A Phase 1 interventional study of Biospecimen Collection and Computed Tomography in Recurrent Plasmablastic Lymphoma and Refractory Plasmablastic Lymphoma, sponsored by National Cancer Institute (NCI). Recruiting at 20 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-20.
Sponsored by National Cancer Institute (NCI) · Phase 1, Interventional, and Treatment
This phase Ib trial tests the safety, side effects, and best dose of teclistamab in treating patients with plasmablastic lymphoma that has come back after a period of improvement (recurrent) or that has not responded to previous treatment (refractory). Teclistamab is a bispecific antibody that can bind to two different antigens at the same time. Teclistamab binds to B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), a protein found on some B-cells and myeloma cells, and CD3 on T-cells (a type of white blood cell) and may interfere with the ability of cancer cells to grow and spread. Giving teclistamab may be safe and tolerable in treating patients with recurrent or refractory plasmablastic lymphoma.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
I. To determine the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D) of teclistamab in relapsed/refractory (R/R) plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL).
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
I. To estimate the overall response rate (ORR), complete response (CR) rate, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) of teclistamab in R/R PBL.
II. To observe and record anti-tumor activity.
EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:
I. To evaluate the utility of B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) as a biomarker of response to teclistamab in PBL.
II. To evaluate minimum residual disease (MRD) dynamics during treatment.
OUTLINE:
Patients receive teclistamab subcutaneously (SC) on days 1, 4, and 7 in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity (i.e., Cycle 1). Beginning 1 week later, patients receive teclistamab SC on day 1 (i.e., Cycle 2). Beginning 1 week later, 2 weeks later, or 4 weeks later (based on dose level), patients receive teclistamab SC on day 1 of remaining cycles. Based on dose level, cycles repeat weekly, every 2 weeks, or every 4 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients who have achieved a complete response (CR) by cycle 13 may discontinue study treatment. Patients achieving less than a CR but benefiting from treatment may continue to receive teclistamab beyond 13 cycles in the absence of disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or achieving a CR. Additionally, patients undergo optional buccal swab collection at baseline and optional blood sample collection throughout the study. Patients also undergo positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) throughout the study.
After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 3 months for up to 2 years.
18 studies on the registry are indexed under Plasmablastic Lymphoma; 11 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 30 is close to the median of 28 across 16 interventional studies indexed under Plasmablastic Lymphoma.
Browse Plasmablastic Lymphoma studies →National Cancer Institute (NCI) is the lead sponsor of 3,556 studies on the registry; 336 are open to participants now.
Of its 411 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 373 (91%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
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.
Exclusion Criteria:
use for purposes other than lymphoma symptom control
Participants who require lymphoma symptom control during screening may receive steroids in the following manner:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².
Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.
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.
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 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.
Stem cell (bone marrow) transplants. Allogeneic uses cells from a donor; autologous uses your own cells, collected earlier and given back.
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.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Bilirubin
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
GFR and eGFR (kidney filtering)
GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is how much blood the kidneys filter each minute. It is usually estimated from a blood test — eGFR, by formulas such as CKD-EPI or MDRD — and some studies ask for it to be measured directly instead. Usually given in mL/min/1.73 m².
Check the method, the units and the minimum the study states. A value of 90 or above is in the normal-or-high range, but kidney damage can show in other tests too.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Allogeneic and autologous transplant
Stem cell (bone marrow) transplants. Allogeneic uses cells from a donor; autologous uses your own cells, collected earlier and given back.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patients receive teclistamab SC on days 1, 4, and 7 in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity (i.e., Cycle 1). Beginning 1 week later, patients receive teclistamab SC on day 1 (i.e., Cycle 2). Beginning 1 week later, 2 weeks later, or 4 weeks later (based on dose level), patients receive teclistamab SC on day 1 of remaining cycles. Based on dose level, cycles repeat weekly, every 2 weeks, or every 4 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients who have achieved a CR by cycle 13 may discontinue study treatment. Patients achieving less than a CR but benefiting from treatment may continue to receive teclistamab beyond 13 cycles in the absence of disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or achieving a CR. Additionally, patients undergo optional buccal swab collection at baseline and optional blood sample collection throughout the study. Patients also undergo PET/CT throughout the study.
Procedure: Biospecimen Collection · Procedure: Computed Tomography · Procedure: Positron Emission Tomography · Drug: Teclistamab
Undergo buccal swab and blood sample collection
Also known as: Biological Sample Collection, Biospecimen Collected, Sample Collection, Specimen Collection
Undergo PET/CT
Also known as: CAT, CAT Scan, Computed Axial Tomography, Computerized Axial Tomography, Computerized axial tomography (procedure), Computerized Tomography, Computerized Tomography (CT) scan, CT, CT Scan, Diagnostic CAT Scan, Diagnostic CAT Scan Service Type, tomography
Undergo PET/CT
Also known as: Medical Imaging, Positron Emission Tomography, PET, PET Scan, Positron emission tomography (procedure), Positron Emission Tomography Scan, Positron-Emission Tomography, PT
Given SC
Also known as: JNJ 64007957, JNJ-64007957, JNJ64007957, Teclistamab-cqyv, Tecvayli
Incidence of adverse events
Will be assessed by Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 5.0. and American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy/Immune Effector Cell Associated Neurotoxicity Syndrome criteria/grading. Descriptive statistics will be employed in the analysis of all safety observations in this study.
Time frame: Up to 28 days after last dose of study treatment
Overall response rate (ORR)
Will be assessed by the 2014 Lugano Response Criteria (Cheson et al., 2014). An alternative hypothesis of 40% ORR versus a null hypothesis of 10% will be tested in the dose-expansion cohort. A Simon's Two-Stage Minimax design (Simon, 1989) will be applied to test the hypothesis.
Time frame: Up to 2 years after last dose of study treatment
Complete response rate
Will be assessed by the 2014 Lugano Response Criteria (Cheson et al., 2014).
Time frame: Up to 2 years after last dose of study treatment
Progression-free survival (PFS)
PFS will be estimated using the product-limit method of Kaplan and Meier along with the Greenwood estimator of standard error. 95% confidence intervals will be constructed based on log-log transformation.
Time frame: From start of protocol treatment to time of progressive disease/relapse or death due to any cause, whichever occurs earlier, assessed up to 2 years
Overall survival (OS)
OS will be estimated using the product-limit method of Kaplan and Meier along with the Greenwood estimator of standard error. 95% confidence intervals will be constructed based on log-log transformation.
Time frame: From start of protocol treatment to time of death due to any cause, assessed up to 2 years
Utility of B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) as a biomarker of response
Archival pre-treatment formalin fixed and paraffin embedded tumor samples will be stained with a BCMA immunohistochemistry (IHC) antibody (clone E6D7B) and an H-score will be determined by an expert hematopathologist. Associations between BCMA IHC H-score and response to teclistamab will be determined using a Fisher's exact test at an H-score cutoff of 100.
Time frame: Up to 2 years after last dose of study treatment
Impact of minimum residual disease (MRD) on PFS
Impact will be determined by a cycle 3 circulating tumor deoxyribonucleic acid level on 2-year PFS. The Kaplan-Meier method will be used to estimate PFS and a log-rank test will be used to compare the PFS between MRD-positive and MRD-negative groups.
Time frame: Up to 2 years after last dose of study treatment
Plan to share: Yes — NCI is committed to sharing data in accordance with NIH policy. For more details on how clinical trial data is shared, access the link to the NIH data sharing policy page.
Data sharing details ↗ · grants.nih.gov
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
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 ↗
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Studies of the drug tested here: Teclistamab
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