ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT07297667Updated Oct 16, 2026

GCAR1, a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-CELL Therapy for Relapsed/Refractory GPNMB-Expressing Solid Tumours

A Phase 1 interventional study of Fludarabine and Cyclophosphamide in Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma, Renal Cell Carcinoma and Triple Negative Breast Cancer, sponsored by Canadian Cancer Trials Group. Recruiting at 4 sites in Canada. Open to participants aged 15 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-16.

Sponsored by Canadian Cancer Trials Group · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Aug 2026; still recruiting 2 months later.
Updated Oct 16, 2026Eligibility revised1 site addedGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Phase 1
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
30
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
15 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Only enrolling in Canada.

The purpose of this study is to identify the highest dose of GCAR1, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cell therapy, that can be tolerated without causing very severe side effects, and to see what effects GCAR1 has on selected cancers

Read the detailed description

GCAR1 is a type of CAR-T cell therapy that is designed to identify a protein (GPNMB) that is present on the cells of certain types of cancer. Laboratory tests have shown that GCAR1 helps the immune system recognize cancer cells and may help slow down cancer growth.

The purpose of this study is to find out what effects the new treatment, GCAR1 has on certain cancers. This study will test increasing doses of GCAR1 in participants with alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS), triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), and renal cell carcinoma (RCC) expressing high levels of the GPNMB protein, to establish recommended doses for further testing.

02

Conditions studied

  • Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma
  • Renal Cell Carcinoma
  • Triple Negative Breast Cancer
03

In context

Sarcoma, Alveolar Soft Part

51 studies on the registry are indexed under Sarcoma, Alveolar Soft Part; 10 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 30 is below the median of 53 across 49 interventional studies indexed under Sarcoma, Alveolar Soft Part.

Browse Sarcoma, Alveolar Soft Part studies →

Lead sponsor

Canadian Cancer Trials Group is the lead sponsor of 93 studies on the registry; 29 are open to participants now.

Of its 8 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 7 (88%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

The criteria were revised on the registry on Oct 8, 2026. See what changed

Ages eligible
15 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • must be positive for GPNMB with high expression by immunohistochemistry (central laboratory testing).
  • and/or cytologically confirmed diagnosis of one of the following tumours that is advanced/ / recurrent or unresectable, for which no curative therapy exists.
  • alveolar soft part sarcoma
  • renal cell carcinoma (excluding clear cell)
  • triple negative breast cancer (ER, PR and negative as defined by ASCO/CAP criteria)
  • Must have a formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue block (from primary or metastatic tumour) available and must have provided for the release of the block.
  • Presence of radiologically documented disease.
  • as defined by 1.1.
  • ASPS participants ≥ 15 years of age.
  • TNBC and RCC participants ≥ 18 years of age.
  • performance status of 0 or 1 or or Lansky > 60.
  • Anticipated of ≥ 6 months.
  • Must have received prior systemic therapy as shown below;
  • ASPS - completed all systemic therapy available that has been shown to improve survival (unless ).
  • TNBC

    1. Progressive disease following at least one for metastatic disease which must include an ADC (all participants) and an ICI (participants whose tumours express ).
    2. ≤3 lines of treatment for metastatic disease.
    3. Must have had at least 1 prior line of cytotoxic chemotherapy for breast cancer, in any setting, which must have included an anthracycline and a taxane (unless contraindicated).
  • RCC - must have progressive disease following at least one line of systemic treatment for metastatic disease that must have included an ICI and a VEGFR targeted agent (unless contraindicated).
  • Participants must have recovered to ≤ grade 1 from all reversible toxicity related to prior therapies.
  • Adequate must be followed per protocol.
  • Previous major surgery is permitted ≥21 days prior to enrollment
  • Prior external beam radiation is permitted ≥28 prior to enrollment. Concurrent radiotherapy is not permitted.
  • Adequate hematologic and biochemical parameters.
  • Consent and assent, when applicable, must be appropriately obtained in accordance with applicable local and regulatory requirements. Each participant or their parent/ legal guardian (if applicable) must sign a consent form prior to screening onto the trial to document their willingness to participate.
  • Fit for leukapheresis and has adequate venous access for cell collection.
  • Must be accessible for treatment and follow up at the participating centre for a minimum of 12 months or for as long as is deemed necessary by the treating physician.
  • Participants of must have agreed to use a highly effective method.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria

  • Participants on active anticancer therapy for other advanced or .
  • Concurrent treatment with other anti-cancer therapy
  • Prior therapy with a gene therapy product or any adoptive T cell therapy or prior GPNMB targeting therapy.
  • administered within 30 days prior to or planned within 30 days after GCAR1 therapy.
  • Primary immunodeficiency or history of severe disease (including: Crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus) requiring agents/ systemic disease modifying agents within 2 years of enrollment.
  • Active or uncontrolled infections or with serious illnesses or medical conditions which would not permit the participant to be managed according to the protocol including but not limited to:
  • or C virus (HBV or ). For participants with previous HBV or HCV infection who are currently on treatment, they are eligible if they have an undetectable viral load via quantitative PCR and/or nucleic acid testing
  • Uncontrolled fungal, bacterial, viral or other infection
  • Current infection with HTLV
  • Tuberculosis
  • Syphilis
  • West Nile Virus
  • Untreated and/or uncontrolled cardiovascular conditions and/or symptomatic cardiac dysfunction (including cardiac ventricular arrhythmias requiring medication, history of 2nd or 3rd degree atrioventricular conduction defects) or unstable angina congestive heart failure or myocardial infarction within the previous year.
  • Known sensitivity or allergy to fludarabine, cyclophosphamide or any of their components, or to GCAR1 or any of its components.
  • Active intracerebral metastases or . Participants who have received definitive treatment, are clinically stable and do not require are eligible to participate in the trial.
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding women.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(25)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

Histologically or cytologically confirmed

The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).

