The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center has successfully administered TECELRA® (afamitresgene autoleucel) to the first patient in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, marking a major milestone for Markey’s cellular therapy program and expanding access to an advanced treatment option for patients with synovial sarcoma.
TECELRA is an FDA-approved, MAGE-A4-directed genetically modified autologous T-cell therapy for adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older with unresectable or metastatic synovial sarcoma who have received prior chemotherapy, meet specific HLA-A*02 criteria and have a tumor that expresses MAGE-A4. The therapy is created from a patient’s own T cells, which are genetically modified to express an affinity-enhanced T-cell receptor designed to recognize and attack tumor cells displaying the MAGE-A4 target.
Synovial sarcoma is a rare soft-tissue cancer that most often develops in the extremities and can affect adolescents and adults. Because TECELRA requires specialized biomarker testing, cell collection, manufacturing coordination, lymphodepleting chemotherapy, infusion and close post-treatment monitoring, it can only be delivered at centers with the infrastructure and multidisciplinary expertise required for complex cellular therapy.
“This is exactly why we built the cellular therapy program at Markey: to bring transformative treatments that were once available only at a small number of highly specialized centers directly to patients in Kentucky and our region. Treating the first patient in the Commonwealth with TECELRA is an exciting milestone, but more importantly, it represents a new opportunity for patients with a rare and difficult-to-treat cancer,” said Ayman Qasrawi, M.D., of the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center.
Bringing TECELRA to Markey required extensive coordination across cellular therapy, sarcoma oncology, apheresis, pharmacy, nursing, laboratory, quality and other support teams. Markey initially completed product-specific qualification with Adaptimmune. In July 2025, US WorldMeds, a Louisville-based company, acquired the TECELRA cell-therapy assets and associated rights.
TECELRA received accelerated FDA approval in August 2024 as the first engineered T-cell therapy approved in the United States for a solid tumor. In June 2026, the FDA granted full approval and expanded the indication to include eligible patients 12 years of age and older.
The first TECELRA treatment in Kentucky reflects Markey’s continued expansion of cellular therapy beyond hematologic malignancies and into selected solid tumors, with the goal of making highly specialized cancer treatments more accessible to patients across the Commonwealth.