A phase II double window of opportunity trial evaluating the oral TGF-beta receptor I inhibitor vactosertib in patients undergoing standard of care preoperative therapy for locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma.

Abstract

TPS516 Background: Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) is the seventh most common cancer globally and ranks sixth in overall mortality. Despite improvements in pre-operative therapy, EAC has a high recurrence rate, especially among patients whose tumors do not achieve pathologic complete response (pCR), thus there is a critical need to enhance pCR rate and improve long-term outcomes. We recently discovered that a subset of EACs are driven by tumor-intrinsic oncogenic TGFβ signaling and have identified two potential biomarkers to predict response to anti-TGFβ therapy. One of these biomarkers is enriched in poorly differentiated EAC. We hypothesize that TGFβ signaling blockade will exert a tumor-inhibitory effect in patients with EAC and propose a double window-of-opportunity trial to test if TGFβ receptor I inhibitor vactosertib can improve pCR and induce tumor metabolic response in patients undergoing neoadjuvant therapy for localized EAC. Methods: This phase II double window of opportunity study assesses the efficacy and pharmacodynamics of the oral TGFβ Receptor I inhibitor vactosertib in patients with locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Patients will be treated with single-agent vactosertib in two windows of opportunity: the first will be prior to initiation of standard of care neoadjuvant therapy and the second after completion of neoadjuvant therapy prior to surgery. Patients will be eligible if they have poorly differentiated EAC and are appropriate for neoadjuvant therapy followed by resection as per standard of care. The primary objectives are improvement in pCR compared to historical controls and metabolic response (decrease in fluorodeoxyglucose uptake by PET CT) in the primary tumor after the first window. Secondary objectives will evaluate biomarkers of response identified in preclinical studies. Pre- and post-first window of opportunity treatment biopsies will be obtained for correlative and exploratory analyses. Clinical trial information: NCT06044311 .