Safety, Efficacy, and Biological Data of T-Cell-Enabling Oncolytic Adenovirus TILT-123 in Advanced Solid Cancers from the TUNIMO Monotherapy Phase I Trial
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 29, 2025
Paramyxoviruses for Tumor-targeted Immunomodulation: Design and Evaluation Ex Vivo
Published on: January 7, 2019
Santeri A Pakola1, Katriina J Peltola2, James H A Clubb1,3
1Cancer Gene Therapy Group, Translational Immunology Research Program, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Purpose:
TILT-123 (igrelimogene litadenorepvec) is an oncolytic adenovirus armed with TNFa and IL2, designed to induce T-cell infiltration and cytotoxicity in solid tumors.
Patients And Methods:
TUNIMO (NCT04695327) was a single-arm, multicenter phase I dose-escalation trial designed to assess the safety of TILT-123 in advanced solid cancers refractory to standard therapy. Patients received intravenous and intratumoral TILT-123. The primary endpoint was safety by adverse events (AE), laboratory values, vital signs, and electrocardiograms. Secondary endpoints included tumor response, pharmacokinetics, and predictive biomarkers.
Results:
Twenty patients were enrolled, with a median age of 58 years. Most prevalent cancer types included sarcomas (35%), melanomas (15%) and ovarian cancers (15%). No dose-limiting toxicities were observed. The most frequent treatment-related AEs included fever (16.7%), chills (13.0%), and fatigue (9.3%). Ten patients were evaluable for response on day 78 with RECIST 1.1, iRECIST or PET-based evaluation. The disease control rate by PET was 6/10 (60% of evaluable patients) and 2/10 by RECIST 1.1 and iRECIST(20%of evaluable patients). Tumor size reductions occurred in both injected and non-injected lesions. TILT-123 was detected in injected and non-injected tumors, and virus was observed in blood after intravenous and intratumoral injections. Treatment resulted in reduction of lymphocytes in blood, with concurrent lymphocyte increases in tumors, findings compatible with trafficking.
Conclusions:
TILT-123 was safe and able to produce antitumor effects in local and distant lesions in heavily pre-treated patients. Good tolerability of TILT-123 facilitates combination studies, several of which are ongoing (NCT04217473, NCT05271318, NCT05222932, and NCT06125197). See related commentary by Silva-Pilipich and Smerdou, p. 3649.
