Retifanlimab, Bevacizumab, and Radiation Therapy with or without Epacadostat for the Treatment of Patients with Recurrent Gliomas
This phase II trial studies how well retifanlimab, bevacizumab, and radiation therapy with or without epacadostat work for the treatment of gliomas that have come back (recurrent). Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as retifanlimab, may help the body’s immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Bevacizumab is a monoclonal antibody that may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Radiation therapy uses high energy to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Epacadostat may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. Giving retifanlimab, bevacizumab, and radiation therapy with epacadostat may work better in treating patients with glioma.
Inclusion Criteria
- Recurrent World Health Organization (WHO) grade IV glioblastoma or gliosarcoma, including molecular features of glioblastoma and WHO grade 4 astrocytoma or WHO grade high grade glioma
- Other “grade 4 gliomas variants and “secondary “grade 4 gliomas” are allowed. IDH-mutant “grade 4 gliomas that have relapsed more than once may be included, as the prognosis of multiply recurrent “grade 4 gliomas patients may not differ based on IDH mutation status
- Disease must have recurred and patient must be a candidate for re-irradiation and bevacizumab. Any number of recurrences is allowed
- Patients must have measurable disease per Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Criteria (RANO) criteria. Lesions will be considered measurable when they are bi-dimensional with clearly defined margins of >= 5 mm in two perpendicular diameters
- Prior transient use of bevacizumab for cerebral edema or radiation necrosis is allowed without a washout period. Prior bevacizumab use is permitted if used for treatment of disease if administered more than 4 months prior to registration
- At least 18 years of age.
- Karnofsky performance status >= 60%
- Absolute neutrophil count >= 1,000/mcL
- Platelets >= 75,000/mcL
- Hemoglobin >= 9.0 g/dL or > 5.6 mmol/L (transfusion is acceptable to meet this criterion)
- Serum creatinine =< 1.5 x upper limit of normal (ULN) or creatinine clearance >= 60 mL/min/1.73 m^2 by Cockcroft-Gault for patients
- Serum total bilirubin =< 1.5 ULN
- Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase [SGOT]) / alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase [SGPT]) =< 2.5 x institutional upper limit of normal (IULN)
- International normalized ratio (INR) or prothrombin time (PT) =< 1.5 x IULN unless subject is receiving anticoagulant therapy as long as PT or partial thromboplastin time (PTT) is within therapeutic range of intended use of anticoagulants
- Activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) =< 1.5 x IULN unless subject is receiving anticoagulant therapy as long as PT or PTT is within therapeutic range of intended use of anticoagulants
- At least 28 days from any major surgery such as craniotomy and surgical wound is fully healed, and at least 14 days from LITT or biopsy. Prior to surgery, there must be imaging evidence of measurable progressive disease (PD) per RANO criteria and noted above
- Women of childbearing potential and men must agree to use highly effective contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control, abstinence) prior to study entry and for the duration of study participation. Should a woman become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while participating in this study, she must inform her treating physician immediately
- Ability to understand and willingness to sign an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved written informed consent document (or that of legally authorized representative, if applicable)
- Prior use of the Optune device is allowed, without a washout period. However, concurrent Optune use is not permitted while on treatment for this trial
Exclusion Criteria
- Currently receiving any other investigational agents
- A history of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to epacadostat, retifanlimab, bevacizumab, or other agents used in the study
- Dexamethasone dose > 4 mg daily at the time of registration (higher dose of steroid for symptom control is allowed during the study)
- History of intracranial abscess within 6 months prior to start of study therapy
- Has active autoimmune disease or syndrome (i.e. moderate or severe rheumatoid arthritis, moderate or severe psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, active inflammatory bowel disease) that has required systemic treatment in the past 2 years (i.e. with use of disease modifying agents, corticosteroids, or immunosuppressive drugs) or who are receiving systemic therapy for an autoimmune or inflammatory disease (i.e. with use of disease modifying agents, corticosteroids, or immunosuppressive drugs). Replacement therapy (e.g., thyroxine, insulin, or physiologic corticosteroid replacement therapy for adrenal or pituitary insufficiency) is not considered a form of systemic treatment. Subjects are permitted to enroll if they have vitiligo, resolved childhood asthma/atopy, 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
- Has a severe acute or chronic medical condition including immune colitis, inflammatory bowel disease (may be enrolled at the discretion of the principal investigator [PI]), immune pneumonitis, or laboratory abnormalities that may increase the risk associated with study participation or study treatment administration or may interfere with the interpretation of study results and, in the judgment of the investigator, would make the patient inappropriate for entry into this study
- Has had an allogeneic tissue/solid organ transplant
- Has an active infection requiring intravenous antibiotic therapy
- Has a known history of active tuberculosis (TB; bacillus tuberculosis)
- Has received prior therapy with an anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, anti-PD-L2, or IDO inhibitor
- If a patient is enrolled to regimen B, they are prohibited from receiving monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) or drug which has significant MAOI activity (meperidine, linezolid, methylene blue) within the 21 days before screening
