Patel, Priyank

Background Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is an incurable form of aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Treatment choice at diagnosis is based on tolerability of cytarabine and high-dose chemotherapy. With a median age of 60-70 years, many patients are ineligible for aggressive treatment. Bendamustine and rituximab (BR) is a reasonable treatment option (E1411, Smith MR et al. ASH 2022) for this patient population and venetoclax (VEN) has shown pre-clinical evidence of synergy with chemoimmunotherapy. PrECOG 0405 was designed to evaluate the addition of VEN to BR in previously untreated patients with MCL aged over 60 years. Methods Eligible patients included those that were previously untreated and diagnosed with MCL as defined as the presence of t(11;14) by FISH or cyclin D1 expression by IHC. Patients must have been at least 60 years of age or older on D1C1 of therapy with a good performance status (ECOG 0-2). Adequate marrow and organ function was required, specifically a creatinine clearance of ≥ 40 mL/min. Treatment administration is summarized in Figure 1. Dose of bendamustine was either 90mg/m 2 D1&2; or, for subjects over the age of 75 years, 70mg/m 2 was allowed per investigator discretion. VEN was dose escalated during Cycle 1 to 200mg. At the time of C2, BR was repeated and VEN was also escalated to 400mg. With C2-6, VEN 400mg PO daily was given D1-10 only. Primary endpoint was PET-negative complete response (CR) rate at end of treatment (EOT) by Lugano Criteria. A negative bone marrow biopsy was required to confirm CR if involved at screening. Minimal residual disease (MRD) by next-generation sequencing was performed at the EOT. Maintenance rituximab was encouraged per investigator discretion. This was a single arm study with an original accrual goal of 53 subjects to detect a 15% improvement in CR rate compared to historical data. However, due to slow study accrual during COVID pandemic and preliminary efficacy data from E1411 study, the statistical parameters were updated after 25 subjects had been accrued. The revised accrual goal was 33 patients to obtain 32 eligible and treated patients, which provided 81.8% statistical power to detect a 17% difference in CR rate (from 60% [E1411 data] to 77%) using an exact binomial test with a 1-sided alpha of 11.6%. This combination regimen will be considered promising if 23 or more (out of 32) patients attain CR. Results From January 2020 to March 2022, 33 subjects enrolled and were treated on study. Subject characteristics are listed in Table 1. Seven (21%) unique subjects were treated with 70mg/m 2 of bendamustine during induction cycles. Laboratory tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) was seen in 2/33 during C1 only; clinical TLS was not seen. Treatment was generally well tolerated with treatment-related adverse events (TRAE) of Grade ≥3 and occurring in >10% of subjects being neutropenia (n=5, 15%), thrombocytopenia (n=5, 15%) and lymphopenia (n=9, 27%). Other common non-hematologic TRAE of all grades were nausea/vomiting (n=26, 79%), diarrhea (n=10, 30%), and fatigue (n=17, 52%). There were 4 (12%) instances of COVID-19/COVID-19 pneumonia considered treatment related. Dose adjustments and delays for any drug occurred in 36% and 67% of subjects respectively. 22/33 (66.7%) subjects completed 6 cycles of BR-VEN. Maintenance rituximab was administered in 19/33 (57.6%) of subjects. Overall response rate was 97% (32/33) and PET-negative bone marrow biopsy confirmed CR Rate at EOT was 85% (28/33), achieving the primary endpoint (≥23 CRs). MRD at EOT is under analysis. With a median survival follow up of 21.5 months (mo), Median PFS and OS were not reached; estimated 2-year PFS and OS was 69.7% and 81.1% respectively. During follow up, there have been 6 deaths, 4 from COVID-19 (all in remission), one from influenza A (in remission), and one from disease progression (non-responding pt). There have been 2 other progression events who are alive. Conclusions BR-VEN was generally well-tolerated in this older patient population though GI toxicities were common. With a PET-negative CR rate of 85%, the combination is promising but longer follow-up is needed. There was a competing risk of death related to upper respiratory viruses identified, mostly COVID-19, as has been seen in other BR-based protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic. MRD analysis and survival data will be updated.

