Day Dosing of the Proteasome Inhibitor Carfilzomib in Patients with Relapsed Or Refractory Multiple Myeloma Or Lymphoma
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Published OnlineFirst July 3, 2012; DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-11-3007 Clinical Cancer Cancer Therapy: Clinical Research A Phase I Single-Agent Study of Twice-Weekly Consecutive- Day Dosing of the Proteasome Inhibitor Carfilzomib in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma or Lymphoma Melissa Alsina1, Suzanne Trudel2, Richard R. Furman3, Peter J. Rosen5, Owen A. O'Connor4, Raymond L. Comenzo6, Alvin Wong7, Lori A. Kunkel8, Christopher J. Molineaux9, and Andre Goy10 Abstract Purpose: Carfilzomib is a next-generation, selective, proteasome inhibitor with clinical activity in relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma. The objectives of this phase I study were to establish the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic profiles of escalating doses of carfilzomib in patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies. Experimental design: Carfilzomib (doses ranging from 1.2–27 mg/m2) was administered i.v. on 2 consecutive days for 3 weeks of a 4-week cycle. Single-agent dose escalation (n ¼ 37) was followed by a dose- expansion phase (n ¼ 11) that comprised 2 cohorts (carfilzomib or carfilzomib þ dexamethasone). During dose expansion, carfilzomib was administered starting with 20 mg/m2 during the first week (days 1, 2) and then escalated to 27 mg/m2 thereafter. Results: A maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was not reached during dose escalation. Dosing in the expansion cohort was well tolerated. Adverse events were manageable and primarily of grade I or II. The main hematologic adverse events of grade III were anemia and thrombocytopenia. Notably, there were no observations of grade III or more peripheral neuropathy. Carfilzomib was cleared rapidly with an elimination half-life of less than 30 minutes but still induced dose-dependent inhibition of the 20S chymotrypsin-like proteasome activity. At doses of 15 to 27 mg/m2, there was evidence of activity among patients with multiple myeloma and with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Conclusions: Escalated dosing of carfilzomib on a schedule of 2 consecutive days for 3 weeks of a 4- week cycle was tolerable and showed promising activity. This dose regimen has been selected for ongoing and future clinical studies, including PX-171-003A1 and the pivotal trial ASPIRE. Clin Cancer Res; 18(17); 4830–40. Ó2012 AACR. Introduction The 20S proteasome is a central regulator of the Authors' Affiliations: 1H. Lee Moffitt Cancer and Research Center, Tampa, cellular homeostasis through its function in ubiquitin- 2 Florida; University of Toronto Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, dependent turnover of proteins regulating signal trans- Ontario, Canada; 3Weill Cornell Medical College; 4NYU Clinical Cancer Center, New York, New York; 5Tower Cancer Research Foundation, Bev- duction, cell-cycle progression, apoptosis, survival, and erly Hills, California; 6Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts; 7Onyx stress response pathways. Cancer cells seem to be par- 8 9 Pharmaceuticals, South San Francisco; Independent Consultant; CJM ticularly dependent upon these proteasome-regulated Consulting, San Francisco, California; and 10John Theurer Cancer Center, Hackensack, New Jersey pathways (1–4). The 3 proteolytic activities of the 20S proteasome core include chymotrypsin-like, trypsin- Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Clinical Cancer Research Online (http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/). like, and caspase-like activities (5). The chymotrypsin- like activity is critical to cell survival and is a target of the Prior presentation of this study: Presented in abstract form at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, 2007. clinically available proteasome inhibitors (6). The pro- teasome was initially validated as a therapeutic target in Corresponding Author: Melissa Alsina, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer and Research Center, The University of South Florida, 12902 Magnolia Drive, multiple myeloma (7, 8) with the U.S. approval of Tampa, FL 33612. Phone: 813-745-6886; Fax: 813-745-6732; E-mail: bortezomib (Velcade, Millennium Pharmaceuticals). melissa.alsina@moffitt.org Carfilzomib (formerly PR-171; Onyx Pharmaceuticals) is a doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-11-3007 next-generation proteasome inhibitor that is structurally and Ó2012 American Association for Cancer Research. mechanistically distinct from boronate-based proteasome 4830 Clin Cancer Res; 18(17) September 1, 2012 Downloaded from clincancerres.aacrjournals.org on September 27, 2021. © 2012 American Association for Cancer Research. Published OnlineFirst July 3, 2012; DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-11-3007 Phase I Carfilzomib Safety and Antitumor