Nivolumab plus ipilimumab in advanced salivary gland cancer: a phase 2 trial

Joris L. Vos, Bharat Burman, Swati Jain, Conall W. R. Fitzgerald, Eric J. Sherman, Lara A. Dunn, James V. Fetten, Loren S. Michel, Anuja Kriplani, Kenneth K. Ng, Juliana Eng, Vatche Tchekmedyian, Sofia Haque, Nora Katabi, Fengshen Kuo, Catherine Y. Han, Zaineb Nadeem, Wei Yang, Vladimir Makarov, Raghvendra M. SrivastavaIrina Ostrovnaya, Manu Prasad, Charlotte L. Zuur, Nadeem Riaz, David G. Pfister, Christopher A. Klebanoff, Timothy A. Chan, Alan L. Ho, Luc G. T. Morris

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Salivary gland cancers (SGCs) are rare, aggressive cancers without effective treatments when metastasized. We conducted a phase 2 trial evaluating nivolumab (nivo, anti-PD-1) and ipilimumab (ipi, anti-CTLA-4) in 64 patients with metastatic SGC enrolled in two histology-based cohorts (32 patients each): adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC; cohort 1) and other SGCs (cohort 2). The primary efficacy endpoint (≥4 objective responses) was met in cohort 2 (5/32, 16%) but not in cohort 1 (2/32, 6%). Treatment safety/tolerability and progression-free survival (PFS) were secondary endpoints. Treatment-related adverse events grade ≥3 occurred in 24 of 64 (38%) patients across both cohorts, and median PFS was 4.4 months (95% confidence interval (CI): 2.4, 8.3) and 2.2 months (95% CI: 1.8, 5.3) for cohorts 1 and 2, respectively. We present whole-exome, RNA and T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing data from pre-treatment and on-treatment tumors and immune cell flow cytometry and TCR sequencing from peripheral blood at serial timepoints. Responding tumors universally demonstrated clonal expansion of pre-existing T cells and mutational contraction. Responding ACCs harbored neoantigens, including fusion-derived neoepitopes, that induced T cell responses ex vivo. This study shows that nivo+ipi has limited efficacy in ACC, albeit with infrequent, exceptional responses, and that it could be promising for non-ACC SGCs, particularly salivary duct carcinomas. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03172624 .
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3077-3089
Number of pages13
JournalNature medicine
Volume29
Issue number12
Early online date2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2023

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