Long-Term Follow-Up of Standard-Dose Pembrolizumab Plus Reduced-Dose Ipilimumab in Patients with Advanced Melanoma: KEYNOTE-029 Part 1B Matteo S
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Published OnlineFirst June 30, 2020; DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-0177 CLINICAL CANCER RESEARCH | CLINICAL TRIALS: IMMUNOTHERAPY Long-term Follow-up of Standard-Dose Pembrolizumab Plus Reduced-Dose Ipilimumab in Patients with Advanced Melanoma: KEYNOTE-029 Part 1B Matteo S. Carlino1,2,3, Alexander M. Menzies1,4, Victoria Atkinson5, Jonathan S. Cebon6,7,8, Michael B. Jameson9, Bernard M. Fitzharris10, Catriona M. McNeil11, Andrew G. Hill12, Antoni Ribas13, Michael B. Atkins14, John A. Thompson15, Wen-Jen Hwu16, F. Stephen Hodi17, Alexander D. Guminski1,4, Richard Kefford1,3,18, Haiyan Wu19, Nageatte Ibrahim20, Blanca Homet Moreno20, and Georgina V. Long1,4 ABSTRACT ◥ Purpose: Combination therapy with reduced-dose programmed Results: A total of 153 patients received at least one dose of death 1 inhibitor plus standard-dose cytotoxic T-lymphocyte– pembrolizumab plus ipilimumab. At a median follow-up of associated antigen 4 inhibitor demonstrated efficacy, but substantial 36.8 months, 71.9% had received four doses of ipilimumab and toxicity, in melanoma. We present long-term results of part 1B of 30.7% had completed 2 years of pembrolizumab; 26.1% completed KEYNOTE-029, which assessed safety and efficacy of standard-dose both treatments. Treatment-related adverse events occurred in pembrolizumab plus reduced-dose ipilimumab in advanced melanoma. 96.1% (47.1% grade 3/4; no deaths), leading to discontinuation of Patients and Methods: Part 1B was an expansion cohort of the one or both study drugs in 35.9%. ORR was 62.1% with 42 (27.5%) open-label, phase Ib portion of KEYNOTE-029. Eligible patients complete and 53 (34.6%) partial responses. Median DOR was not had advanced melanoma and no previous immune checkpoint reached; 36-month ongoing response rate was 84.2%. Median PFS inhibitor therapy. Patients received pembrolizumab 2 mg/kg and OS were not reached; 36-month rates were 59.1% and 73.4%, (amended to 200 mg) every 3 weeks plus ipilimumab 1 mg/kg every respectively. 3 weeks (four cycles), then pembrolizumab alone for up to 2 years. Conclusions: Standard-dose pembrolizumab plus reduced- Primary end point was safety; secondary end points included dose ipilimumab demonstrated robust antitumor activity, dura- objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), ble response, and favorable long-term survival with manageable duration of response (DOR), and overall survival (OS). toxicity. fi Introduction reduced-dose nivolumab (1 mg/kg) has shown superior ef cacy but substantially higher toxicity compared with ipilimumab alone (4). The anti–programmed death 1 (PD-1) agents pembrolizumab and Recently, reduced-dose ipilimumab (1 mg/kg) plus standard-dose nivolumab are standard treatments for advanced melanoma and have nivolumab (3 mg/kg) was associated with significantly reduced demonstrated prolonged survival and decreased toxicity compared grade 3 or higher treatment-related adverse events (TRAE) com- with cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) inhibitor pared with standard-dose ipilimumab (3 mg/kg) plus nivolumab ipilimumab in phase III trials (1, 2). Because PD-1 and CTLA-4 (1 mg/kg); furthermore, no clinically meaningful differences in receptors attenuate T-cell activation through distinct mechanisms, efficacy were observed between the regimens per descriptive therapy with PD-1 plus ipilimumab is expected to be more effective analyses (5). than monotherapy (3). Standard-dose ipilimumab (3 mg/kg) plus 1Melanoma Institute Australia, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South ma Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Wales, Australia. 2Department of Medicine, Blacktown Hospital, Blacktown, New Houston, Texas. 17Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Insti- South Wales, Australia. 3Department of Medicine, Crown Princess Mary Cancer tute, Boston, Massachusetts. 18Department of Clinical Medicine, Macquarie Centre, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. 4Department University, Macquarie Park, New South Wales, Australia. 19Department of Clinical of Medical Oncology, Royal North Shore and Mater Hospitals, Sydney, New Oncology, MSD China, Beijing, China. 20Department of Clinical Oncology, Merck South Wales, Australia. 5Department of Medical Oncology, Gallipoli Medical & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey. Research Foundation, Greenslopes Private Hospital, University of Queensland, Note: Supplementary data for this article are available at Clinical Cancer Greenslopes, Queensland, Australia. 