Carr, Ryan M

Abstract Background Optimal treatment following first-line immunotherapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains uncertain. This study evaluated futibatinib, a pan-FGFR inhibitor, combined with pembrolizumab in previously treated patients with FGF19-expressing HCC. Methods Eligible patients were ≥18 years old with advanced HCC, prior systemic therapy, Child-Pugh A-B7 liver function, ECOG 0–2, and FGF19 overexpression. Patients received futibatinib 20 mg orally daily plus pembrolizumab 200 mg intravenously every 3 weeks. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival at 6 months (PFS6). Secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), quality of life, and safety. Results Between August 2021 and March 2024, 14 patients enrolled and 13 were evaluable. Median age was 72 years (range, 60–87), 53.8% were male, 92.3% had Child-Pugh A liver function, and all had received prior immunotherapy. Median progression-free survival was 15 weeks (95% CI, 9.0–NE), with a PFS6 rate of 23.1% (95% CI, 8.6–62.3%). ORR was 0% (95% CI, 0–24.7%), while stable disease was observed in 53.9% of patients. Median OS was 55.7 weeks (95% CI, 47.3–NE). Grade ≥3 adverse events occurred in 69.2% of patients, and grade ≥4 adverse events in 15.4%. One grade 5 event (acute-on-chronic kidney injury) was deemed unrelated to treatment. Common adverse events included hyperphosphatemia, fatigue, diarrhea, elevated transaminases, dry eye, nail changes, rash, and oral mucositis. Conclusions Futibatinib plus pembrolizumab demonstrated an acceptable safety profile but did not meet efficacy thresholds supporting further study in FGF19-expressing HCC. Effective post-immunotherapy treatment strategies remain an unmet need.

Abstract Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) frequently recurs after neoadjuvant therapy (NT) and curative-intent resection. Although major pathologic response predicts favorable outcomes, most patients achieve only minor response with a heterogeneous recurrence risk. We asked whether the spatial organization of residual PDAC encodes clinically relevant biology beyond residual tumor burden. Experimental Design: In a retrospective cohort of 203 patients with resected PDAC treated with NT and restricted to minor pathologic response, routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) whole-slide images were segmented into cancer and stroma using an artificial intelligence–enabled pipeline. Spatial composition (patch density, edge density) and configuration (compactness/complexity, intermixing) were quantified and tested for associations with disease-free survival (DFS) using multivariable models adjusted for standard clinicopathologic factors. Results: Shorter DFS was associated with a fragmented, interface-rich tumor–stroma ecology featuring higher edge density and diversity and reduced homotypic aggregation, independent of clinicopathologic variables. Two spatial risk models were independently prognostic: (i) cancer mean shape index plus stromal shape index variability [adjusted hazard ratio (HR), 1.71; P = 0.003] and (ii) mean stromal patch area plus edge density (adjusted HR, 2.19; P = 0.002). Both models stratified outcomes in which pathologic response grading and residual cancer area did not. High-risk configurations were further associated with reduced intratumoral tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) density and infiltration ratio, with relative TIL accumulation at the cancer periphery and within the stroma, consistent with an immune-excluded phenotype. Conclusions: Residual cancer–stroma topology quantified from standard H&E slides yields independent prognostic signals after NT in PDAC, provides a cellular immune correlate for spatial risk, and motivates prospective validation and spatially informed adjuvant strategies.

PURPOSE Deficient mismatch repair/microsatellite instability (dMMR, MSI-H) in biliary tract cancers (BTCs) is observed in 1%-5% of tumors. MSI-H across solid tumors has demonstrated durable response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) regardless of the anatomic location. Here, we describe clinical outcomes and surgical conversion of MSI-H BTC treated with ICIs. Patients and Methods We conducted a multicenter, retrospective analysis of BTC patients with dMMR/MSI-H between 2017 and 2024 at Mayo Clinic, University of Michigan, and University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center. Outcomes of interest were surgical resection rate, rate of pathologic response, 2-year overall survival (OS; time from initiation of treatment to death/last follow-up), and time to treatment discontinuation (TTD; time from initiation of treatment to cessation because of any cause). Analyses were descriptive. RESULTS Thirty patients with MSI-H BTC were identified: 19 with cholangiocarcinoma, three with gallbladder cancer, and 8 with BTC undefined. The median age at diagnosis was 61.5 years (range, 26-86). Twenty-six (86.7%) patients had advanced stage at diagnosis. Twenty-seven patients (90%) received first-line systemic therapy, and 13 (48.1%) continued onto second line. Six patients (23.1%) were restaged to resectable from advanced disease after ICI therapy and underwent resection; all remained recurrence-free at last follow-up. Of these six patients, 3 (50%) achieved a pathologic complete response. Among those receiving first-line therapy, the median TTD was 9.9 months (95% CI, 5.7 to 14.5 months) and the 2-year OS was 73% (95% CI, 56% to 94%). CONCLUSION ICI therapy in patients with MSI-H BTC demonstrated durable response and downstaged some BTC to a resectable stage. dMMR/MSI-H should be performed up-front to guide treatment decisions.

