CD40 Antibody 2141‑V11 Shrinks Tumors in 6 of 12
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- Researchers engineered a CD40 agonist antibody (2141‑V11) that binds more tightly to human CD40 and improves crosslinking via a specific Fc receptor, showing ~10‑fold greater immune activation in lab studies.
- The phase 1 trial administered 2141‑V11 by direct intratumoral injection to 12 patients with metastatic melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, or breast cancer, and reported only mild toxicity with no severe side effects previously seen with CD40 drugs.
- Six participants experienced tumor shrinkage across the body, and two of them achieved complete remission, with all detectable cancer disappearing after injecting just a single tumor.
- The melanoma patient had dozens of metastatic lesions; after multiple injections of 2141‑V11 into one thigh tumor, all other tumors on the leg, foot, and elsewhere vanished.
- The breast cancer patient with skin, liver, and lung metastases also cleared all disease after only the skin tumor was injected with 2141‑V11.
- Immune analysis revealed formation of tertiary lymphoid structures within injected and non‑injected tumors, indicating a systemic immune response that recruited dendritic, T, and B cells to distant sites.
Why it matters: Patients with metastatic cancers could gain a therapy that triggers whole‑body tumor clearance while avoiding the severe inflammation and organ toxicity that have limited earlier CD40 drugs, potentially expanding immunotherapy options for aggressive cancers and offering a new route for clinicians to achieve systemic responses from a single tumor injection.