Background: Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) is an aggressive form of Non Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) and typically presents in patients over the age of 60 years. Bendamustine and rituximab (BR) combination is one of the standard treatments for MCL and is given to patients for whom high dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell rescue is planned in the first remission. Progression free survival (PFS) with BR is approximately 36 months (Rummel M Lancet 2013; Flinn IW Blood 2014) and the regimen is overall well tolerated. Venetoclax (VEN) is an orally available inhibitor of BCL2, an anti-apoptotic protein highly expressed in several NHL. Single agent activity has mostly been studied in a Phase I study (in various NHL histologies) where 28 MCL patients were enrolled. Overall response rate was 75% (21 of 28) but complete response (CR) rate was only 21% (6 of 28). Tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) has been associated with VEN and initial dosing requires a ramp up period (Davids MS JCO 2018). VEN has also been combined with other agents in MCL with promising activity (Tam CS NEJM 2018) VEN has been studied as a chemotherapy sensitizer and has shown pre-clinical synergy with chemotherapy. In Follicular lymphoma, BR+VEN was studied at 800mg PO continuous daily dosing and showed an excessive Grade 3-4 adverse event (AE) rate of 78% compared to historical studies of 46% (Zinzani ASH 2016). We hypothesize that, in MCL, VEN can be safely combined with BR at a lower dose and intermittent dosing with improvements to the response rate based on historical controls and maintain a better safety profile. Study Design: This Phase II single arm, multicenter study evaluates VEN at a max dose of 400mg with BR (Bendamustine 90mg/m2 IV day 1 and 2; rituximab 375mg/m2 IV or SQ equivalent day 1) for six 28-day cycles in untreated patients with MCL over the age of 60 years (NCT03834688). Cycle 1 will include a VEN dose titration over the 4 week course (20mg D1-7, 50mg D8-14, 100mg D15-21, and 200mg D22-28). For Cycles 2-6, VEN will be given at 400mg daily x 10 days starting with day 1. Participants are followed for 6 cycles, though will be followed for progression and survival afterward. Participants may receive maintenance rituximab at investigator's discretion. Eligible participants, age 60 years or older, must have biopsy proven untreated MCL with t(11;14) or cyclin D1 expression, though a short course of steroids is allowed for symptomatic MCL. They must have adequate organ function and not require any prohibited concomitant medications. Primary outcome is CR rate as assessed by the Lugano criteria. We estimate a historical CR rate of BR after induction of about 70%. A 15% increase in this rate, to 85% CR, is considered promising for the combination. To achieve this goal, the study will enroll 56 participants (53 eligible) to achieve a 90% power to detect the difference with a 10% Type I error rate. We will also evaluate PFS and overall survival. TLS is an AE of interest and will be evaluated after 19 participants have been enrolled and treated during cycle 1. Minimal residual disease (MRD) will be assessed throughout the study. MRD from peripheral blood will be compared to bone marrow aspirates in all participants undergoing bone marrow aspirate at the end of treatment. Tumor samples at screening and progression will be collected for future study. This study is conducted through PrECOG and is funded by Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. Venetoclax is co-developed by Genentech and AbbVie. The study is slated to open in Fall of 2019 at 10 US sites. Figure Disclosures Portell: AbbVie: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy; Bayer: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kite: Consultancy, Research Funding; Acerta/AstraZeneca: Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; Xencor: Research Funding; Roche/Genentech: Research Funding; Infinity: Research Funding. Bennani:Seattle Genetics: Other: Advisory board; Adicet Bio: Other: Advisory board; Kite Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Seattle Genetics: Other: Advisory board; Adicet Bio: Other: Advisory board; Purdue Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Purdue Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Purdue Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Adicet Bio: Other: Advisory board; Seattle Genetics: Other: Advisory board; Kite Pharma: Other: Advisory board; Kite Pharma: Other: Advisory board. Naik:Celgene: Other: Advisory board. Parsons:Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Speakers Bureau. Kahl:BeiGene: Consultancy; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy; TG Therapeutics: Consultancy. OffLabel Disclosure: Venetoclax is not approved for use in MCL.