4213 Background: Elraglusib (9-ING-41), a glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) inhibitor, has multimodal antitumor activity. In the international, open-label, randomized phase 2 1801 Part 3B study, elraglusib plus gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel (GnP) was evaluated in previously untreated metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC), with patients randomized 2:1 to weekly elraglusib/GnP or GnP alone. Primary endpoints were median overall survival (mOS) and 1-year survival. The GnP control arm demonstrated shorter mOS than contemporary randomized trials (7.2 months vs 9.2 months in NAPOLI-3 and 9.7 months in PASS-01), driven by higher early mortality (0–2 months: 23.1% vs 10.1% in NAPOLI-3). Given balanced randomization, similar early mortality was inferred in the elraglusib/GnP arm, prompting post-hoc analyses to contextualize efficacy and identify factors associated with early death. Methods: Efficacy and safety were summarized descriptively. Time-to-event endpoints were analyzed using Kaplan–Meier estimates, log-rank testing, and Cox proportional hazards models. Response rates were compared using the Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel test. Post-hoc subgroup, sensitivity, and machine-learning–based multivariate analyses explored clinical, demographic, and biomarker correlates of survival and early mortality. Results: In the full randomized population (elraglusib/GnP n=155; GnP n=78), elraglusib/GnP improved mOS by 2.9 months versus GnP (10.1 vs 7.2 months; HR 0.62; 95% CI 0.46–0.84; p=0.01), with 1-year survival rates of 44.1% versus 22.3%. Among patients receiving ≥1 full treatment cycle, mOS was 12.5 months with elraglusib/GnP and 8.5 months with GnP, comparable to contemporary registrational trials. Across multiple post-hoc sensitivity analyses—including evaluable patients, those matched to NAPOLI-3 baseline tumor burden, patients treated in the EU (early mortality 4%), and those achieving ≥20% CA19-9 decline within the first 1–2 cycles—elraglusib/GnP consistently demonstrated a ≥4-month OS advantage. Early death was associated with low baseline albumin (<3 g/dL), high CA19-9 (>800 U/mL), high tumor burden, and KRAS, TP53, and CDKN2A co-mutations. Conclusions: The elevated early mortality in the GnP control arm reflects enrollment of a heterogeneous, real-world mPDAC population with less restrictive eligibility than recent registrational trials. Post-hoc analyses identify key clinical and molecular drivers of early death and confirm a consistent survival benefit with elraglusib/GnP. These hypothesis-generating findings directly inform eligibility criteria, stratification, and endpoint assumptions for the planned phase 3 trial. Clinical trial information: NCT03678883 .

Abstract Therapeutic resistance to chemotherapy is frequently the proximate cause of increased tumor burden, cancer treatment failure, and ultimately, patient mortality. The most successful therapy strategy derived from evolutionary practices to date, Adaptive Therapy (AT), leverages the fitness cost of developing therapeutic resistance. AT avoids treating cancer cells with the Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD) of therapeutic drugs and instead incorporates a series of adaptive dosing schedules. Treatment-sensitive cells are bolstered by modulating or pausing treatment to out-compete and suppress treatment-resistant cell growth. We are evaluating AT for the first time in colorectal cancer, using a syngeneic orthotopic xenograft model. This work represents several key advances: it is the first to longitudinally and non-invasively track sensitive and resistant clones in vivo, to evaluate adaptive therapy in an immunocompetent mouse model, to incorporate multi-drug treatment regimens, and to integrate a targeted therapeutic agent. The dual-bioluminescent sensitive and resistant CT26 cell lines developed for this study allow real-time visualization and quantification of each population throughout tumor progression and treatment. Together, these advances establish a robust and clinically relevant platform for characterizing resistance dynamics and refining adaptive therapy strategies aimed at improving treatment outcomes in colorectal cancer. Citation Format: Harley I. Richker, Bailey Sierra Kane, Gissel Marquez Alcaraz, Ellie Pahl, Ryan Carr, Nagarajan Kannan, Carlo C. Maley. Harnessing clonal dynamics to overcome resistance: An adaptive therapy framework in colorectal cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2026; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2026 Apr 17-22; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2026;86(7 Suppl):Abstract nr 702.

