Moxetumomab Pasudotox in Heavily Pre‑Treated Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Hairy Cell Leukemia (HCL): Long‑Term Follow‑Up from the Pivotal Trial Robert J
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Kreitman et al. J Hematol Oncol (2021) 14:35 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13045-020-01004-y RESEARCH Open Access Moxetumomab pasudotox in heavily pre-treated patients with relapsed/refractory hairy cell leukemia (HCL): long-term follow-up from the pivotal trial Robert J. Kreitman1* , Claire Dearden2, Pier Luigi Zinzani3,4, Julio Delgado5, Tadeusz Robak6, Philipp D. le Coutre7, Bjørn T. Gjertsen8, Xavier Troussard9, Gail J. Roboz10, Lionel Karlin11, Douglas E. Gladstone12, Nataliya Kuptsova‑Clarkson13, Shiyao Liu14, Priti Patel14, Federico Rotolo15, Emmanuel Mitry15, Ira Pastan1 and Francis Giles16 on behalf of the Study 1053 investigators Results were presented in part at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition in Orlando, FL, December 7–10, 2019 Abstract Background: Moxetumomab pasudotox is a recombinant CD22‑targeting immunotoxin. Here, we present the long‑ term follow‑up analysis of the pivotal, multicenter, open‑label trial (NCT01829711) of moxetumomab pasudotox in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) hairy cell leukemia (HCL). Methods: Eligible patients had received 2 prior systemic therapies, including 2 purine nucleoside analogs (PNAs), or 1 PNA followed by rituximab or a BRAF≥ inhibitor. Patients received 40 µg/kg ≥moxetumomab pasudotox intrave‑ nously≥ on Days 1, 3, and 5 of each 28‑day cycle for up to six cycles. Disease response and minimal residual disease (MRD) status were determined by blinded independent central review. The primary endpoint was durable complete response (CR), defned as achieving CR with hematologic remission (HR, blood counts for CR) lasting > 180 days. Results: Eighty adult patients were treated with moxetumomab pasudotox and 63% completed six cycles. Patients had received a median of three lines of prior systemic therapy; 49% were PNA‑refractory, and 38% were unft for PNA retreatment. At a median follow‑up of 24.6 months, the durable CR rate (CR with HR > 180 days) was 36% (29 patients; 95% confdence interval: 26–48%); CR with HR 360 days was 33%, and overall CR was 41%. Twenty‑seven complete responders (82%) were MRD‑negative (34% of ≥all patients). CR lasting 60 months was 61%, and the median progres‑ sion‑free survival without the loss of HR was 71.7 months. Hemolytic uremic≥ and capillary leak syndromes were each reported in 10% of patients, and 5% had grade 3–4 events; these events were generally reversible. No treatment‑ related deaths≤ were reported. ≤ *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Clinical Immunotherapy Section, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ publi cdoma in/ zero/1. 0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Kreitman et al. J Hematol Oncol (2021) 14:35 Page 2 of 11 Conclusions: Moxetumomab pasudotox resulted in a high rate of durable responses and MRD negativity in heavily pre‑treated patients with HCL, with a manageable safety profle. Thus, it represents a new and viable treatment option for patients with R/R HCL, who currently lack adequate therapy. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifer: NCT01829711; frst submitted: April 9, 2013. https:// clini caltr ials. gov/ ct2/ show/ NCT01 829711 Keywords: Hairy cell leukemia (HCL), B cell malignancy, Relapsed/refractory, CD22, Immunotoxin, Moxetumomab pasudotox, Minimal residual disease (MRD) Background therapies, are unable to completely eradicate MRD in all Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare mature B-cell malig- patients with R/R HCL [8–19]. nancy with high CD22 expression [1]. Te mainstay of In September 2018, moxetumomab pasudotox (CAT- therapy and recommended frst-line treatment is a purine 8015), a frst-in-class recombinant CD22-directed cyto- nucleoside analog (PNA) such as pentostatin or cladrib- toxin [28], was approved for the treatment of adult ine [2–4]. Although the majority of patients achieve long- patients with R/R HCL in the USA. Te pivotal mul- term remission with PNAs, eventual disease relapse and ticenter, open-label, single-arm trial (NCT01829711) diminishing clinical outcomes in later lines exemplify an evaluated the efcacy, safety, immunogenicity, and phar- important unmet need for therapies in relapsed/refrac- macokinetics of moxetumomab monotherapy in patients tory (R/R) HCL [4–7]. Novel targeted therapies such as with R/R HCL who had previously received ≥ 2 systemic rituximab (anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody), ibruti- therapies, including ≥ 1 PNA. To date, this is the larg- nib (Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor), and vemurafenib est study in heavily pre-treated HCL (N = 80). It was the (BRAF inhibitor) have demonstrated some efcacy in frst study to evaluate the efcacy and safety of a third- pre-treated patients but have not yet been rigorously line treatment with long-term follow-up and to report evaluated in robust studies with long-term follow-up, nor durable complete response (CR) as a primary endpoint. approved for HCL treatment [8–20]. Moreover, it was also one of few studies to prospectively Notably, the current treatment options are frequently assess MRD status after therapy in HCL. associated with safety and tolerability concerns. PNA At a median follow-up of 16.7 months (range: 2.1– therapy is immunosuppressive and thus associated with 48.8 months), the primary analysis showed a durable CR opportunistic infections and second malignancies in rate of 30% (24 patients), CR rate of 41% (33 patients), already vulnerable patients [2, 4, 5, 21]. Cladribine, in and MRD negativity in 82% (27 patients) of complete particular, is not recommended in those with an active responders. Furthermore, moxetumomab pasudotox infection, and patients must be closely monitored for demonstrated acceptable safety and manageable toler- symptoms of infection [2]. Rituximab can also lead to ability [29]. In this report, we present the fnal analy- severe infections, along with thrombocytopenia, and sis describing the long-term follow-up of efcacy and vemurafenib is associated with cutaneous conditions safety of moxetumomab pasudotox in patients with R/R including photosensitivity and skin papillomas [8, 9, 11, HCL, with a median follow-up of 24.6 months (range: 13, 15]. 1.2–71.7 months). One growing area of interest with relevance to the treatment of HCL is the concept of minimal residual Methods disease (MRD), defned as the detection of tumor cells Study design and patient eligibility below the sensitivity level of conventional cytomorphol- Tis multicenter, open-label, single-arm study enrolled ogy using techniques such as cytogenetics, fow cytom- patients from 32 centers across 14 countries. Adults etry, PCR, and high-throughput sequencing [22, 23]. (aged ≥ 18 years) with histologically confrmed HCL or MRD is widely used as a measure of tumor burden for variant HCL and an indication for therapy were eligible other hematologic malignancies, serving as a signifcant for this study. An indication for therapy was defned as prognostic factor for both acute lymphoblastic leukemia one or more of the following: neutrophils < 1.0 103/µL, 3 × and chronic myeloid leukemia and informing treatment platelets < 100 × 10 /µL, hemoglobin < 10 g/dL, or symp- decisions [22, 24, 25]. In HCL, the implications of MRD tomatic splenomegaly. Patients must have been treated remain unclear; some studies report that MRD positivity with a minimum of two systemic therapies, including two after PNA therapy is predictive for disease relapse, sug- courses of a PNA, or one course of a PNA followed by gesting that MRD eradication may improve clinical out- rituximab or a BRAF inhibitor. Patients must not have comes [26, 27]. Current treatments, including targeted had prior treatment with moxetumomab pasudotox and Kreitman et al. J Hematol Oncol (2021) 14:35 Page 3 of 11 were required to have an Eastern Cooperative Oncology cells in the bone marrow by H&E staining. Additional Group (ECOG) performance status ≤ 2. Patients with details can be found in the study proto col. impaired renal or hepatic function, active second malig- Te secondary endpoints included CR rate, objective nancies requiring treatment, and uncontrolled intercur- response (OR) rate, time to and duration of CR and OR, rent illnesses such as an ongoing or active infection were MRD, progression-free survival (PFS) rates, safety/toler- excluded. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria can be ability, immunogenicity, and pharmacokinetics. found in the study proto col. MRD was locally assessed during treatment using Study treatment quantitative fow cytometric analysis of peripheral blood Moxetumomab pasudotox was administered at a dose samples or bone marrow aspirate, according to the insti- of 40 µg/kg by intravenous (i.v.) infusion over 30 min on tution’s protocols, and by immunohistochemistry (IHC) Days 1, 3, and 5 of a 28-day cycle for up to six cycles, or on the bone marrow biopsy tissue. Local study sites until documentation of MRD-negative CR, disease pro- received instructions on sample collection and submis- gression, initiation of an alternate therapy, or unaccepta- sion for analysis.