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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a dreadful disease due to its often advanced stage at diagnosis and poor sensitivity to chemotherapy. A locally unresectable tumor (locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC)) is present in 30% of the cases and is defined as a surgically unresectable tumor encasing the adjacent arteries [celiac axis, superior mesenteric artery (SMA)]. In these patients, chemotherapy has been the standard treatment for decades, optionally combined with radiotherapy. Patients with borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (BRPC) comprise a group of patients with PDAC who are at a high risk of having positive margins if upfront resection is pursued. In addition, multiple studies have reported these patients have increased probability of early recurrence of local and systemic disease resulting in poorer outcomes. Although some patients are treated with an aggressive surgery-first approach and adjuvant systemic therapies, a preoperative chemotherapy and/or chemoradiation approach is becoming more common for all patients with BRPC, and this strategy is adapted in Danish and international guidelines. Majority of patients present with metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC). Therapy options are limited by chemotherapy in palliative setting. The superiority of the FOLFIRINOX regimen demonstrated in the phase III mPC setting led many centers to investigate FOLFIRINOX with or without chemoradiotherapy in patients with LAPC tumor. Gemcitabine combined with nab-paclitaxel is the approved first-line treatment for patients with advanced PC. This regimen showed a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 5.5 months and a median overall survival (OS) of 8.5 months and is the predominantly used regimen in metastatic PC. The role of radiation therapy in the management of nonresectable PC remains controversial. The results of small randomized trials comparing chemoradiotherapy with chemotherapy of patients with LAPC are divergent.
Immunotherapy has emerged as a therapeutic approach that offers effective and durable treatment options for subsets of patients with various types of cancer. However, these successes have not manifested similar benefits for PDAC patients mostly due to a lack of pre-existing T-cell immunity and/or a highly immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Considering the emerging role of the TME, the combination of checkpoint blocking antibodies with agents that target the inhibitory effects of the TME could lead to better responses in tumor historically resistant to checkpoint blocking antibody approaches. For example, in heavily pretreated patients with advanced/metastatic PDAC, preliminary data from the phase 2 study CHECKPAC (NCT02866383) showed that checkpoint inhibition in combination with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) provided durable clinical benefit in a small proportion of patients, including prolonged, sustained partial responses. Furthermore, the addition of standard-of-care chemotherapy could further potentiate the anti-tumor effects of immunotherapy approaches by reducing the tumor burden, exposing antigens, and directly affecting the immunosuppressive TME compartment.
To explore the safety and synergy of the proposed combinatorial approach, participants with borderline resectable, locally advanced or mPC will receive nivolumab and ipilimumab administered in combination with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel followed by immune-chemoradiation.
Full description
Patients receive nivolumab and ipilimumab. Nivolumab 3 mg/kg will be given on Day 1 (± 3 days) of each 28-day treatment cycle. Ipilimumab 1 mg/kg will be given only on day 1 in cycle 1. Nivolumab will be administered as an IV infusion over 30 (± 5) minutes and then, after a 30 minutes rest period, ipilimumab will be administered as an IV infusion over 30 (± 5) minutes.
Pre-medication for chemotherapy (based on standard-of-care and local institutional standards) and chemotherapy will then be administered after a further 30 minutes rest period. The recommended dose of nab-paclitaxel is 100 mg/m2 administered as an IV infusion over 30 to 40 minutes on Days 1, 8, and 15 of each 28-day cycle. Gemcitabine 800 mg/m2 will be adminestered over 30 to 40 minutes immediately after nab-paclitaxel on Days 1, 8, and 15 of each 28-day cycle.
At the beginning of cycle 3, patients also undergo concurrent MRI-guided adaptive SBRT (8 Gy x 3 fractions) delivered by ViewRay MR-Linear Accelerator.
Cycles repeats every 4 weeks for 4 courses (16 weeks) in the absence of disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, withdrawal of consent, or study closure.
Once 4 cycles of study treatment have been completed, subjects without disease progression or unacceptable toxicity may continue as per Investigator's Choice to either:
All subjects who discontinue treatment for any reason will have a safety follow-up visit about 30, 60 and 100 days after treatment discontinuation and will be followed for OS and post-study anticancer therapies approximately every 90 days by phone or review of medical records until death, withdrawal of consent, or lost to follow-up.
