Lanka, Sree M

Primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) is a rare form of large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) with around 90% of patients cured with frontline treatment. For relapsed or refractory (R/R) disease, the optimal treatment is unclear. CD19 chimeric antigen receptor-T cell (CAR-T) has been established as the preferred second line (2L) treatment for primary refractory or early relapsing LBCL based on the overall survival benefits observed in the landmark phase III trials. However, PMBCL patients were underrepresented on these pivotal studies. This study evaluated outcomes of 252 patients treated with 2L therapies for R/R PMBCL at 14 US institutions between 2001 and 2025. Platinum-based salvage with intent to proceed to high dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplant (HDT/ASCT) (platinum cohort) and CD19 CAR-T (CAR-T cohort) were given as 2L therapy in the real-world setting in 157 and 26 patients, respectively. Overall response rate (ORR), complete response (CR) rate and median progression-free survival (PFS) were significantly higher in the CAR-T cohort compared with the platinum cohort (ORR: 91.3% vs 44.2%, p <0.001; CR 65.2% vs 14.7%, p<0.001; median PFS not reached vs 3.5 months, hazard ratio (HR) 0.28, 95% CI 0.15-0.54, p=0.001). No significant difference was observed in overall survival. This study demonstrated superior response rate and PFS of CD19 CAR-T over platinum-based salvage with intent to proceed to HDT/ASCT as 2L treatment for R/R PMBCL.

Abstract Introduction: Primary mediastinal B-Cell lymphoma (PMBCL) is a rare form of large B-Cell lymphoma (LBCL) with around 90% of patients (pts) cured with first line (1L) treatment. For pts with relapsed or refractory (RR) PMBCL, the optimal treatment is unclear. Prior retrospective analysis in the rituximab (R) era have shown high response rates to platinum salvage and high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplant (HDT/ASCT) in second line (2L) RR PMBCL (Bakos et al. ASH 2023 and Dumke et al. ASCO 2024). The pivotal phase III LBCL trials in early relapsing pts that compared CD19 chimeric antigen receptor-T cell (CAR-T) with HDT/ASCT as 2L treatment had few PMBCL pts: none on ZUMA-7 and 17 PMBCL on TRANSFORM, of whom only 8 were randomized to 2L CAR-T. This study aims to evaluate outcomes of 2L therapies for RR PMBCL, including pts treated with 2L CAR-T. Methods: We performed a multicenter retrospective study in pts with RR PMBCL treated between 2001 and 2025. Clinical and pathologic characteristics, treatment regimens, and efficacy outcomes were collected and analyzed. Results: 139 pts were included with 43% male, 69% Caucasian, 7.9% Black, 8.6% Asian and 79% Non-Hispanic. R-EPOCH (64%) and (32%) were the most common 1L treatments and all pts received R. Consolidative radiation was used in 21 pts (15%) as part of 1L therapy, 28% after RCHOP. Primary refractory disease with relapse ≤6 month (mo), or early relapse ≤12 mo, occurred in 83% (N = 115) and 93% (N = 129 pts), respectively. At relapse, median age was 34 years (yrs), 44% had advanced stage disease, 31% had bulky disease (≥ 7.5cm). CNS relapse occurred in 8.6% of pts. Overall and complete response rate (ORR and CR) to any 2L treatment was 44% and 27%, respectively. At median follow-up of 40 months (mo) from the start of 2L treatment, median PFS of the entire cohort was 3.2 mo with a 3 yr OS of 70%. For 2L treatment, N=93 (67%) pts were treated with platinum salvage with intention to proceed with HDT/ASCT. Most commonly used platinum salvage regimens were ICE± R (n= 53, 38%), R-DHAP (n=23, 17%), R-GemOx (n= 5, 3.6%), and GDP ± R (n= 10, 7.2%), and the majority (95%) of pts received R with 2L therapy. ORR and CR to platinum salvage was 46% and 15% respectively. With a median follow up of 30 mo from start of 2L therapy, median PFS was 2.6 mos, and 3 yr PFS and OS was 15% and 64%, respectively. Of the 93 pts treated with platinum salvage, only 25 pts (27%) proceeded with HDT/ASCT- of whom, N = 17 (68%) achieved a CR after ASCT. In patients that proceeded to ASCT, relapses occurred in 10 pts (40%) with a 3 yr PFS and OS 56% and 83%, respectively. CAR-T was used as 2L in 20 pts (14%)- most commonly either axi-cel (N =7) or liso-cel (N = 8). ORR and CR to CART was 89% and 55% respectively, median PFS and OS was NR after CAR-T infusion and 3 yr PFS and OS was 55% and 95%, respectively. Other 2L treatments included pembrolizumab (N =3), brentuximab vedotin (BV) + nivolumab (N= 4) or single agent BV (N=2). Radiation was given as part of 2L treatment in 25.9% of pts. 2L CAR-T therapy was associated with improved ORR (OR 7.60, 95% CI 1.68 – 34.55, p = 0.002), improved CR rate (OR 4.15, 95% CI 1.49 – 11.53, p = 0.008) and improved PFS (HR 0.18, 95% CI 0.06 – 0.57, p = 0.004) compared to pts treated with 2L platinum salvage. There was no difference in OS between pts treated with platinum salvage or 2L CAR-T. A total of 96 patients progressed on 2L therapy, and 92 pts (95.8%) received third-line (3L) treatment. Third line treatments included chemoimmunotherapy +/- HDT/ASCT (N= 23), CD19 CAR-T (N = 35), clinical trial (N=7), check point inhibitor-based regimen (N= 11), BV based regimen (N= 8), allogeneic stem cell transplant (N = 3) or other (N = 5), with 7 pts receiving radiation as part of 3L therapy. Median PFS and OS from start of 3L therapy was 6.7 mo and 6.4 mo, respectively. Conclusions: We report the largest cohort of pts with RR PMBCL treated in the rituximab era and the largest number of PMBCL pts treated with 2L CAR-T. This is the first analysis, to our knowledge, to show a statistically significant benefit in PFS, ORR and CR rate of CAR-T compared to platinum salvage followed by HDT/ASCT as 2L treatment in a study of exclusively RR PMBCL pts. Our dataset was largely (93%) compromised of pts with primary refractory or early relapsing disease and provides support for using CAR-T as 2L treatment in this high-risk subset of RR PMBCL patients.

