPLY named-patient programme.

The paper, published in Cytotherapy, is the third and final scientific report arising from the programme and adds pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) to a growing body of evidence generated from personalised T-cell treatments in patients with advanced cancers.

The publication describes the use of sequential TIL infusions in a patient with pancreatic cancer and explores their potential to address intratumoural heterogeneity, one of the major challenges associated with treating solid tumours.

According to CuraCell, the patient achieved a partial response and demonstrated immunological markers consistent with biological activity from the infused cell therapies.

The latest report follows previous publications involving patients with metastatic prostate cancer, recurrent glioblastoma and renal cell carcinoma.

Collectively, the three publications describe outcomes from named-patient treatments in heavily pretreated individuals with limited therapeutic options. Reported outcomes included two complete responses, one in metastatic prostate cancer and one in recurrent glioblastoma, together with partial responses in pancreatic cancer and renal cell carcinoma.

The company also reported evidence of long-term immune persistence and anti-tumour activity following treatment.

Lucas Arruda, chief scientific officer at CuraCell and co-author of the studies, said: “These three publications represent an important scientific milestone for CuraCell and provide a unique translational dataset generated from real-world named-patient treatments.

“Across prostate cancer, glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer, we consistently observed evidence that transferred T cells can persist, infiltrate tumours, and contribute to clinically meaningful responses.”

Arruda added: “Importantly, the pancreatic cancer study highlights how sequential TIL products may help overcome intratumoral heterogeneity, one of the key barriers limiting treatment success in solid tumours. Together, these findings strengthen the scientific rationale for advancing next-generation personalized cell therapies into broader clinical development.”

While the findings are encouraging, the reported outcomes are based on a small number of named-patient cases and should not be interpreted as evidence of efficacy across broader patient populations. Larger prospective clinical studies will be needed to confirm safety and effectiveness.

Martin Forster, board member and clinical advisor at CuraCell, said: “While the patient numbers remain limited, the collective experience from the named-patient treatments provide important clinical insights.

“Across these heavily pretreated patients, we observed evidence of durable disease control and objective responses in tumour types where treatment options are often exhausted.”

The pancreatic cancer publication is particularly notable because pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma remains one of the most difficult cancers to treat successfully. Immunotherapy approaches that have transformed outcomes in some tumour types have generally shown limited benefit in pancreatic cancer, in part because of tumour heterogeneity and an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment.

CuraCell believes its personalised TIL approach may help address some of these challenges by generating patient-specific immune responses against multiple tumour targets.

The company is now advancing its CytoPLY platform through CC-38, which is currently being evaluated in an ongoing Phase 1/2a clinical trial in patients with colorectal cancer and prostate cancer.

Results from that study are expected to provide a more formal assessment of the platform’s clinical potential and help determine whether the promising observations seen in individual patients can be reproduced in a broader clinical setting.