Faculty Bibliography

The multinational phase 3 CheckMate 238 trial compared adjuvant therapy with nivolumab versus ipilimumab among patients with resected stage III or IV melanoma (N = 906). In this Japanese subgroup analysis of CheckMate 238 (n = 28; nivolumab, n = 18; ipilimumab, n = 10), both the 12- and 18-month recurrence-free survival rates were 56% for nivolumab and 30% for ipilimumab (hazard ratio, 0.66; 97.56% confidence interval, 0.19-2.24; P = 0.4390). No new safety signals were reported for Japanese patients. Results were consistent with those from the CheckMate 238 global population, indicating that nivolumab has the potential to be a treatment option for Japanese patients with resected melanoma who are at high risk of recurrence.

BACKGROUND:Recent evidence suggests that immunotherapy efficacy in melanoma is modulated by gut microbiota. Few studies have examined this phenomenon in humans, and none have incorporated metatranscriptomics, important for determining expression of metagenomic functions in the microbial community. METHODS:In melanoma patients undergoing immunotherapy, gut microbiome was characterized in pre-treatment stool using 16S rRNA gene and shotgun metagenome sequencing (n = 27). Transcriptional expression of metagenomic pathways was confirmed with metatranscriptome sequencing in a subset of 17. We examined associations of taxa and metagenomic pathways with progression-free survival (PFS) using 500 × 10-fold cross-validated elastic-net penalized Cox regression. RESULTS:Higher microbial community richness was associated with longer PFS in 16S and shotgun data (p < 0.05). Clustering based on overall microbiome composition divided patients into three groups with differing PFS; the low-risk group had 99% lower risk of progression than the high-risk group at any time during follow-up (p = 0.002). Among the species selected in regression, abundance of Bacteroides ovatus, Bacteroides dorei, Bacteroides massiliensis, Ruminococcus gnavus, and Blautia producta were related to shorter PFS, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Coprococcus eutactus, Prevotella stercorea, Streptococcus sanguinis, Streptococcus anginosus, and Lachnospiraceae bacterium 3 1 46FAA to longer PFS. Metagenomic functions related to PFS that had correlated metatranscriptomic expression included risk-associated pathways of L-rhamnose degradation, guanosine nucleotide biosynthesis, and B vitamin biosynthesis. CONCLUSIONS:This work adds to the growing evidence that gut microbiota are related to immunotherapy outcomes, and identifies, for the first time, transcriptionally expressed metagenomic pathways related to PFS. Further research is warranted on microbial therapeutic targets to improve immunotherapy outcomes.

Background: The phase III study CheckMate 238 demonstrated improved relapse-free survival (RFS) with NIVO 3 mg/kg vs IPI 10 mg/kg in patients (pts) with resected stage III/IV melanoma. Sustained efficacy benefit at 24 mo of follow-up with NIVO vs IPI was previously reported. Here we present a 36mo analysis of efficacy and biomarker data from this study.
Method(s): Pts aged >= 15 y with completely resected stage IIIB/C or IV melanoma were randomized 1:1 to receive NIVO (3 mg/kg Q2W; N=453) or IPI (10 mg/kg Q3W for 4 doses; Q12W thereafter; N=453) for <= 1 y or until disease recurrence/unacceptable toxicity. RFS was the primary endpoint; exploratory endpoints included distant metastases-free survival (DMFS) in pts with stage III disease and potential biomarkers of efficacy.
Result(s): With 36mo of follow-up, NIVO continued to demonstrate superior RFS vs IPI (HR, 0.68; P<0.0001; 3-y RFS rates, 58%vs 45%and 188/453 vs 239/453 pts with events, respectively). Prespecified subgroup analyses demonstrated a consistent pattern similar to that of the 24-mo analysis, with HRs favoring NIVO (Table). DMFS analysis also continued to favor NIVO (Table). High levels of all biomarkers analyzed (interferon-gamma gene expression signature, tumor mutational burden, and CD8+ T-cell infiltration by immunohistochemistry) showed an association with improved RFS for both NIVO and IPI.Median RFS (mo; 24-mo follow-up) by high vs low values for each biomarker for NIVO was 30.8 vs 24.1, not reached (NR) vs 30.8, and 30.8 vs 24.9, respectively; and for IPI was NR vs 15.9, NR vs 18.3, and NR vs 13.8, respectively.
Conclusion(s): With 36 mo of follow-up, NIVO continued to demonstrate superior efficacy over IPI in pts with stage III/IV melanoma at high risk of recurrence across pt subgroups. Additional analyses using composite scoring of biomarker combinations will be presented