761 Background: Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3β (GSK-3β) is a known therapeutic target in cancer including pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The combination of elraglusib (9-ING-41), a novel GSK-3 inhibitor, and gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel (GnP) is being evaluated as first-line therapy for patients with metastatic PDAC (mPDAC). We previously reported topline results indicating that the 1801 Part 3B phase 2 trial (NCT03678883) met its primary endpoint, showing a clinically meaningful survival benefit in patients treated with elraglusib/GnP compared to GnP alone. Here, we examined whether gene mutations correlated with clinical outcomes in mPDAC patients enrolled in this randomized phase 2 trial. Methods: For mutational analysis, archival tumor and/or plasma samples were obtained from 53 (GnP group) and 117 (elraglusib/GnP group) patients with previously untreated mPDAC. Cell-free DNA and/or tumor-extracted DNA were analyzed using the next generation sequencing. The comparison of the response rates was performed with the use of Chi-square tests. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were compared by log-rank (Mantel-Cox) tests. Results: Mutational analysis identified frequently mutated genes (detectable in ≥25% of patients): KRAS (141/170, 83%), TP53 (121/170, 71%), and CDKN2A (56/170, 33%). Mutations in KRAS, TP53, or CDKN2A genes did not correlate with objective response rate. Based on 81% of the recorded death events in the elraglusib/GnP group and 91% in the GnP group (topline data April, 2025), KRAS and TP53 gene mutations were associated with worse overall survival (OS) in patients treated with elraglusib/GnP (p<0.05) but not in GnP-treated patients. The rate of triple (KRAS+TP53+CDKN2A) mutations was significantly higher in the patients with OS<2 months as compared to the patients with OS>2 months in the elraglusib/GnP group (p<0.05) but not in the GnP group. Conclusions: Our preliminary results identified KRAS and TP53 gene mutations as potential predictive biomarkers of clinical outcome in elraglusib/GnP-treated mPDAC patients. Updated OS data and mutational analysis will be included in the final presentation. Clinical trial information: NCT03678883 .

653 Background: Elraglusib (9-ING-41), a novel small molecule inhibitor of GSK-3ß, has a multimodal mechanism of action that enhances chemotherapy cytotoxicity and regulates anti-tumor immune cell response. Elraglusib was evaluated in a randomized, open-label, phase 2 study (NCT03678883) comparing elraglusib/GnP vs GnP in previously untreated mPDAC. Methods: Pts were randomized 2:1 to GnP plus elraglusib 9.3 mg/kg IV once weekly or GnP. Primary endpoint was mOS, with 1-yr OS rate estimates summarizing clinical benefit throughout the study. Secondary endpoints were ORR, mPFS, and TEAEs/TRAEs. Pre-dose cytokines, mutational analysis, and immunophenotyping were correlated with outcomes. An oral presentation at ASCO 2025 discussed preliminary data. Results: As of 27 April 2025, the primary analysis set included 155 pts in the elraglusib/GnP arm and 78 pts in the GnP arm, with 52.8% males and 57.5% ECOG PS 1. The 1-yr OS rate was 44.1% with elraglusib/GnP vs 22.3% with GnP; the mOS was 10.1 mo with elraglusib/GnP vs 7.2 mo with GnP (HR, 0.62; p=0.01) with approximately 79% events recorded (25.8% of pts on elraglusib/GnP and 10.3% on GnP were censored with the majority at >12 mo OS). Improved OS with elraglusib/GnP was consistent across all randomized pts and subgroups regardless of liver metastases, ECOG status, or baseline CA 19-9 levels. Most common TRAE with elraglusib/GnP was grade 1-2 transient visual impairment (66.5% pts vs 0 with GnP). Most common grade ≥3 TEAEs with elraglusib/GnP (vs GnP) were neutropenia 52.3% (vs 30.8%) and anemia 25.2% (vs 29.5%). No differences in sepsis/febrile neutropenia rates were between arms. RAS , TP53 and CDKN2A co-mutations were associated with worse OS in the elraglusib/GnP arm only (p<0.05). Elevation in pre-dose cytokines including CXCL2 correlated with improved OS in the elraglusib/GnP arm. Additionally, increased CD8+ T cells, granzyme B, and NK cells and reduced MDSCs were observed in elraglusib-treated tumors. Conclusions: A significant benefit for 1-yr OS and mOS and a favorable trend for ORR were observed with the addition of elraglusib to GnP. The mOS was lower in the GnP arm vs historical studies, likely due to early deaths in the first 2 months, but aligns with mOS estimates in the real-world analysis with broad heterogeneous population. Our study included 19.7% pts with albumin <3.0 g/dL and >25% with CA 19.9 levels > 8,000 U/mL. Immune correlates support elraglusib’s immune-modulatory role. Final efficacy data cut-off in Dec 2025 and correlative studies will be presented. Clinical trial information: NCT03678883 . Outcome Elraglusib/GnPN=155 GnPN=78 Primary endpoint: mOS (mo)HR=0.62; log-rank p=0.01 10.1 7.2 Events, n (%) 115 (74.2) 70 (89.7) Primary endpoint: 1-yr OS (%) 44.1 22.3 18-month OS (%) 20.5 4.4 24-month OS (%) 13.2 0 mPFS (mo)HR=0.9; p=NS 5.6 5.1 Events, n (%) 136 (87.7) 75 (96.2) ORR, n (%) 44 (28.4) 17 (21.8)

