Reuben, Alexandre

PURPOSE We tested the hypothesis that adding metastasis-directed therapy (MDT) to standard-of-care (SOC) systemic therapy improves progression-free survival (PFS) among patients with oligometastatic disease. METHODS EXTEND was a multicenter randomized phase II trial. Patients with 1-5 metastases were randomly assigned to MDT + SOC versus SOC in one of the six baskets (breast, pancreas, kidney, two prostate baskets, and an other basket) with basket-specific stratification and powering. PFS, the primary end point, was prespecified in the per-protocol set within each basket, across all baskets, and across all baskets excluding the prostate baskets. Exploratory end points included circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and immune profiling. RESULTS From 2018 through 2023, 521 patients were screened, 350 were randomly assigned, and 334 were analyzed per protocol (MDT + SOC, n = 166; SOC, n = 168). Radiotherapy was used as MDT for 98% of metastases (370/379). Overall, after a median follow-up of 53 months, PFS was improved with MDT + SOC (hazard ratio [HR], 0.54 [95% CI, 0.41 to 0.72], P < .001). Similarly, PFS was improved when excluding the prostate baskets (HR, 0.60 [95% CI, 0.40 to 0.89]). Within each basket, PFS superiority was identified for the pancreas, prostate, and other baskets, whereas the breast and kidney baskets were inconclusive. At enrollment, detectable ctDNA correlated with shorter PFS and survival; by contrast, ctDNA clearance 3 months postenrollment correlated with improved survival. MDT + SOC-induced systemic immune activation was most pronounced among baskets demonstrating PFS superiority. CONCLUSION The phase II EXTEND trial supports the addition of MDT to SOC for oligometastatic disease. Histology-specific efficacy signals were identified for phase III testing. Translational insights suggest the potential for optimizing the definition of oligometastasis using ctDNA and point to systemic immune responses as a possible mechanism of benefit from MDT.

140 Background: In the phase II EXTEND iADT omPC basket, MDT+iADT improved progression-free survival (PFS) vs iADT. Here we present the primary results of the EXTEND cADT omPC basket. We further report a pre-specified combined analysis with updated results from the iADT basket and examine the effects of MDT on immunity. Methods: Patients with 1 to 5 omPC metastases were randomized 1:1 to MDT+cADT vs cADT (NCT03599765). MDT consisted of definitive local therapy. cADT consisted of ADT +/- second-generation anti-androgens. The primary endpoint was per-protocol PFS, defined by biochemical criteria (Prostate Cancer Working Group 3), radiologic measures (RECIST v1.1), clinical progression, or death. 87 patients were needed to show superiority at a one-sided P of 0.10 by log-rank test. CDR3 regions in rearranged T cell receptor (TCR) β-chains from pre- and post-enrollment peripheral blood were sequenced with immunoSEQ (Adaptive Biotech). TCR repertoire modulation was defined as having TCR expansion plus contraction using a false-discovery-corrected betabinomial model. TCR sequencing from the ORIOLE trial (NCT02680587) was assessed for external validation. Results: From 2018 to 2022, 87 randomized patients were treated per protocol (MDT+cADT: 45; cADT: 42). 39% had castrate resistant omPC. MDT was definitive radiotherapy in all cases. With median follow-up of 31 mo, median PFS was 47 mo after MDT+cADT vs 22 mo after cADT (HR 0.50; 95% CI 0.23 to 1.08; one-sided P = 0.036). In the combined analysis (N=174) with median follow-up of 42 mo, MDT+ADT improved PFS (HR 0.45; 95% CI 0.30 to 0.69; P < 0.001), radiologic PFS (HR 0.63; 95% CI 0.40 to 0.97; P = 0.038), and castration-resistance free-survival (HR 0.40; 95% CI 0.19 to 0.82; P = 0.013). MDT+ADT had higher odds of TCR repertoire modulation vs ADT (55% vs 15%, P < 0.001). This finding was validated in the ORIOLE trial (MDT: 57% vs observation: 19%, P = 0.03). Among the subset of patients with extreme responses, random forest modeling of 37 clinical/immune variables identified TCR repertoire modulation as the variable with highest importance; further, MDT+ADT induced TCR repertoire modulation in all patients with favorable responses (i.e. PFS > 4 years) and none with unfavorable responses (i.e. PFS < 1 year). Among all patients randomized to MDT+ADT, TCR repertoire modulation was associated with longer PFS (HR 0.21; 95% CI 0.06 to 0.76; P = 0.02). Conclusions: MDT+cADT met the PFS primary endpoint of the phase II EXTEND trial, warranting phase III testing. From the combined analysis, MDT+ADT may also improve longer term outcomes including radiologic PFS and castration-resistance-free survival. Improved outcomes may result from MDT-induced immunomodulation, with implications for future trial design. Clinical trial information: NCT03599765 .

Abstract Purpose: We recently reported a 17.5% objective RECIST 1.1 response rate in a phase II study of pembrolizumab in patients with advanced sarcoma (SARC028). The majority of responses occurred in undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS) and dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDLPS). We sought to determine whether we can identify immune features that correlate with clinical outcomes from tumor tissues obtained pre- and on-treatment. Patients and Methods: Pretreatment (n = 78) and 8-week on-treatment (n = 68) tumor biopsies were stained for PD-L1 and multiplex immunofluorescence panels. The density of positive cells was quantified to determine associations with anti–PD-1 response. Results: Patients that responded to pembrolizumab were more likely to have higher densities of activated T cells (CD8+ CD3+ PD-1+) and increased percentage of tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) expressing PD-L1 pre-treatment compared with non-responders. Pre-treatment tumors from responders also exhibited higher densities of effector memory cytotoxic T cells and regulatory T cells compared with non-responders. In addition, higher density of cytotoxic tumor-infiltrating T cells at baseline correlated with a better progression-free survival (PFS). Conclusions: We show that quantitative assessments of CD8+ CD3+ PD-1+ T cells, percentage of TAMs expressing PD-L1, and other T-cell densities correlate with sarcoma response to pembrolizumab and improved PFS. Our findings support that multiple cell types present at the start of treatment may enhance tumor regression following anti–PD-1 therapy in specific advanced sarcomas. Efforts to confirm the activity of pembrolizumab in an expansion cohort of patients with UPS/DDLPS are underway.