Immunotherapy and chemotherapy combination for chest wall disease: TBCRC 044 trial.

Abstract

TPS1114 Background: Immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy is being studied in metastatic breast cancer, and may have durable outcomes. Chest wall recurrence represents a difficult to treat subtype of breast cancer with a poor prognosis, with lymphovascular invasion in the primary tumor a significant risk factor. Given the inflammatory nature of this disease and the association of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) expression with lymphovascular invasion, we hypothesized that the combination of pembrolizumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody, with carboplatin may be effective as treatment for breast cancer chest wall recurrences. Methods: This randomized phase II study is enrolling 84 patients with breast cancer involving the chest wall, who may also have distant metastases. Patients receive treatment with pembrolizumab 200 mg and carboplatin AUC 5 every 3 weeks for 6 cycles (Arm A, n = 56) followed by maintenance pembrolizumab +/- carboplatin (Arm Ax), or carboplatin AUC 5 every 3 weeks for 6 cycles (Arm B, n = 28) with an option to cross-over to pembrolizumab +/- carboplatin on progression (Arm Bx). Patients with all disease subtypes, triple-negative, hormone receptor positive/HER2- after 2 prior lines of hormone therapy, and HER2+ disease (with the option to continue trastuzumab) are eligible, with no limit on the number of prior therapies. Prior platinum chemotherapy is allowed in the absence of overt disease progression. Patients undergo clinical assessment with every cycle of treatment including chest wall photography, scans (CT chest, abdomen, and pelvis) every 2 cycles, and have peripheral blood and chest wall biopsies collected at baseline and the start of cycle 3 for correlative studies. The primary endpoint is the disease control rate in the chest wall and distant sites at 18 weeks of treatment based on RECIST 1.1. The study is powered to determine a 20% difference in disease control between arms (hazard ratio 0.52, α = 0.10, β = 0.20). Additional endpoints include response by tumor programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) status and irRECIST, progression-free survival, and toxicity. Chest wall tumor samples will be analyzed for changes in tumor immune composition, and PD-L1 and MYC oncogene expression, based on preclinical data to suggest that PD-L1 may be upregulated by MYC. Peripheral blood samples will be evaluated for changes in PD-L1 expression, cell-free DNA, and circulating tumor cells with treatment. The study is enrolling patients at 7 sites within the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC), with current enrollment of 38/84 patients. Clinical trial information: NCT03095352 .