Article Text

Download PDFPDF

429 Long-term analysis of MASTERKEY-265 phase 1b trial of talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) plus pembrolizumab in patients with unresectable stage IIIB-IVM1c melanoma
  1. Georgina Long1,
  2. Reinhard Dummer2,
  3. Douglas Johnson3,
  4. Olivier Michielin4,
  5. Salvador Martin-Algarra5,
  6. Sheryl Treichel6,
  7. Edward Chan6,
  8. Scott Diede7 and
  9. Antoni Ribas8
  1. 1Melanoma Institute Australia, The University of Sydney and Royal North Shore and Mater Hospitals, Sydney, Australia
  2. 2University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, SC, Switzerland
  3. 3Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA
  4. 4Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland
  5. 5Clínica Universidad de Navarra (CUN), Medical School of the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain
  6. 6Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, USA
  7. 7Merck and Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA
  8. 8University of California at Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Abstract

Background Previous findings from the MASTERKEY-265 phase 1b study showed that the combination of T-VEC and pembrolizumab was well tolerated and produced a high complete response (CR) rate of 43% in patients with advanced melanoma.1 The 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates at that time were 53.6% and 71%, respectively. Here, we report the results of the long-term follow-up efficacy analyses.

Methods The MASTERKEY-265 phase 1b trial (NCT02263508) was an open-label, single-arm study that enrolled patients who had unresectable, stage IIIB-IVM1c melanoma with injectable, measurable lesions and no prior systemic treatment. T-VEC was administered intralesionally at the approved dosing starting day 1 of week 1. Pembrolizumab (200 mg) was administered intravenously Q2W beginning on day 1 of week 6. The maximum treatment period was 2 years. The primary endpoint was dose-limiting toxicities; key secondary endpoints included objective response rate and PFS per modified irRC, OS, and safety.

Results As of the data cutoff (Mar 2, 2020), all 21 patients enrolled were off treatment; 6 died and 15 are in long-term follow-up. The median follow-up time was 58.6 months (range: 1.4–61.6). The CR rate remained 43% (9/21 patients). Twelve of the 13 responders (92.3%) are still in response, including all 9 patients with a CR. Median duration of response was not reached (range: 2.8+–54.3+ months). Median PFS and OS were not reached at the data cutoff. KM estimates of 4-year PFS and OS rates were 55.9% and 71.4%, respectively, which have held stable since the 3-year analysis. Patients who achieved a CR or partial response had better OS (p=0.0056) compared to those who did not respond. Median OS for non-responders was 24.4 months and was not reached for responders. No additional safety signals were detected.

Conclusions At almost 5 years of follow-up, median PFS and OS were not reached for patients treated with the combination of T-VEC and pembrolizumab in this phase 1b study of unresectable metastatic melanoma. 92% of responders remained in response with improved OS observed in responders compared with non-responders. The corresponding randomized phase 3 trial has completed enrollment and is currently ongoing.

Trial Registration NCT02263508

Ethics Approval The study was approved by the Ethics Board of each institution involved in this study and can be produced upon request.

Reference

  1. Long G, Dummer R, Andtbacka R, et al. Follow-up analysis of MASTERKEY-265 Phase 1b (ph1b) trial of talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) in combination (combo) with pembrolizumab (pembro) in patients (pts) with unresectable stage IIIB–IVM1c melanoma (MEL). Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 2019;32:133–134.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.