Clinical response and biomarker analysis of a phase II basket trial of toripalimab, a PD-1 mAb in combination with standard chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for patients with solid tumors.

Abstract

e15083 Background: Platinum based chemotherapy is the standard care for 1st line treatment of metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma (GC), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESSC), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Combinations of PD-1 blockade with chemotherapy have shown promising but mixed results in solid tumors. Predictive biomarkers for chemo-immunotherapy combination as 1st line treatment remain undefined. Methods: Patients (n = 60) included in this analysis were four complete cohorts from a multi-center, phase Ib/II trial (NCT02915432) evaluating the safety and activity of toripalimab, a humanized PD-1 antibody in combination with standard chemotherapy for the 1st line treatment of GC, EC, NPC and HNSCC (excluding NPC). Whole exome sequencing (WES), RNA sequencing and immunohistochemistry were performed on tumor biopsy samples. PD-L1 expression and tumor mutational burden (TMB) were evaluated for correlation with clinical efficacy. Results: From Oct 2016 to Feb 2019, 33 GC, 12 ESSC, 12 NPC and 3 HNSCC patients were enrolled and treated with 240mg or 360 mg toripalimab Q3W via IV infusion in combination with Oxaliplatin/Capecitabine (XELOX), Paclitaxel/Cisplatin (PP), Gemcitabine/Cisplatin (GP) and Docetaxel/Cisplatin/5-FU(TPF) respectively. By the data cutoff date of Nov 15, 2019, all patients experienced treatment related adverse event (TRAE). There was one TRAE (heart failure) leading to death. Grade 3-4 TRAEs occurred in 67% patients, mostly attributed to chemotherapy, including 27% neutropenia, 23% thrombocytopenia, 18% leukopenia and 12% anemia. As assessed by investigators according to RECIST v1.1, the ORR/DCR were 54.5%/84.8%, 66.7%/91.7%, 75.0%/83.3% and 33.3%/100% respectively for GC, EC, NPC and HSNCC cohorts. The median duration of response was 8.3, 6.8, 7.7 and 7.1 months respectively. WES showed distinctive patterns of genomic alterations among different cohorts. The clinical response was not correlated with either PD-L1 expression or tumor mutational burden. Conclusions: Toripalimab in combination with chemotherapy as first-line treatments showed promising results for metastatic GC, EC, NPC and HNSCC patients. Two randomized Phase III trials of toripalimab in combination with Paclitaxel/Cisplatin or Gemcitabine/Cisplatin versus chemotherapy alone are ongoing to further evaluate the combination as first-line treatments in metastatic EC and NPC patients. Clinical trial information: NCT02915432 .