Background: Tumor-specific indicators, such as tumor mutation burden (TMB) have been shown to affect overall survival (OS) in melanoma. Recently, pan-cancer analyses from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) discovered specific tumor immune signatures predictive of overall survival (OS), yet it is unclear how these interact with other prognostic markers, independently of immunotherapy (IT). We aimed to combine the immune landscape signatures with TMB and other prognostic markers to improve melanoma OS prediction in patients, independent of IT.
Method(s): We examined the whole-exome data in conjunction with the molecular, clinical and immune features from 278 metastatic melanomas from TCGA, not treated by IT, to develop an improved prognostic model of melanoma OS. Using the discovery (N=139) and validation (N=139) design we performed multivariate Cox proportional hazards (Cox HR) models, adjusted for age and tumor stage at primary diagnosis, to identify interaction between TMB and melanoma immune features (n=59), refining the prediction of melanoma OS.
Result(s): We identified 4 immune features that were significantly associated with OS in both the discovery and validation cohorts. The multivariate Cox HR models revealed that IFN-c response (IFN-c R) and macrophage regulation (MR) signatures in combination with TMB were the most significantly associated with OS (p=8.80E-14). After further refinement, we observed that patients with high TMB, high IFN-c R and high MRhad significantly better OS compared to high TMB, low IFN-y R and low MR (HR=2.8, p=3.55E-08). This association was not observed in low TMB patients.
Conclusion(s): We show, for the first time, that TMB and tumor immune features are significantly associated with improved OS, independent of IT. Further analysis of patients revealed that high TMB associates with improved OS in patients with high IFN- c R and MR but not in low IFN- c R and MR. Hence, this data provides first evidence that patients with high TMB have distinct OS outcome depending on other tumor immune features. Beside biological link between TMB and IFN-y and MR, our data suggest that these associations may significantly improve the current melanoma prognostic models

Background: Peripheral blood T cell and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC), as well as myeloid and macrophage subsets, have been associated with a poor clinical outcome in a variety of cancers. We analyzed circulating cells from patients (pts) that received either nivolumab (NIVO) then ipilimumab (IPI) (cohort A, 16 pts) or IPI then NIVO (cohort B, 17 pts) in a randomized clinical trial to determine if peripheral blood phenotypes were associated either at baseline or on treatment with outcome. Method(s): Frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from the ChekMate 064 study were assessed at baseline and on treatment at week 13 for circulating cell subsets by 28-color, high-dimensional flow cytometry with CytoBrute, a rapid computational platform that performs high-parameter Boolean analysis. Correlations with response and survival as well as toxicity were evaluated using the machine learning algorithm ElasticNet. Result(s): In cohort B pts the frequency of resting Ki67-, long-lived memory CD45+/ CD45RO+/CD127+ T cells was reduced (p=0.005), and dividing Ki-67+ CD4+/ CD45RO+/CD95+ T cells susceptible to apoptosis were increased after IPI (p=0.007), but were associated at baseline with a poor outcome with cohort A (p=0.0002). Subsets of myeloid cells that were CD66b+/CD33+/41-BB+/CD86+ at baseline were associated with survival in cohort B (p=0.0006). A macrophage subset that was PD-L2+/CD163+/41-BBL+/CD40+ was associated with survival for cohort A (p=0.0001). Additional phenotypes were associated with grade 1 compared with grades 2-4 toxicity that differentiated side effects from either IPI or NIVO, and other phenotypes distinguished normals and pts (AUC=0.96). Conclusion(s): A circulating CD4+/CD45RO+/CD95+ proliferating memory T cell phenotype signature is augmented after IPI and is associated at baseline with poor survival with NIVO in CheckMate 064. We discriminated pts and healthy controls with great specificity and sensitivity at baseline, and demonstrated new phenotypes associated with immune-related toxicity. Peripheral blood immune monitoring may be of value in selecting melanoma pts to be treated with immunotherapy