Activity inhibition over extended periods of time, whereas borte- Translational Relevance zomib cannot (7). The activity of the reversible proteasome inhibitor In human tumor xenograft studies, potent antitumor bortezomib in preclinical and clinical studies validated activity was seen when carfilzomib was administered on the proteasome as a therapeutic target in patients with a a weekly schedule of days (D) 1 and 2 (9). Notably, the subset of hematologic malignancies including multiple antitumor efficacy of carfilzomib delivered on 2 consecutive myeloma. While subsequent incorporation of bortezo- days was greater than that of bortezomib administered on mib into the treatment paradigm for multiple myeloma its clinical dosing schedule (biweekly, D1/D4) in the has had a favorable impact on the course of disease, same models. Readministration of carfilzomib before resistance emerges in a significant proportion of patients, full recovery of proteasome activity resulted in optimal and painful peripheral neuropathy can severely limit antitumor activity, supporting the hypothesis that pro- treatment. Carfilzomib is a next-generation, irreversible longed proteasome inhibition (i.e., >48 hours) enhances proteasome inhibitor with increased selectivity for the antitumor activity in vivo. proteasome’s chymotrypsin-like active site. This second Collectively, these findings led to the design of 2 separate phase I study shows that carfilzomib is active and well phase I studies. In the first study (PX-171-001), carfilzomib tolerated on a dosing schedule of 2 consecutive days for 3 was administered to patients with relapsed or refractory of 4 weeks in patients with relapsed and refractory hematologic malignancies on a 2-week cycle, with doses up hematologic malignancies, particularly multiple myelo- to 20 mg/m2 given daily for 5 consecutive days, followed by ma. These data support the further development of 9 days of rest (14). A dose of 15 mg/m2 was established as carfilzomib and provide the basis for the dosing schedule the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) on this schedule and used in ongoing phase II and III clinical evaluation in produced promising preliminary responses in patients with multiple myeloma and other malignancies. multiple myeloma and Waldenstrom’s€ macroglobulinemia (14). In the present study (PX-171-002), carfilzomib was administered in a 4-week cycle (D1/2, D8/9, D15/16, inhibitors such as bortezomib (9–11). Although both target followed by 12 days of rest). It was hypothesized that this the proteasome’s chymotrypsin-like activity, their mechan- regimen could display improved tolerability while still isms of action and selectivity differ due to their pharmaco- providing prolonged proteasome inhibition and disease phores and peptide sequences (6). Carfilzomib exhibits a control in patients with advanced hematologic malignan- high degree of specificity for the catalytic N-terminal threo- cies. The safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetic/pharma- nine residues in each of the proteolytic active sites within the codynamic profile from this study are presented herein. proteasome (9, 10). The peptide portion of the carfilzomib confers a high degree of selectivity for chymotrypsin-like Patients and Methods activity over the other 2 active sites of the proteasome (9). In contrast, boronate proteasome inhibitors such as borte- Human patient protection and clinical trial zomib, originally developed as potent serine protease inhi- registration bitors, retain some cross-reactivity against other proteases The protocol, informed consent, and other relevant study (11, 12). documentation were approved by the appropriate Institu- Another important distinction between carfilzomib and tional Review Boards before patient enrollment. All parti- bortezomib is the stability of interaction of carfilzomib with cipants provided written informed consent in accordance the proteasome. Bortezomib is a slowly reversible inhibitor with federal and local institutional guidelines. This trial was of the proteasome, and recovery from inhibition results registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00150462. from a combination of the off-rate from the enzyme and de novo synthesis of new proteasomes. In contrast, proteasome Eligibility criteria inhibition by carfilzomib is mechanistically irreversible (9, Patients 18 years or more of age with histologically 10) as it involves the formation of 2 covalent bonds; new confirmed multiple myeloma, non–Hodgkin lymphoma protein synthesis is therefore required for the recovery of (NHL), Waldenstrom’s€ macroglobulinemia, or Hodgkin cellular proteasome activity. Consequently, proteasome lymphoma (HL), and treatment-refractory or relapsed dis- inhibition with carfilzomib is sustained over a longer period ease after 2 or more prior therapies were eligible for the of time than with bortezomib (9). study. Other key eligibility criteria included Eastern Coop- Mechanistic differences between carfilzomib