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Klein O, Kee D, Gao B, Markman B, da Gama Duarte J, Quigley L, Jackett L, Linklater R, Strickland A, Scott C, Mileshkin L, Palmer J, Carlino M, Behren A, Cebon J. Combination immunotherapy with nivolumab and ipilimumab in patients with rare gynecological malignancies: results of the CA209-538 clinical trial. J Immunother Cancer 2021; 9:jitc-2021-003156. [PMID: 34782426 PMCID: PMC8593709 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2021-003156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Patients with rare cancers represent 55% of all gynecological malignancies and have poor survival outcomes due to limited treatment options. Combination immunotherapy with the anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD-1) antibody nivolumab and the anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (anti-CTLA-4) antibody ipilimumab has demonstrated significant clinical efficacy across a range of common malignancies, justifying evaluation of this combination in rare gynecological cancers. METHODS This multicenter phase II study enrolled 43 patients with advanced rare gynecological cancers. Patients received induction treatment with nivolumab and ipilimumab at a dose of 3 mg/kg and 1 mg/kg, respectively, every 3 weeks for four doses. Treatment was continued with nivolumab monotherapy at 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks until disease progression or a maximum of 2 years. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients with disease control at week 12 (complete response, partial response or stable disease (SD) by Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumor V.1.1). Exploratory evaluations correlated clinical outcomes with tumor programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression and tumor mutational burden (TMB). RESULTS The objective response rate in the radiologically evaluable population was 36% (12/33 patients) and in the intention-to-treat population was 28% (12/43 patients), with additional 7 patients obtaining SD leading to a disease control rate of 58% and 44%, respectively. Durable responses were seen across a range of tumor histologies. Thirty-one (72%) patients experienced an immune-related adverse event (irAE) with a grade 3/4 irAE observed in seven (16%) patients. Response rate was higher among those patients with baseline PD-L1 expression (≥1% on tumor cells) but was independent of TMB. CONCLUSIONS Ipilimumab and nivolumab combination treatment has significant clinical activity with a favorable safety profile across a range of advanced rare gynecological malignancies and warrants further investigation in these tumor types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver Klein
- Department of Medical Oncology, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre, Austin Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia .,Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Damien Kee
- Department of Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Bo Gao
- Blacktown Hospital and the University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Ben Markman
- Department of Medical Oncology, Monash Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Jessica da Gama Duarte
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Luke Quigley
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Louise Jackett
- Department of Anatomical Pathology, Austin Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Richelle Linklater
- Department of Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Andrew Strickland
- Department of Medical Oncology, Monash Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Clare Scott
- Department of Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Linda Mileshkin
- Department of Medical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Jodie Palmer
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Matteo Carlino
- Blacktown Hospital and the University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Andreas Behren
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Jonathan Cebon
- Department of Medical Oncology, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre, Austin Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.,Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
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da Gama Duarte J, Woods K, Andrews MC, Behren A. The good, the (not so) bad and the ugly of immune homeostasis in melanoma. Immunol Cell Biol 2018; 96:497-506. [PMID: 29392770 DOI: 10.1111/imcb.12001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2017] [Revised: 12/05/2017] [Accepted: 12/06/2017] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Within the immune system multiple mechanisms balance the need for efficient pathogen recognition and destruction with the prevention of tissue damage by excessive, inappropriate or even self-targeting (auto)immune reactions. This immune homeostasis is a tightly regulated system which fails during tumor development, often due to the hijacking of its essential self-regulatory mechanisms by cancer cells. It is facilitated not only by tumor intrinsic properties, but also by the microbiome, host genetics and other factors. In certain ways many cancers can therefore be considered a rare failure of immune control rather than an uncommon or rare disease of the tissue of origin, as the acquisition of potentially oncogenic traits through mutation occurs constantly in most tissues during proliferation. Normally, aberrant cells are well-controlled by cell intrinsic (repair or apoptosis) and extrinsic (immune) mechanisms. However, occasionally oncogenic cells survive and escape control. Melanoma is one of the first cancer types where treatments aimed at restoring and enhancing an immune response to regain control over the tumor have been used with various success rates. With the advent of "modern" immunotherapeutics such as anti-CTLA-4 or anti-PD-1 antibodies that both target negative immune-regulatory pathways on immune cells resulting in durable responses in a proportion of patients, the importance of the interplay between the immune system and cancer has been established beyond doubt.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica da Gama Duarte
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia.,School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
| | - Katherine Woods
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia.,School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
| | - Miles C Andrews
- School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia.,MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Andreas Behren
- Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia.,School of Cancer Medicine, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
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