Your pathology report is the document that shows this.

Metastases

Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.

HER2

HER2 is a protein, made from the ERBB2 gene, that drives the growth of some cancers. A study may look for a level of the protein, extra copies of the gene, or a particular change in it.

In breast cancer, protein tests are read as HER2-positive, HER2-low or HER2-negative; other cancers use their own rules. Check which test result the study requires.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Measurable disease

The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.

The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.

RECIST

The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.

“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.

ECOG performance status

A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.

0
Fully active, no restrictions.
1
Limited in strenuous activity, but walking and able to do light work, such as housework or office work.
2
Walking and able to look after yourself, but unable to work; up and about more than half of waking hours.
3
Able to look after yourself only in part; in bed or a chair more than half of waking hours.
4
Unable to look after yourself at all; in bed or a chair all day.

Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.

Karnofsky performance status (KPS)

A 0–100 scale of how well someone can carry out everyday activities. 100 is no complaints and no signs of illness; 70 is able to look after yourself but not to work or keep up normal activity; 50 is needing considerable help and frequent medical care.

Studies often ask for 60 or 70 and above. Your doctor gives the score.

Life expectancy

The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

Line of therapy

A line of therapy is one course of treatment, which may combine several drugs. First-line is the first course given; second-line follows when that stops working or is not tolerated.

“Two prior lines” means two courses that count separately under the study’s rules — not simply two drugs. Ask the study team if you are unsure how yours are counted.

PD-1, PD-L1 and checkpoint inhibitors

PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are proteins that act as brakes on the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab, block them so the immune system can attack a cancer.

PD-L1 can also be measured in a tumour sample. Some scores count stained tumour cells only (TPS); others also count certain immune cells (CPS). The study names the score and the minimum it uses.

Washout period

A planned gap after a treatment, so that its effects can lessen before the study treatment or a study assessment. Ask the study team and the doctor who prescribed it before changing any medicine.

Childbearing potential

Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).

Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Live vaccines

Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.

Autoimmune disease

A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.

Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Hepatitis B tests

Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.

Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.

Hepatitis C tests

Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.

After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Leptomeningeal disease

Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.

Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 1
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
30 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    GCAR1 Infusion

    Drug: Fludarabine · Drug: Cyclophosphamide · Biological: GCAR1

Interventions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. To determine the recommended phase II dose (RP2D), defined as the next lower dose below the maximum administered dose, of GPNMB directed CAR T cell therapy

    (GCAR1) in participants with selected tumours (alveolar soft part sarcoma, renal cell carcinoma (excluding clear cell), triple negative breast cancer) expressing GPNMB

    Time frame: 3 years

Secondary outcomes

  1. Number and severity of adverse eventsGCAR1 utilizing CTCAE v5.0

    Time frame: 3 years

  2. Overall response rate utilizing RECIST 1.1

    Time frame: 3 years

  3. Duration of response

    Time frame: 3 years

07

Study locations

3 of 4 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

2 registry updates since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Aug 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2028, 27 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Dec 9, 2025
First posted
Dec 22, 2025
StartActual
Aug 30, 2026
Primary completionEst.
Dec 1, 2028
CompletionEst.
Sep 1, 2033
Last update
Oct 16, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
Sites
1 site added
Show site
  • Ottawa Hospital Research Institute · Ottawa, Canada
Oct 16, 2026
Eligibility
2 exclusion criteria edited
What changed in the criteria
Exclusion criteria
  • ChangedBefore HIV positive by serology and PCRNow HIV
  • EditedCurrent infection with HTLV-1
Oct 8, 2026
Show all 2 updates
  1. Oct 16, 2026
    1 site added
    Show site
    • Ottawa Hospital Research Institute · Ottawa, Canada
  2. Oct 8, 2026
    Eligibility 2 exclusion criteria edited
    What changed in the criteria
    Exclusion criteria
    • ChangedBefore HIV positive by serology and PCRNow HIV
    • EditedCurrent infection with HTLV-1
    + 1 other change: verification date

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT07297667
Lead sponsor
Canadian Cancer Trials Group
Collaborators
University of Calgary, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), BioCanRx
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Dec 22, 2025
Start date
Aug 30, 2026
Primary completion
Dec 1, 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Sep 1, 2033 (estimated)
Last update
Oct 16, 2026

Study contacts

Laura Pearce
Contact
lpearce@ctg.queensu.ca
613-533-6430
Mariam Jafri
Contact
mjafri@ctg.queensu.ca
613-533-6430
Mona Shafey
study chair · Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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