A phase Ib study of immunotherapy with ex-vivo pre-activated and expanded CBNK cells in combination with cetuximab, in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) with minimal residual disease (MRD): Final report.

Abstract

176 Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common type of cancer. Even following successful curative treatment, patients often relapse, likely because of undetected micro-metastatic foci. Tumor-informed ctDNA testing has helped to identify those patients before they developed radiographic evidence of disease, introducing the concept of minimal residual disease (MRD) in solid tumors. No standard-of-care treatment options are available for MRD patients. Therefore, we have designed a phase IB trial of the combination of in vitro pre-activated and pre-expanded cord blood natural killer (pre-A+E CBNK) cells with cetuximab. We hypothesized that we could achieve CAR-like efficacy without genetic engineering, by pre-activating NK cells with inflammatory cytokines and by using antibodies to redirect NK cell specificity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. The highly immunosuppressive CRC tumor microenvironment is understudied, and novel NK-cell therapy could be highly effective in MRD clearance. Methods: 15 patients with CRC-MRD were enrolled in this trial and completed treatment. All the patients received immunodepleting treatment prior to an infusion of pre-A+E CBNK cells, up to a dose of 1x10^8/kg. Patients were monitored inpatient for 24 hours after treatment for infusion-related reaction, and were then seen for toxicity follow-up in the outpatient clinic twice/week for 4 weeks (DLT window). Samples for correlative analysis were collected at different times. Results: 8/15 patients enrolled were female and 7 were male, age range 26-69. They all had no measurable radiographic evidence of disease and a positive ctDNA Signatera test at baseline. 11/15 were previously treated for metastatic disease; 13 patients had a history of metastases (including 7 liver, 2 lymph nodal, 2 peritoneal). All of them received 5-FU-based chemotherapy. 7/15 were RAS/RAF WT, 4/10 were KRAS mut, 1/10 had BRAF mutation, 1/10 had HER2 amplification. They were all pMMR. No DLT was observed, only 1 patient had G2 CRS requiring tocilizumab. 9/15 patients treated so far had ctDNA clearance at some point. One patient had negative ctDNA at 3 and 6 months, 4/15 were negative at d28 and 7/15 at d14. 4/15 patients have not met the 90-day time point yet. 10/12 patients analyzed up to the primary endpoint had decreased ctDNA over baseline CBNK cells in blood peaked 3 hours post-infusion and persisted at 3 days. Phenotype analysis of CBNK pre-post, donor NK and other immune cells is ongoing. Conclusions: Cetuximab in combination with pre-A+E CBNK is safe and showed promising results for the treatment of MRD-CRC. Clinical trial information: NCT050468 .