Lieberman, Christopher

Introduction: Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) is essential for toll-like receptor (TLR) and interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R) signaling in immune cells including B lymphocytes. It forms the Myddosome complex with the MYD88 adaptor protein, with IRAK4 being essential for downstream signaling, maximal activation of NFkB with inflammatory and immune response and tumor promotion [Treon 2012; Rhyasen 2015]. CA-4948 is a novel small molecule, oral inhibitor of IRAK4, first-in-class and only suppressor of the TLR pathway currently tested in hematological malignancies. When combined with the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib that blocks parallel BCR signaling and NF-kB activating pathway, it has shown synergy in in-vivo B-cell NHL models, providing strong rationale for clinical evaluation [Booher 2018]. Recent preclinical studies demonstrated the role of IRAK4 activation as a driver of secondary, adaptive tumor resistance and survival mechanisms of hematological and solid tumor malignancies [Melgar 2019] that could be blocked by CA-4948 to delay or reverse resistance. Study Design and Methods: This is a multicenter, open-label trial of oral CA-4948 combined with ibrutinib in adult patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies. (NCT03328078). It has 2 parts: a dose escalation (Part A2), and expansion basket of 4 cohorts (Part B). Part A2: Is a truncated 3+3 design: CA-4948 starting is 200 mg BID with subsequent escalation to 300 mg BID. Both dose are safe and active against NHL as seen in the nearly completed monotherapy Part A1 of this trial Patients will receive CA-4948 with ibrutinib at the labeled dose for the respective NHL subtype (560 mg or 420 mg) until toxicity or progression. Primary objectives are safety/tolerance (MTD, RP2D); 2nd objectives are pharmacokinetics and preliminary efficacy; exploratory objectives include biomarker correlations (e.g., MYD88-L265P mut, IRAK4 pathway, NFκB inhibition). Part B basket has four cohorts: 1 -MZL, 2 - ABC-DLBCL, 3 - PCNSL, and 4 - NHL with adaptive ibrutinib resistance. Cohorts 1-3 must be BTK-inhibitor naïve. Cohort 4 includes ibrutinib treated NHLs after developing adaptive, secondary resistance. All will receive the combination of ibrutinib and CA-4948. Cohort 4 patients will be allowed a <3 weeks gap since prior ibrutinib therapy. Primary objectives include CR or ORR and DOR compared to (matched) historical controls (closely matched if possible). 2nd objectives include tolerance/safety, PFS, and pop-PK sampling for CA-4948. Exploratory objectives; response correlation with biomarkers including MYD88-L265P or other genetic mutations, gene expressions, cell of origin, IRAK4 signaling, and resistance. Treatment: CA-4948 at RP2D+ibrubinib at labelled doses; 21-day cycles to be repeated in the absence of toxicity or progression. Samples sizes, statistical considerations: Approx. 18 patients in Part A2. In Part B, a Simon 2-Step design will be applied to each cohort. Early stopping rule for futility after approx. 20 patients in Stage 1: full accrual with Stage 2 will add about 25 patients. Successful signal efficacy identification in a cohort may support further expansion or a subsequent controlled trial. The safety population will include all patients in the study who received any test dose. The efficacy population will have a valid baseline and post-baseline disease assessment. Safety assessments include TEAEs, safety labs, vitals, physical exams, PK, and ECGs; efficacy assessments: tumor imaging, para-protein determination, and histo/cyto-morphologic examinations. Part A2 inclusion: Histopathologically confirmed B-cell NHL as per the WHO 2016 classification. Eligible NHL subtypes: FL, MZL, MCL, DLBCL (including extranodal lymphomas of leg, testicle, or other sites, excluding mediastinal lymphoma), CLL/SLL, primary or secondary CNS lymphoma, and WM/LPL. Patients with FL, MCL, MZL, WM/LPL, or CLL/SLL should meet clinical treatment criteria. Part B inclusion: Cohorts 1-3 include patients with MZL, ABC-DLBCL, or PCNSL who are BTK-inhibitor naïve. Cohort 4 will include ibrutinib pre-treated MCL, MZL, CLL/SLL, WM/LPL, ABC-DLBCL, or PCNSL with adaptive resistance. Exclusions for both Parts A2 and B: Significant acute or chronic toxicity from prior anti-cancer therapy that has not resolved to Grade ≤ 1, as determined by NCI CTCAE v 4.03 within 7 days prior to start of study or serious co-morbidities. Disclosures Nowakowski: NanoString: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy; Curis: Consultancy; Kymera: Consultancy; Kite: Consultancy; Celgene/BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding; MorphoSys: Consultancy, Research Funding; Ryvu: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Leslie:TG Therapeutics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene/BMS: Speakers Bureau; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; KitePharma: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; BeiGene: Speakers Bureau; Pharmacyclics/Janssen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Epizyme: Speakers Bureau; Karyopharm: Speakers Bureau; Bayer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; ADC therapeutics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; AbbVie: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Joffe:AstraZeneca: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Epizyme: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Lunning:Kite: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; Verastem: Consultancy, Honoraria; Acrotech: Consultancy; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Legend: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Karyopharm: Consultancy, Honoraria; Curis: Research Funding; Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria; Beigene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Aeratech: Consultancy, Honoraria; Bristol Meyers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Honoraria. Patel:Adaptive Biotechnologies: Consultancy; Kite: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Celgene/BMS: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Genentech: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Landsburg:Takeda: Research Funding; Triphase: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Speakers Bureau; Morphosys: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Curis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Fenske:Medical College of Wisconsin: Current Employment. Ramchandren:Merck, Seattle Genetics, Janssen, Genentech: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics, Sandoz-Novartis, Pharmacyclics, an AbbVie Company, Janssen, Bristol-Myers Squibb: Consultancy. Skarbnik:Alexion: Consultancy; Beigene: Speakers Bureau; Verastem: Speakers Bureau; CLL Society: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Seattle Genetics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kite Pharma: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Genentech: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Abbvie: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Tun:Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Mundipharma: Research Funding; Curis: Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; Acrotech: Research Funding; DTRM Biopharma: Research Funding.

