Patterns of progression in patients treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab (NIVO+IPI) versus sunitinib (SUN) for first-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC) in CheckMate 214.
Nizar M. Tannir, Robert J. Motzer, Laurence Albigès, Elizabeth R. Plimack, Saby George, Thomas Powles, Frede Donskov, Brian I. Rini, Viktor Grünwald, Hans J. Hammers, Toni K. Choueiri, Howard Gurney, Scott S. Tykodi, Camillo Porta, Mauricio Burotto, Yoshihiko Tomita, Chung‐Wei Lee, Chad Tang, David F. McDermott, Rana R. McKay
Abstract
313 Background: First-line NIVO+IPI demonstrates superior survival and response benefits in intent-to-treat (ITT) patients (pts) with aRCC after long-term follow-up in the phase 3 CheckMate 214 trial. Data are scarce on tumor relapse and patterns of disease progression with immuno-oncology agents in this setting. This exploratory analysis of CheckMate 214 characterizes patterns of progression with NIVO+IPI vs SUN with 4 years minimum follow-up. Methods: Pts with clear cell aRCC were randomized to NIVO+IPI Q3W×4 followed by NIVO monotherapy Q2W, or SUN QD×4 weeks (6-week cycle). Patterns of progression were characterized in ITT pts and analyzed post hoc using descriptive statistics. Progression patterns were defined by ≥ 20% target lesion growth (T), unequivocal progression of nontarget lesions (NT), and new lesion(s) (NL). Response and progression were assessed per independent radiology review committee via RECIST v1.1. Results: Radiographic progression (RP) was documented in 299/550 (54.4%) ITT pts with NIVO+IPI vs 289/546 (52.9%) with SUN. Among ITT pts with a confirmed response (objective response = 215/550 [39.1%, NIVO+IPI] vs 177/546 [32.4%, SUN]), 71/215 (33.0%) vs 84/177 (47.5%) pts experienced post-response RP with NIVO+IPI vs SUN; 8/59 (13.6%) vs 3/14 (21.4%) progressed after complete response, and 63/156 (40.4%) vs 81/163 (49.7%) progressed after partial response, respectively. The pattern of RP differed between arms (Table). With NIVO+IPI, 106/299 (35.5%) RPs resulted from NL only vs 74/289 (25.6%) with SUN, and this differential was more pronounced in pts with an initial confirmed response (36/71 [50.7%] vs 23/84 [27.4%]). Most NL-only RPs in initial responders occurred in a single organ (34/36 [94.4%] for NIVO+IPI; 20/23 [87.0%] for SUN) with the most common being lymph nodes (11/34 [32.4%]), brain (8/34 [23.5%]), and lung (5/34 [14.7%]) with NIVO+IPI, and lymph nodes (7/20 [35.0%]), brain (4/20 [20.0%]) and adrenal gland (3/20 [15.0%]) with SUN. Additional progression details, baseline characteristics, and key efficacy outcomes in progressors will be reported. Conclusions: Differential patterns of tumor relapse and disease progression were observed after long-term follow up of patients treated with NIVO+IPI vs SUN in CheckMate 214. NL-only progression occurred more often with NIVO+IPI vs SUN, in particular in the subset of pts who progressed post-response. These patterns may have therapeutic implications. Clinical trial information: NCT02231749 . [Table: see text]