Background: Melanoma that metastasizes to the brain has a poor prognosis, and accounts for up to 54% of melanoma deaths. Clinical data show that treatment with BRAF-targeted agents induces responses in RAFV600-mutant MBM. Duration of response in the brain is shorter than that observed with extracranial disease. The BRAF/MEK-targeted combination encorafenib +binimetinib demonstrated favorable efficacy and safety for patients with BRAF^V600- mutant melanoma in the COLUMBUS study, but excluded patients with active MBM. The aim of this study is to evaluate encorafenib + binimetinib in a population of patients with BRAF^V600-mutated active MBM. A higher dose of combination therapy will be studied versus a standard dose to evaluate whether greater efficacy may be achieved with acceptable safety for patients with BRAF^V600 MBM. Trial design: This multicenter, randomized, open-label phase II study will evaluate two dosing regimens of encorafenib + binimetinib combination in adults with BRAF^V600- mutant MBM. Eligible patients will have at least 1 measurable MBM, no prior local MBMtherapy, no corticosteroids for MBM, and no prior BRAF or MEK inhibitors in the metastatic setting. One prior line of checkpoint inhibitor or prior adjuvant BRAF or MEK inhibitors is permitted. Patients will be randomized (1:1) to either the standard dose (450 mg orally QD and binimetinib 45 mg orally BID) or high-dose (encorafenib 300 mg BID and binimetinib 45 mg BID) stratified by baseline tumor burden (1 to 2 brain lesions vs. >= 3 brain lesions at baseline) and by prior checkpoint inhibitor (yes vs. no). The first 9 evaluable patients in the high-dose arm will constitute the safety lead-in cohort. If the high-dose is not tolerated, subsequent patients will receive standard-dose therapy. Assessments include intracranial response (assessed as per modified RECIST using gadolinium enhanced MRI), extracranial response, global response rate, DCR, DOR, PFS, OS, PK, and safety. The study will enroll approximately 100 patients

Background: A goal of adjuvant therapy is to prolong disease-free survival, with the risk of mortality approaching that of the general population. From the literature, recurrences in stage III melanoma are most likely to occur within 3 years after surgery. Mixture-cure models (MCMs) capture survival heterogeneity of cancer patients by assuming they are either "cured" or "uncured", where cured patients are defined as having a low risk of relapse. Method(s): We applied MCMs to 3-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) outcomes in patients with resected melanoma treated with adjuvant nivolumab (NIVO) or ipilimumab (IPI) in the double-blind, phase III CheckMate 238 trial (NCT02388906) and assumed that the cured fraction has mortality risks similar to that of the general population. Patient age, sex, and geographic region information from CheckMate 238 and mortality rates from the World Health Organization were used to derive a cohort-level background survival distribution representative of "cured" or "disease-free" patients. Parametric functions were used to model uncured population outcomes. Parameters of theMCMwere estimated by means of maximum likelihood methods. Statistical goodness- of-fit metrics and visual inspection showed that generalized gamma and log-logistic distributions were best suited for survival analyses of cured and uncured patients, respectively. Result(s): The 3-year RFS rates were explained by the fraction of patients with a low risk of relapse in the NIVO arm at 55.1% (95% CI, 49.2-60.1) and IPI arm at 39.9% (95% CI, 33.6-46.1). Sensitivity analyses indicated that the estimated fraction of patients with a low risk of relapse was > 50% in the NIVO arm. Estimated RFS distributions of the uncured patients exhibited similar patterns for both arms, implying the differences in RFS rates between treatment arms can be explained with the elicited differences in proportions of patients at high vs low risk of relapse. Conclusion(s):MCManalyses from CheckMate 238 suggested that adjuvant treatment with NIVO leads to a higher proportion of patients with low risk of relapse compared with IPI. Validation of the results from MCMs will include analyses of longitudinal RFS and overall survival data from the EORTC 18071 trial