6Department of Hematology and Oncology, Research Online (http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/). Olivia Newton John Cancer Research Institute, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia. 7School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia. Clinical Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov number: NCT02089685 (https:// 8Department of Medical Oncology, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia. clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02089685) 9Regional Cancer Centre, Waikato Hospital, and Waikato Clinical Campus, Corresponding Author: Matteo S. Carlino, Melanoma Institute Australia, The University of Auckland, Hamilton, New Zealand. 10Canterbury Regional Cancer University of Sydney, Blacktown Hospital, and Crown Princess Mary Cancer & Haematology Service, Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch, New Zealand. Centre, Westmead Hospital, Cnr Darcey and Hawkesbury Road, Sydney, New 11Department of Medical Oncology, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, Camperdown, New South Wales 2145, Australia. Phone: 61-2-8890-5200; Fax: 61-2-9687-2331; South Wales, Australia. 12Department of Medical Oncology, Tasman Health Care, E-mail: [email protected] Gold Coast University Hospital, Southport, Queensland, Australia. 13Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California. Clin Cancer Res 2020;XX:XX–XX 14Department of Oncology, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-0177 Center, Washington, DC. 15Department of Medicine, Seattle Cancer Care Alli- ance, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. 16Department of Melano- Ó2020 American Association for Cancer Research. AACRJournals.org | OF1 Downloaded from clincancerres.aacrjournals.org on September 27, 2021. © 2020 American Association for Cancer Research. Published OnlineFirst June 30, 2020; DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-0177 Carlino et al. continue treatment if repeat imaging showed a reduction in tumor Translational Relevance burden compared to the initial scan demonstrating PD. Patients who As programmed death 1 and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte– achieved complete response (CR) could discontinue pembrolizumab associated antigen 4 inhibitors act through distinct mechanisms, after receiving at least 24 weeks of treatment, provided they had it is expected that their use in combination would be more effective maintained CR for at least two scans and received at least two doses than either agent alone; however, increased toxicity with such of pembrolizumab after the first confirmation of CR. Patients who had combination therapy has been reported. This report describes the to discontinue ipilimumab because of toxicity were allowed to continue long-term results of part 1B of the KEYNOTE-029 trial, which pembrolizumab treatment. Details of patient discontinuation, dose assessed the safety and efficacy of standard-dose pembrolizumab interruptions, and dose reductions can be found in the study protocol. plus reduced-dose ipilimumab in patients with advanced melano- ma. The results demonstrated robust antitumor activity, durable Assessments response, and favorable long-term survival with manageable tox- Tumor imaging was conducted at baseline, week 12, then every icity with the combination of standard-dose pembrolizumab and 6 weeks until week 30, and every 12 weeks thereafter. ORR, PFS, and reduced-dose ipilimumab. These findings support further explo- DOR assessments involved target lesions per RECIST v1.1 (7) by ration of alternative dosing strategies of checkpoint inhibitors to independent central review; the sponsor allowed a maximum of 10 determine whether efficacy can be maintained while further reduc- target lesions in total and five per organ, if clinically relevant, to enable ing toxicity in patients with advanced melanoma. broader sampling of tumor burden. Cutaneous lesions and other superficial lesions that were detectable only by physical examination were considered nonmeasurable and therefore were classified as nontarget lesions. PFS was defined as the time from randomization KEYNOTE-029 explored the combination of standard-dose pem- to first documented disease progression based on independent central brolizumab (2 mg/kg) with reduced-dose ipilimumab (1 mg/kg). In an review or death due to any cause, whichever occurred first. Treatment expansion cohort (part 1B) involving 153 patients with advanced decisions were informed by applying a modified version of RECIST (by melanoma, the toxicity profile of the combination compared favorably investigator review) that accounts for the atypical response patterns with that of standard-dose ipilimumab and reduced-dose nivolumab observed with immunotherapeutic agents (see the “Modified RECIST” and showed promising antitumor activity (6). Long-term results are section). Adverse events (AE) were evaluated throughout treatment presented. and for 30 days thereafter (90 days for serious AEs) and were graded according to the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.0. PD-L1 expression was Patients and Methods