Phase II Trial of Enfortumab Vedotin in Patients With Previously Treated Advanced Head and Neck Cancer

Mené sur 46 patients atteints d'un cancer de la tête et du cou récidivant ou de stade métastatique (durée médiane de suivi : 9,3 mois), cet essai de phase II évalue l'efficacité, du point de vue du taux de réponse objective, et la toxicité de l'enfortumab védotin (un conjugué anticorps-médicament ciblant la nectine-4)

Journal of Clinical Oncology, sous presse, 2024, article en libre accès

Résumé en anglais

Purpose: Despite advances in immunotherapy, unresectable recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer (HNC) carries a poor prognosis, and effective treatments are needed. As nectin-4 is widely expressed in HNC, enfortumab vedotin (EV), a nectin-4–directed antibody-drug conjugate, was explored in HNC in EV-202 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04225117).

Methods: This open-label, multicohort, phase II study evaluated intravenous EV 1.25 mg/kg on days 1, 8, and 15 of each 28-day cycle. In the HNC cohort, eligible patients had recurrent/metastatic HNC and had received platinum-based therapy for locally advanced/metastatic disease and a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor. The primary end point was investigator-assessed confirmed objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST version 1.1. Secondary end points were investigator-assessed duration of response (DOR), disease control rate (DCR), and progression-free survival (PFS); overall survival (OS); and safety.

Results: The primary analysis included 46 patients; all received EV (median follow-up, 9.3 months). Most patients (52.2%) had ≥3 previous lines of systemic therapy in the metastatic setting. Confirmed ORR was 23.9%, DCR was 56.5%, and median DOR was not reached (median DOR was 9.4 months at a later data cutoff [median follow-up, 11.3 months]). Median PFS and OS were 3.9 and 6.0 months, respectively. Treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) occurring in >20% of patients were alopecia (28.3%), fatigue (26.1%), and peripheral sensory neuropathy (23.9%). Sixteen patients (34.8%) experienced grade ≥3 TRAEs; anemia and decreased neutrophil count occurred in ≥1 patient (both n = 2; 4.3%).

Conclusion: EV demonstrated antitumor activity in heavily pretreated HNC. Safety was consistent with the known safety profile of EV; no new safety signals were identified. These data support further evaluation of EV for advanced HNC not amenable to definitive local therapy.