Despite major improvements in combatting metastatic melanoma since the advent of immunotherapy, the overall survival for patients with advanced disease remains low. Recently, there is a growing number of reports supporting an "obesity paradox," in which patients who are overweight or mildly obese may exhibit a survival benefit in patients who received immune checkpoint inhibitors. We studied the relationship between body mass index and progression-free survival and overall survival in a cohort of 423 metastatic melanoma patients receiving immunotherapy, enrolled and prospectively followed up in the NYU Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group database. We analyzed this association stratified by first vs. second or greater-line of treatment and treatment type adjusting for age, gender, stage, lactate dehydrogenase, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, number of metastatic sites, and body mass index classification changes. In our cohort, the patients who were overweight or obese did not have different progression-free survival than patients with normal body mass index. Stratifying this cohort by first vs. non-first line immunotherapy revealed a moderate but insignificant association between being overweight or obese and better progression-free survival in patients who received first line. Conversely, an association with worse progression-free survival was observed in patients who received non-first line immune checkpoint inhibitors. Specifically, overweight and obese patients receiving combination immunotherapy had a statistically significant survival benefit, whereas patients receiving the other treatment types showed heterogeneous trends. We caution the scientific community to consider several important points prior to drawing conclusions that could potentially influence patient care, including preclinical data associating obesity with aggressive tumor biology, the lack of congruence amongst several investigations, and the limited reproduced comprehensiveness of these studies.

BACKGROUND:Since 2015, adjuvant therapy with ipilimumab is an approved treatment for stage III melanoma based on a significantly prolonged recurrence-free survival (RFS). At a median follow-up of 5.3 years, RFS, distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and overall survival (OS) were each significantly prolonged in the ipilimumab group compared with the placebo group, despite a 53.3% (ipilimumab) versus 4.6% (placebo) treatment discontinuation rate due to adverse events. We present now long-term follow-up results of this European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer 18071 trial. PATIENTS, METHODS AND RESULTS/RESULTS:A total of 99 sites randomised 951 patients with stage III cutaneous melanoma (excluding lymph node metastasis ≤1 mm or in-transit metastasis) with adequate resection of lymph nodes to receive intravenous infusions of ipilimumab 10 mg/kg or placebo, every 3 weeks for 4 doses, then every 3 months for up to 3 years. The RFS, DMFS and OS, as reported by the local investigators, were assessed by the intention-to-treat analysis. Among 431 patients randomised at 63 sites and who were still alive at the analysis reported in 2016, recent follow-up information could be obtained for 264 patients. The median OS follow-up was 6.9 years. The RFS (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.75, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.63-0.88; P < 0.001), DMFS (HR: 95% CI: 0.76, 0.64-0.90; P = 0.002) and OS (HR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.60-0.89; P = 0.002) benefit observed in the ipilimumab group was durable with an 8.7% absolute difference at 7 years for OS. The benefit was consistent across subgroups. CONCLUSIONS:Adjuvant therapy with ipilimumab prolongs RFS, DMFS and OS significantly. The benefit is sustained long term and consistent across subgroups.

We investigated the role of chemokines in regulating T cell accumulation in solid tumors. CCL5 and CXCL9 overexpression was associated with CD8⁺ T cell infiltration in solid tumors. T cell infiltration required tumor cell-derived CCL5 and was amplified by IFN-γ-inducible, myeloid cell-secreted CXCL9. CCL5 and CXCL9 coexpression revealed immunoreactive tumors with prolonged survival and response to checkpoint blockade. Loss of CCL5 expression in human tumors was associated with epigenetic silencing through DNA methylation. Reduction of CCL5 expression caused tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) desertification, whereas forced CCL5 expression prevented Cxcl9 expression and TILs loss, and attenuated tumor growth in mice through IFN-γ. The cooperation between tumor-derived CCL5 and IFN-γ-inducible CXCR3 ligands secreted by myeloid cells is key for orchestrating T cell infiltration in immunoreactive and immunoresponsive tumors.