Oncternal Therapeutics amends trial after patient death

US oncology drug developer Oncternal Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ONCT) took a 10% initial tumble after it revealed a patient in an early-stage trial of its ONCT-808, but closed the day up 18% at $0.59.

Oncternal updated the status of its dose escalation/dose expansion Phase I/II Study ONCT-808-101, evaluating the company’s ROR1-targeting autologous CAR T cell therapy ONCT-808 for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive B-cell lymphoma, including patients who have failed previous CD19 CAR T treatment.

At the initial dose of 1x106 CAR T cells per kg, two of the three patients achieved complete metabolic response (CMR) and the third achieved a partial response (PR) by FDG PET-CT. Common adverse events in this dosing cohort included decreased blood counts, pneumonia and Grade 1-2 cytokine release syndrome (CRS) as of a December 4, 2023 data cutoff.