Nivolumab plus cabozantinib in patients with non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma: Results of a phase 2 trial.

Abstract

4509 Background: Cabozantinib plus nivolumab (CaboNivo) improved objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) over sunitinib in a phase 3 trial for metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC). (Choueiri, abstract 6960, ESMO 2020) We report the results of a phase 2 trial of CaboNivo in patients (pts) with non-clear cell RCC. Methods: Pts had advanced non-clear cell RCC, 0 or 1 prior systemic therapies excluding prior immune checkpoint inhibitors, and measurable disease by RECIST. Cabo 40 mg/day plus Nivo 240 mg every 2 weeks or 480 mg every 4 weeks was given across two cohorts. Cohort 1: papillary, unclassified, or translocation associated RCC; Cohort 2: chromophobe RCC. The primary endpoint was ORR by RECIST; secondary endpoints included PFS, OS, and safety. Cohort 1 was a single stage design that met its primary endpoint and was expanded to produce more precise estimates of ORR. Cohort 2 was a Simon two-stage design that closed early for lack of efficacy. Correlative analyses by next generation sequencing were performed and to be presented. Results: A total of 40 pts were treated in Cohort 1, and 7 pts were treated in Cohort 2 (data cutoff: Jan 20, 2021). Median follow up time was 13.1 months (range 2.2 – 28.6). In Cohort 1, 26 (65%) pts were previously untreated, and 14 (35%) pts had 1 prior line: 10 (25%) received prior VEGF-targeted therapy and 8 (20%) received prior mTOR-targeted therapy. ORR for Cohort 1 was 48% (95% CI 31.5–63.9; Table). Median PFS was 12.5 months (95% CI 6.3–16.4) and median OS was 28 months (95% CI 16.3–NE). No responses were seen among 7 patients in Cohort 2 with chromophobe histology (Table). Grade 3/4 treatment emergent adverse events were consistent with that reported in the phase 3 trial; Grade 3/4 AST and ALT were 9% and 15%, respectively. Cabozantinib and nivolumab were discontinued due to toxicity in 17% and 19% of pts, respectively. Conclusions: CaboNivo had an acceptable safety profile and showed promising efficacy in metastatic non-clear cell RCC pts with papillary, unclassified, or translocation associated histologies whereas activity in patients with chromophobe RCC was limited. Clinical trial information: NCT03635892. [Table: see text]