Study protocol : phase II study to evaluate the effect of cetuximab monotherapy after immunotherapy with PD-1 inhibitors in patients with head and neck squamous cell cancer

© The Author(s), 2024..

Background: Immunotherapy with programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) inhibitors, as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy, is the standard first-line treatment for recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell cancer (R/M HNSCC). Unfortunately, there is no established second-line treatment for the many patients who fail immunotherapy. Cetuximab is the only targeted therapy approved in HNSCC but historically has a low response rate of 13%.

Objectives: We hypothesize that cetuximab monotherapy following an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) will lead to increased efficacy due to a potential synergistic effect on the antitumor immune response, as a result of activation effects of both treatments on innate and adaptative immune responses. To the authors' knowledge, this is the only ongoing prospective clinical study that evaluates the combination of cetuximab and ICIs administered sequentially.

Methods and analysis: In this non-randomized, open-label, phase II trial, 30 patients with R/M HNSCC who have previously failed or could not tolerate a PD-1 inhibitor as a single agent or in combination with chemotherapy will subsequently be treated with cetuximab monotherapy. Outcomes of interest include overall response rate, duration of response, progression-free survival, overall survival, and treatment toxicity, as well as treatment outcome measured by a patient-reported outcome questionnaire. Saliva and blood will be collected for correlative studies to investigate the immune response status at the end of therapy with an ICI and the effect of cetuximab on the antitumor immune response. The results will be correlated with the response to cetuximab and the time window between the last administration of an ICI and the loading dose of cetuximab. The clinical study is actively recruiting.

Ethics: This study was approved by the Wake Forest Comprehensive Cancer Center Institutional Review Board: IRB00065239.

Clinical trial registration: This study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04375384.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:16

Enthalten in:

Therapeutic advances in medical oncology - 16(2024) vom: 03., Seite 17588359231217959

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Burcher, Kimberly M [VerfasserIn]
Bloomer, Chance H [VerfasserIn]
Gavrila, Elena [VerfasserIn]
Kalada, John M [VerfasserIn]
Chang, Mark J [VerfasserIn]
Gebeyehu, Rediet R [VerfasserIn]
Song, Alexander H [VerfasserIn]
Khoury, Lara M [VerfasserIn]
Lycan, Thomas W [VerfasserIn]
Kinney, Rebecca [VerfasserIn]
D'Agostino, Ralph [VerfasserIn]
Bunch, Paul M [VerfasserIn]
Shukla, Kirtikar [VerfasserIn]
Triozzi, Pierre [VerfasserIn]
Furdui, Cristina M [VerfasserIn]
Zhang, Wei [VerfasserIn]
Porosnicu, Mercedes [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Cetuximab
Erbitux
Head and neck squamous cell cancer
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy resistance
Journal Article
Recurrent metastatic head and neck squamous cell cancer

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 10.02.2024

published: Electronic-eCollection

ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04375384

Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE

doi:

10.1177/17588359231217959

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM367398265