Abstract BACKGROUND: DNA methyltransferase inhibition offers palliative benefit but does not alter disease biology. in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML, Merlevede J et al. Nat Comm 2016). This was conclusively demonstrated in the phase 3 DACOTA study, where decitabine did not improve event-free survival in comparison to hydroxyurea (median 12.1 versus 10.3 months, P=0.27) in advanced myeloproliferative CMML (MP-CMML). Hence, there is in urgent need to develop disease modifying therapies for this dismal condition. We and others have demonstrated a role for RAS mutations in MP-CMML through the activation of the KMT2A-PLK1 axis. Targeting of this axis using onvansertib, an inhibitor of PLK1, has demonstrated its pre-clinical efficacy in MP-CMML patient-derived organoid and xenograft models. (Carr RM et al. Nat Comm 2021). METHODS: We conducted a single center phase 1 study to assess the safety and efficacy of onvansertib in relapsed/refractory MP-CMML (NCT05549661). We used a Bayesian Optimal Interval (BOIN) study design to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD). The three dose cohorts included 6, 9 and 12 mg/m2 given orally from days 1 to 21 of each 28-day cycle. Key inclusion criteria included a WHO-defined diagnosis of MP-CMML with a white blood cell (WBC) count &gt; 13,000/mm3 and adequate organ function (estimated GFR &gt; 50 mL/min/m2). Response was evaluated per the MDS/MPN International Working Group Criteria (Savona et al. Blood 2015). Targeting efficacy was assessed by measuring phosphorylation of TCTP (a PLK1 substrate), specifically pTCTP/TCTP ratios by immunoblotting in peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples pre and post cycle 1 (Days 1, 7, 21) and end of cycle 3. Pharmacokinetic studies and translational correlative studies were conducted per protocol. RESULTS: Between April 2023 and July 2025, a total of 9 patients were enrolled. The median age at enrollment was 68 years (range: 60-83); all caucasian with 4 (44%) males. All patients had a diagnosis of CMML-1 with a median bone marrow (BM) blast percentage of 4 (0-9), median hemoglobin 10 (7.1-13.2) g/dL, median WBC count of 11.1 (3.1-72.7) x 109/L (4 patients had a WBC count &lt; 13 x 109/L at enrollment due to hydroxyurea use but were confirmed to be MP-CMML at diagnosis), absolute monocyte count 2.1 (1.9-19.6) x 109/L, and platelet count of 36 (20-494) x 109/L. TET2 (89%), SRSF2 (78%), ASXL1 (56%), NRAS, KRAS and CBL (22% each) were the most frequent molecular abnormalities. Previous therapies included hydroxyurea (n=8) and decitabine (n=1). Four patients were enrolled at the 6mg/m2dose level, 2 at the 9 mg/m2 dose level and we currently have one patient at the 12 mg/m2 dose level. While there were 2 planned patients at the 6 mg/m2 dose level, due to a case of pericardial effusion that was possibly drug related, an additional two patients were enrolled at the same dose level, without any dose limiting toxicity (DLT). Targeting efficacy was confirmed by pTCTP immunoblotting in PBMC samples from 4 patients (6 and 9 mg/m2 dose levels) showing suppressed pTCTP/TCTP ratios. No confirmed DLT has been identified thus far, and no grade 3 or 4 toxicities attributable to the study drug have been reported. Possible or unrelated grade 3 adverse effects included infections (sepsis/cellulitis, n=2, 22%), acute kidney injury (n=1, 11%), pericardial effusion (n=1, 11%), and atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response (n=1, 11%). Median duration on therapy was 124 (range: 15-654) days with most common cause of study discontinuation being disease progression (33%). Response was assessed as per the MDS/MPN IWG criteria in patients who received at least 1 cycle (n=8) with 3 (38%) patients meeting criteria for either hematological or optimal marrow response. Specifically, there was one (14%) patient with &gt;100% platelet response, one (14%) with normalization of WBC count (baseline WBC count &gt;50 x 109/L), one (14%) optimal marrow response with BM blast% reduction from 8 to 2, facilitating candidacy for an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and three patients (38%) remained as stable disease. CONCLUSION: In MP-CMML, PLK1 inhibition with onvansertib is relatively well tolerated and shows preliminary efficacy in approximately 40% of patients, with one patient having an optimal marrow response at the 9 mg/m2 dose. Future directions include a dose expansion phase and studying upfront combination with DNA methyltransferase inhibitors.

