Phase II study of afatinib in recurrent and/or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (R/M ESCC) (KCSG HN14-18).

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4051 Background: Afatinib, an irreversible pan-ErbB kinase inhibitor showed anti-tumor activity against esophageal cancer in phase I trial. In this multicenter, open-label, single arm phase II study, we aimed to evaluate the activity and safety of afatinib in R/M ESCC. Methods: Patients (pts) who had ECOG PS 0-2 and had progressed on platinum-based chemotherapy for R/M ESCC were enrolled. Pts were treated with afatinib 40mg/day until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or patient’s refusal. Primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST 1.1. The estimated sample size was 49, using a two-stage minimax design to evaluate incremental response rate from 5 to 15%. Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), disease control rate (DCR), and safety profile. Additionally, we try to identify biomarker to predict efficacy of afatinib with target capture sequencing and gene expression profile as exploratory endpoints. Results: In a total of 49 enrolled pts (median age 60; range 44 -84), ORR and DCR were 14.3 % and 73.3%, respectively. With a median follow-up of 6.6 months, median PFS and OS was 3.4 months (95% CI 2.2-4.6) and 6.6 months (95% CI 5.2-8.0). Median treatment duration and duration of response were 2.8 months (range, 0.4-15.3) and 7.1 months (range, 2.5-13.9), respectively. Dose reduction and interruption occurred in 19 (38.8%) and 15 (30.6 %) pts. Treatment-related adverse events (TRAE) occurred in 33 pts (67.3%) with most common TRAEs being diarrhea (n=22, 44.9%) and acneiform rash (n=12, 24.5%). G3-4 TRAEs were rare, occurring in 7 pts (14.3 %). Conclusions: Afatinib demonstrated modest efficacy with manageable toxicity in platinum-resistant R/M ESCC patients. Given the modest response rate, identification of predictive biomarkers is essential for further clinical investigation of afatinib in R/M ESCC. Those biomarkers are being analyzed and will be presented in the conference (NCT02353936). Clinical trial information: NCT02353936. [Table: see text]