Matthew A Gubens1, Lecia V Sequist2, James P Stevenson3, Steven F Powell4, Liza C Villaruz5, Shirish M Gadgeel6, Corey J Langer7, Amita Patnaik8, Hossein Borghaei9, Shadia I Jalal10, Joseph Fiore11, Sanatan Saraf11, Harry Raftopoulos11, Leena Gandhi12. 1. University of California San Francisco, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: matthew.gubens@ucsf.edu. 2. Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. 3. Taussig Cancer Institute/Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA. 4. Sanford Health, Sioux Falls, SD, USA. 5. UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. 6. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. 7. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. 8. South Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics, San Antonio, TX, USA. 9. Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA. 10. Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA. 11. Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA. 12. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA; Perlmutter Cancer Center - NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Combination immunotherapy may result in improved antitumor activity compared with single-agent treatment. We report results from dose-finding and dose-expansion cohorts of the phase 1/2 KEYNOTE-021 study that evaluated combination therapy with anti‒programmed death 1 (PD-1) antibody pembrolizumab plus anti‒cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) antibody ipilimumab in patients with previously treated advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eligibility criteria stipulated histologically/cytologically confirmed advanced NSCLC and treatment failure on ≥1 prior systemic therapy (platinum-based chemotherapy or targeted therapy for patients with EGFR/ALK aberrations). In the dose-finding cohort, patients initially received pembrolizumab 10 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 1 or 3 mg/kg once every 3 weeks for 4 cycles followed by pembrolizumab 10 mg/kg monotherapy for up to 2 years. Based on emerging published data, subsequent patients received pembrolizumab 2 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 1 mg/kg. Objective response rate (ORR; primary efficacy endpoint) was assessed per RECIST version 1.1 by blinded, independent central review. Phase 2 hypothesis that ORR would be greater than the 20% rate for historical controls was evaluated using the exact binomial test. RESULTS: Fifty-one patients were enrolled; 71% received ≥2 prior lines of therapy. No dose-limiting toxicities occurred at any dose level. Among patients who received pembrolizumab 2 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 1 mg/kg (n = 44), ORR was 30% (95% CI, 17%-45%), but not statistically significantly >20% (P = 0.0858). Median progression-free survival in this group was 4.1 (95% CI, 1.4-5.8) months; median overall survival was 10.9 (95% CI, 6.1-23.7) months. With pembrolizumab 2 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 1 mg/kg, incidences of treatment-related adverse events, grade 3-5 treatment-related adverse events, and immune-mediated adverse events and infusion reactions were 64%, 29%, and 42%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with heavily pretreated advanced NSCLC, pembrolizumab plus ipilimumab showed evidence of antitumor activity, but was associated with meaningful toxicity.
OBJECTIVES: Combination immunotherapy may result in improved antitumor activity compared with single-agent treatment. We report results from dose-finding and dose-expansion cohorts of the phase 1/2 KEYNOTE-021 study that evaluated combination therapy with anti‒programmed death 1 (PD-1) antibody pembrolizumab plus anti‒cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) antibody ipilimumab in patients with previously treated advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eligibility criteria stipulated histologically/cytologically confirmed advanced NSCLC and treatment failure on ≥1 prior systemic therapy (platinum-based chemotherapy or targeted therapy for patients with EGFR/ALK aberrations). In the dose-finding cohort, patients initially received pembrolizumab 10 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 1 or 3 mg/kg once every 3 weeks for 4 cycles followed by pembrolizumab 10 mg/kg monotherapy for up to 2 years. Based on emerging published data, subsequent patients received pembrolizumab 2 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 1 mg/kg. Objective response rate (ORR; primary efficacy endpoint) was assessed per RECIST version 1.1 by blinded, independent central review. Phase 2 hypothesis that ORR would be greater than the 20% rate for historical controls was evaluated using the exact binomial test. RESULTS: Fifty-one patients were enrolled; 71% received ≥2 prior lines of therapy. No dose-limiting toxicities occurred at any dose level. Among patients who received pembrolizumab 2 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 1 mg/kg (n = 44), ORR was 30% (95% CI, 17%-45%), but not statistically significantly >20% (P = 0.0858). Median progression-free survival in this group was 4.1 (95% CI, 1.4-5.8) months; median overall survival was 10.9 (95% CI, 6.1-23.7) months. With pembrolizumab 2 mg/kg plus ipilimumab 1 mg/kg, incidences of treatment-related adverse events, grade 3-5 treatment-related adverse events, and immune-mediated adverse events and infusion reactions were 64%, 29%, and 42%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with heavily pretreated advanced NSCLC, pembrolizumab plus ipilimumab showed evidence of antitumor activity, but was associated with meaningful toxicity.
Authors: Lucas A Horn; Jeffrey Riskin; Heidi A Hempel; Kristen Fousek; Hanne Lind; Duane H Hamilton; Kristen K McCampbell; Dean Y Maeda; John A Zebala; Zhen Su; Jeffrey Schlom; Claudia Palena Journal: J Immunother Cancer Date: 2020-03 Impact factor: 13.751