Abstract The combination of enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab (EVP) has recently revolutionized care for patients with previously untreated locally advanced and metastatic urothelial carcinoma. However, predictive biomarkers of response, the optimal duration of EVP for patients who respond well to therapy, and the role of circulating tumor DNA to monitor treatment response have not yet been fully elucidated. In this molecular tumor board, we summarize 6 patients from 4 different academic institutions with unresectable or oligometastatic urothelial carcinoma who achieved long-term remission on surveillance after a short duration of EVP treatment that resulted in complete response on follow-up imaging followed by consolidative radical cystectomy. We discuss potential predictive biomarkers for patients with exceptional response to EVP. These findings highlight the need to determine an optimal duration of EVP to maximize efficacy while minimizing adverse events. We aim to further define and explore the value of local therapy with consolidative cystectomy in the setting of unresectable, locally advanced, oligometastatic disease, or those with metastatic disease who achieve complete response of disease outside of the bladder. Identifying this subset of patients who may be candidates for this type of multidisciplinary management may result in durable treatment-free remission.

2561 Background: Some cancers, including breast, ovarian, pancreatic, and prostate cancers, are traditionally considered “cold” tumors, less likely to trigger an immune response and/or respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). However, some patients with these cancer types may benefit from ICIs. Here we investigate if a high blood tumor mutational burden (bTMB-H) may predict benefit to ICIs in such tumor types. Methods: We retrospectively queried the Guardant Health database for patients with advanced breast (n = 8531), ovarian (n = 1106), upper GI/pancreatic (n = 5110), and prostate (n = 7153) cancer who had ctDNA next-generation sequencing (Guardant360, Redwood City, CA) as part of routine clinical care from 2020-2022. Mutation profiles were evaluated for patients with bTMB-H (based on previously reported 80th percentiles for each tumor type, breast ≥15.31mut/Mb, ovarian ≥14.98mut/Mb, pancreatic ≥11.36mut/Mb, prostate ≥13.4mut/Mb) vs those with bTMB below this threshold (bTMB-L). A subset of cases were analyzed in a multi-institutional clinical cohort with a bTMB of ≥10mut/Mb (n = 35). Results: bTMB-H was observed in 9.5% of patients with breast cancer, 5.1% ovarian, 2.0% pancreatic, and 4.4% prostate. Genes more often mutated in patients with pTMB-H vs pTMB-L in each cancer type included TP53 and PIK3CA in breast cancer; TP53 and CHEK2 in ovarian; ATM and CHEK2 in pancreatic; TP53 and AR in prostate (all p values < 0.01). Patients in the clinical cohort (n = 35) had a median age of 74 (range: 40-85) 29/35 White / 4/35 Black, 27 prostate, 1 breast, 3 upper GI. Patients underwent first ctDNA analysis after a median of 3 (range 0-11) lines of therapy. The median bTMB detected was 16.59 mut/Mb (range: 10.02-152.85); six patients (6/35) were MSI-H. Twenty-three patients received ICI after a median of 6 (range: 0-8) lines of therapy, either alone (9, 39%) or in combination with hormonal therapy (5, 22%), chemotherapy (3, 13%) or targeted therapy (6, 26%). The median time to progression on ICI was 5.0 (95% CI, 3.6-6.4) months and median duration of response was 19.8 months (12.1-20.2). The ORR for evaluable patients was 13% and 74% of patients had progressed on therapy at time of data cut-off. Conclusions: "Cold” tumors represent a meaningful portion of patients with advanced cancer in which ICIs are not typically leveraged, and ctDNA was a feasible tool for identifying patients with bTMB-H who achieved durable responses from ICI-based therapy. The efficacy in this clinical cohort of traditionally “cold” tumors approaches other pan-cancer cohorts that include more traditionally immunoresponsive tumor types; further research is warranted to explore predictive value of bTMB, including potential tumor-specific thresholds, for optimizing patient selection for ICIs.