Sumanta K. Pal, MD, on Urothelial Carcinoma: New Results on Cabozantinib Plus Atezolizumab
2022 ASCO Annual Meeting
Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of City of Hope National Medical Center, discusses findings from the COSMIC-021 study, which showed that cabozantinib plus atezolizumab demonstrated encouraging clinical activity with manageable toxicity in patients with inoperable locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. The combination was administered as first-line therapy in cisplatin-based chemotherapy–eligible and –ineligible patients and as second- or later-line treatment in those who received prior immune checkpoint inhibitors (Abstract 4504).
Transcript
Disclaimer: This video transcript has not been proofread or edited and may contain errors.
The COSMIC-021 study is a trial that includes multiple different histologies, multiple different cohorts. At this year's ASCO meeting, ASCO 2022, I presented data pertaining to cohorts three, four, and five. This specifically looked at patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma. The composition of each of the cohorts was distinct. In cohort three, we had patients that were cisplatin-ineligible. In cohort four, patients that were cisplatin-eligible. And finally, in cohort five, patients that had received prior immune checkpoint inhibitors. What ultimately it boiled down to is about 30 patients per cohort. In terms of the distribution of patients, it was predominantly male, as you might expect. Most of the patients had a bladder primary, although we did actually have good representation of upper track tumors, ureteral tumors, and so forth. That was about 30% of the study population. Amongst those patients that had received prior immune checkpoint inhibitors, about 30% had received one prior therapy implying immune-based treatment, and about 68% had received two or more prior lines of treatment. What we saw was actually a graded response. In patients who were cisplatin-eligible we saw the highest response rate, 30%. In patients that cisplatin-ineligible we saw a response rate of 20%. And finally, in patients that had received prior immune checkpoint inhibitors, we saw a response rate of 10%. It's always tricky to know what endpoints to follow in these relatively small studies. One thing that really I found intriguing was the duration of response. And with substantial follow up at this point in time, we still haven't reached the median duration of response amongst those patients that were cisplatin-eligible. I really think that the toxicity profile that we saw in this study really mimics what we've seen in other experiences of cabozantinib with atezolizumab. The combination seems to be very well tolerated. We used a dose of cabozantinib at 40 milligrams. The rates of hepatitis, the rates of other toxicities that you'd expect with a combination like diarrhea, were very reasonable and manageable by and large. So in summary, I think that this combination really does have activity. My hope is that we'll be able to study it further in certain contexts. And in particular, there's a study ongoing right now that I'll plug, MAIN-CAV through the Alliance. It's led by Dr. Shilpa Gupta. This trial I think is a prime way for us to understand the role of cabozantinib with immunotherapy where that combination's being assessed in the maintenance setting.
The ASCO Post Staff
Erika Hamilton, MD, of Sarah Cannon Research Institute at Tennessee Oncology, discusses phase III data from the DESTINY-Breast03 study, which reinforced the consistent safety profile of fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki (T-DXd) vs ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) in patients with HER2-positive unresectable and/or metastatic breast cancer. The findings also support T-DXd’s risk benefit over that of T-DM1 (Abstract 1000).
The ASCO Post Staff
Rainer Fietkau, MD, of Germany’s University Hospital Erlangen, discusses phase III findings of the CONKO-007 trial, which examined the role of sequential chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy administered to patients with nonresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer following standard-of-care chemotherapy (Abstract 4008).
The ASCO Post Staff
Shilpa Gupta, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, discusses an updated consensus definition for standard therapy and clinical trial eligibility for patients with metastatic urothelial cancer who are platinum-ineligible, criteria that are proposed to guide treatment recommendations for this population. This may be especially important now that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has restricted the use of first-line pembrolizumab to those who are considered platinum-ineligible (Abstract 4577).
The ASCO Post Staff
Nabil F. Saba, MD, of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, discusses new data from a trial of pembrolizumab and cabozantinib in patients with recurrent metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The study met its primary endpoint of overall response rate. The regimen was well tolerated and exhibited encouraging clinical activity in this patient population (Abstract 6008).
Paul G. Richardson, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses phase III findings from the DETERMINATION trial, which showed that, for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (RVd) with or without autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) and lenalidomide maintenance to disease progression resulted in the longest median progression-free survival reported for each approach, and a highly significant difference in progression-free survival in favor of early transplant. While overall response rates were similar, rates of MRD favored early transplant also, but toxicity was greater and quality of life was transiently but significantly diminished. No overall survival advantage has been observed to date (Abstract LBA4).