- If a patient is enrolled to regimen B, the use of any UGT1A9 inhibitor from screening through follow-up period, including acitretin, amitriptyline, androsterone, cyclosporine, dasatinib, diclofenac, diflunisal, efavirenz, erlotinib, estradiol (17-beta), flutamide, gefitinib, gemfibrozil, glycyrrhetinic acid, glycyrrhizin, imatinib, imipramine, ketoconazole, linoleic acid supplements, mefenamic acid, mycophenolic acid, niflumic acid, nilotinib, phenobarbital, phenylbutazone, phenytoin, probenecid, propofol, quinidine, ritonavir, sorafenib, sulfinpyrazone, valproic acid, and verapamil is prohibited
- If a patient is enrolled to regimen B, the use of probiotics from screening through end of treatment is prohibited
- If a patient is enrolled to regimen B, the use of warfarin is prohibited. If anti-coagulation is needed during the conduct of the study and non-warfarin regimens are not feasible, the participant must discontinue study therapy
- Chronic use of systemic antibiotics (> 14 days) unless medical monitor review and approval
- Any history of serotonin syndrome (SS) after receiving serotonergic drugs
- Has uncontrolled human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (HIV 1/2 antibodies). Well-controlled HIV is defined as CD4+ count > 300 cells, undetectable viral load, and receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy/antiretroviral therapy (HAART/ART). Study specific HIV testing is not required for patients who do not have any prior history of HIV
- Has uncontrolled active hepatitis B (e.g., hepatitis B virus surface antigen [HBsAg] reactive or hepatitis B virus deoxyribonucleic acid [HBV DNA] detected by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction [quant RT PCR]) or hepatitis C (e.g. HCV RNA [qualitative or quantitative] is detected)
- Uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, clinically significant (i.e. active) cardiovascular disease: cerebral vascular accident/stroke (< 6 months prior to enrollment), myocardial infarction (< 60 months prior to enrollment), congestive heart failure (>= New York Heart Association [NYHA] class II), unstable angina pectoris, or serious cardiac arrhythmia requiring medication
- History or presence of an abnormal electrocardiogram (ECG) that, in the investigator’s opinion, is clinically meaningful. Screening corrected QT (QTc) interval > 480 msec will require investigator’s evaluation on patient’s eligibility. Subjects with left bundle branch block are excluded
- Presence of a gastrointestinal condition that may affect drug absorption
- Receipt of live attenuated vaccine within 30 days before the first dose of study treatment. Examples of live vaccines include, but are not limited to, the following: measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, yellow fever, rabies, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), and typhoid vaccine. Seasonal influenza vaccines for injection are generally killed virus vaccines and are allowed; however, intranasal influenza vaccines (e.g. FluMist) are live attenuated vaccines and are not allowed
- Pregnant and/or breastfeeding. Women of childbearing potential must have a negative pregnancy test prior to the start of study treatment
Study sponsor and potential other locations can be found on ClinicalTrials.gov for NCT03532295.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
I. To evaluate overall survival at 9 months (OS-9) of recurrent grade 4 glioma patients treated with the combination of retifanlimab, radiation therapy (RT), and bevacizumab with or without epacadostat.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
I. To determine progression-free survival (PFS) of recurrent grade 4 glioma patients treated with the combination of RT, retifanlimab, and bevacizumab with or without epacadostat.
II. To evaluate neurologic functions of recurrent grade 4 glioma patients treated with the combination of RT, retifanlimab, and bevacizumab with or without epacadostat using the Neurologic Assessment in Neuro-Oncology (NANO) scale.
III. To evaluate the safety and toxicity of the combination of RT, retifanlimab, and bevacizumab with or without epacadostat in patients with recurrent grade 4 glioma.
CORRELATIVE OBJECTIVES:
I. To assess the anti-glioma immune response before and after retifanlimab or/and epacadostat including assessment of immune cells phenotyping, function and activation in the pre-/post-treatment blood.
II. To evaluate serum kynurenine/tryptophan (Kyn/Trp) ratio as a surrogate of IDO1 enzymatic activity.
III. To evaluate messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expressions of IDO1, IDO2, TDO and PD-L1 pre- and post- study treatment.
EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:
I. To evaluate the correlation between serum Trp and Kyn levels in patients and the association with treatment response and overall survival after epacadostat treatment.
II. To evaluate the correlation between intratumoral expression of IDO and the frequency of glioma cell-specific cytotoxic T cells, regulatory T cells (Tregs), treatment response and overall survival.
III. To evaluate tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (CD4, CD8, Treg, effector cells, etc) in the tumor tissue pre- and post retifanlimab or/and epacadostat treatment (if available).
IV. To explore tissue and blood biomarkers that may predict tumor response to epacadostat in combination with RT and retifanlimab.
V. To test tumor mutation burden by a validated comprehensive genomic profiling and PD-L1/PD-L2 expression on tumor/immune cells by immunohistochemistry (IHC).
OUTLINE: Patients are assigned to 1 of 2 regimens.
REGIMEN A: Patients receive retifanlimab intravenously (IV) over 30-60 minutes on day 1 and bevacizumab IV over 30-90 minutes on days 1 and 15. Cycles repeat every 28 days for 2 year in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo radiation therapy for 10 fractions beginning between day 12 and day 18 of cycle 1.
REGIMEN B: Patients receive epacadostat orally (PO) twice daily (BID) days 1-28, retifanlimab IV over 30-60 minutes on day 1, and bevacizumab IV over 30-90 minutes on days 1 and 15. Cycles repeat every 28 days for 2 year in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo radiation therapy for 10 fractions beginning between day 12 and day 18 of cycle 1.
After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 30 and 90 days, then every 2 months for up to 2 years.
Trial PhasePhase II
Trial Typetreatment
Lead OrganizationSiteman Cancer Center at Washington University
Principal InvestigatorMilan Girish Chheda
- Primary ID202003050
- Secondary IDsNCI-2020-02183
- ClinicalTrials.gov IDNCT03532295