To minimize the risks of adding or nivolumab + ipilimumab followed by nivolumab and chemo-radiation, safety will be monitored by a Bayesian stopping rule for the rate of treatment-related AEs leading to discontinuation greater than 30% (summarized baseline toxicity rate). For example, if 3 patients out of the first 6 or 4 out of the first 7 evaluable patients experience treatment-related AEs leading to discontinuation, accrual to the trial will be temporarily suspended and the principle investigator and study team will review the toxicity data and recommend either modification or termination of the trial.
Enrollment
Sex
Ages
Volunteers
Inclusion criteria
Signed informed consent
Histological or cytological confirmation of locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic carcinoma prior to entering this study
No prior chemotherapy regimens received for PC
Age 18 years or older
Life expectancy greater than 6 months
ECOG/WHO Performance Status (PS) 0-1
All participants will be required to undergo mandatory pre- and on-treatment biopsies at acceptable clinical risk as judged by the investigator. An archival pre-treatment sample is acceptable
Patients must have normal organ and marrow function as defined below:
Women of child bearing potential (WOCBP) must use method(s) of contraception as indicated in Appendix 3. For a teratogenic study drug and/or when there is insufficient information to assess teratogenicity (preclinical studies have not been done), a highly effective method(s) of contraception (failure rate of less than 1% per year) is required. The individual methods of contraception and duration should be determined in consultation with the investigator. WOCBP must follow instructions for birth control when the half-life of the investigational drug is greater than 24 hours, contraception should be continued for a period of 30 days plus the time required for the investigational drug to undergo five half-lives. The half-life of nivolumab and ipilimumab is up to 25 days and 18 days, respectively. WOCBP should therefore use an adequate method to avoid pregnancy for 23 weeks (30 days plus the time required for nivolumab to undergo five half-lives) after the last dose of investigational drug
Men who are sexually active with WOCBP must use any contraceptive method with a failure rate of less than 1% per year (Appendix 3). The investigator shall review contraception methods and the time period that contraception must be followed. Men that are sexually active with WOCBP must follow instructions for birth control when the half-life of the investigational drug is greater than 24 hours, contraception should be continued for a period of 90 days plus the time required for the investigational drug to undergo five half-lives. The half-life of nivolumab is up to 25 days. Men who are sexually active with WOCBP must continue contraception for 31 weeks (90 days plus the time required for nivolumab to undergo five half-lives) after the last dose of investigational drug. Women who are not of childbearing potential (ie, who are postmenopausal or surgically sterile as well as azoospermic men do not require contraception
Subjects must have signed and dated a BIOPAC approved written informed consent form in accordance with regulatory and institutional guidelines
Exclusion criteria
Metastatic disease
Prior treatment with an anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, anti-PD-L2, anti-CD137, or anti-CTLA-4 antibody, or any other antibody or drug specifically targeting T-cell co-stimulation or checkpoint pathways
Any serious or uncontrolled medical disorder that, in the opinion of the investigator, may increase the risk associated with study participation or study drug administration, impair the ability of the subject to receive protocol therapy, or interfere with the interpretation of study results
Participants with active, known or suspected autoimmune disease. Participants with vitiligo, type I diabetes mellitus, residual hypothyroidism due to autoimmune condition only requiring hormone replacement, psoriasis not requiring systemic treatment, or conditions not expected to recur in the absence of an external trigger are permitted to enroll.
Participants with a condition requiring systemic treatment with either corticosteroids (>10 mg daily prednisone equivalents) or other immunosuppressive medications. Inhaled or topical steroids and adrenal replacement doses > 10 mg daily prednisone equivalents are permitted in the absence of active autoimmune disease.
Patients should be excluded if they have known history of testing positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or known acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
Allergies and adverse drug reaction
WOCBP who are pregnant or breastfeeding
Primary purpose
Allocation
Interventional model
Masking
55 participants in 1 patient group
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Central trial contact
Inna M Chen, MD
Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov
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