Introduction CA-4948 is a novel oral small molecule inhibitor of interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4). IRAK4 is part of the Myddosome signaling pathway, and is essential for signaling downstream of toll-like receptors (TLR) and the interleukin-1 receptor (IL-1R) family in immune cells including B lymphocytes. . Dysregulated signaling in these pathways is frequently observed in Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas (NHL), particularly in ABC-subtype of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) and Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM)[1]. Furthermore, IRAK4 activation has recently been identified as a driver of an adaptive resistance mechanism of malignancies [2]. CA-4948 is the first clinical candidate targeting IRAK4 to be evaluated in cancer patients. Here we present Phase I results of CA-4948 in patients with relapsed/refractory hematologic malignancies. Method CA-4948-101 is a phase I trial dose escalation trial with a 3 + 3 design. Seven dosing cohorts were assessed including 50 and 100 mg daily (QD), and 50, 100, 200, 300, or 400 mg twice daily (BID) continuous oral monotherapy in 21-day cycles. Objectives included safety and tolerance (primary), pharmacokinetic (PK), pharmacodynamics (PD) and early efficacy (secondary), and biomarker correlations (exploratory). As of July 2020, 30 patients with relapsed or refractory, NHL have been enrolled, including DLBCL (n=14), FL (n=6), transformed HGBL (n=1), WM (n=3), LPL (n=2), MZL (n=2) and MCL (n=2). Median age is 68.5 (range 50 - 87; 5 female / 25 male). Median number of prior treatments is 4 (range 1 - 8, incl. 5 CAR-T-cell or ASCT treatments). Results CA-4948 has been generally well tolerated. Eight patients were exposed at the highest dose level of 400 mg BID: 2 of 5 DLT-evaluable patients had Grade 3 rhabdomyolysis (DLTs), without complications and reversible after treatment interruption and hydration / analgesic treatment - both subsequently continued treatment at lower doses of 200 or 300 mg BID, respectively. Six patients have tolerated 300 mg BID well without DLT. Most non-hematologic TEAEs were Grade 1 or 2 and manageable, including diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, dyspnea, and myalgia. Hematologic TEAEs including neutropenia, anemia, thrombocytopenia was mild/moderate and without complications. There were only 4 Grade 3 combined episodes in 18 patients at dose levels ranging between 200 and 400 mg BID without complications (Table 1). Drug discontinuation occurred in only 3 cases for rash, fatigue, and asymptomatic amylase/lipase elevation at lower dose levels. No toxic deaths occurred. Favorable and predictable PK characteristics included rapid absorption with Tmax at 2-3 hours, T1/2 of 6 hours (supporting bid dosing), moderate accumulation, and dose-proportional increases in exposure. Dose proportional PD changes were shown for inflammatory cytokine reductions. Treatment duration ranged between 15 days and 19+ months with sustained disease control. Eight of 28 evaluable patients experienced overall tumor burden decreases of ≥20% from baseline - more at higher doses (Table 2). A WM patient with 6 prior lines of treatment, sustained PR underwent intra-patient dose escalation and had a dose/response relationship and very good treatment tolerance (Figure 1). The median duration at doses of 200 or 300 mg bid was >6 months (range 1-19+; including 3 cases of 11, 14, and 19+ mo.). Downstream pharmacodynamic markers of IRAK4 and molecular characteristics including cell-of-origin will be presented. Conclusion CA-4948 demonstrates good safety profile, desirable pharmacokinetic properties, and preliminary clinical activity. Enrollment is ongoing to support the anticipated RP2D of 300 mg bid. These encouraging results provide clinical validation of IRAK4 as a viable, novel therapeutic target in B-cell malignancies will lead to clinical combinations with synergistic drugs including BTK or BCL2 inhibitors [3] in patients with advanced hematological malignancies. Clinical trial: NCT03328078. References: 1. Treon, S. P. et al., 2012. N Engl J Med, 367: 826-33 2. Melgar, K. et al., 2019. Sci Transl Med, 11: eaaw8828 3. Booher R, Grayson D., 2019. Waldenstrom Roadmap Symposium, www.Curis.com Disclosures Nowakowski: Curis: Consultancy; MorphoSys: Consultancy, Research Funding; Celgene/BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding; Kite: Consultancy; Ryvu: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; NanoString: Research Funding; Kymera: Consultancy; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy. Leslie:TG Therapeutics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; AbbVie: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; ADC therapeutics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bayer: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Epizyme: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; BeiGene: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; KitePharma: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Younes:Curis: Consultancy; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy; HCM: Consultancy; Epizyme: Consultancy; Takeda: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; BioPath: Consultancy; BMS: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Current Employment. Lunning:Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria; Curis: Research Funding; Beigene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Aeratech: Consultancy, Honoraria; Bristol Meyers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Kite: Consultancy, Honoraria; Karyopharm: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Honoraria; Legend: Consultancy; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Acrotech: Consultancy; Verastem: Consultancy, Honoraria; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding. Patel:Celgene/BMS: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Adaptive Biotechnologies: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Kite: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Landsburg:Takeda: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Speakers Bureau; Morphosys: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Curis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Triphase: Research Funding. Tun:Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Mundipharma: Research Funding; Curis: Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Research Funding; Acrotech: Research Funding; DTRM Biopharma: Research Funding.