Abstract Background: The spatial organization of the tumor microenvironment (TME) encodes the selective pressures that drive cancer evolution, but many tools focus on local cell contacts or single-modality readouts. We developed Tumor Landscape Analysis (TLA), a modular framework that borrows from landscape ecology and spatial statistics to quantify heterogeneity, fragmentation, and diversity across scales, from single cells to whole-slide ecosystems. Methods: TLA ingests whole-cell or nuclear centroids and region-level segmentations to compute (i) point statistics such as nearest-neighbor distance, Ripley’s H, and Morisita-Horn colocalization; (ii) kernel-smoothed local spatial profiles including Getis-Ord Gi* hot and cold spots; and (iii) fragmentation, shape, and diversity metrics such as patch density, contagion, shape index, and Shannon entropy. We also introduce Local Microenvironments (LMEs), unsupervised ecological niches defined by joint cell-type abundance and spatial mixing. Pilot analyses were performed in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS; n=353 samples, 175 patients) with cell-level maps of epithelial, lymphocyte, and fibroblast populations, and in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC; n=203 resected cases after neoadjuvant therapy) using cancer and stroma segmentations. Results: In DCIS, spatial relationships rather than raw abundance associated with recurrence risk. Shorter lymphocyte-to-fibroblast minimum nearest-neighbor distance and lower Ripley’s H, indicating greater intermixing, correlated with earlier recurrence independent of cell counts. This highlights immune–stromal proximity as a candidate eco-evolutionary driver of persistence. In PDAC, tissue-level fragmentation captured prognostic architecture after therapy. Two shape-based signatures emerged: (1) stromal uniformity, where lower standard deviation of stromal patch shape index associated with improved disease-free survival, consistent with a more constrained, less reactive stroma; and (2) tumor geometric complexity, where higher mean cancer patch shape index, reflecting more irregular or dendritic nests, associated with lower recurrence risk, whereas compact nests predicted worse outcomes. Across datasets, LME maps localized niche phenotypes, such as mixed-immune or segmented tumor habitats, that align with hypothesized selection landscapes and provide inputs for fragmentation analysis. Conclusions: TLA operationalizes an eco-evolutionary view of cancer by unifying interpretable, multiscale spatial metrics in a single workflow that works with any rasterized data input. By quantifying how habitats, edges, and mixing patterns are organized, TLA reveals niche structures and architectural motifs linked to clinical outcomes and complements foundation models and modality-specific pipelines with theory-grounded, clinically translatable descriptors. Ongoing work integrates TLA features with molecular data and outcomes to derive robust biomarkers and to inform adaptive, niche-targeted strategies in precision oncology. Citation Format: Ryan M. Carr, Luis Cisneros, Merih Deniz. Toruner, Martin E. Fernandez-Zapico, Carlo Maley. Tumor landscape analysis: An ecologically informed framework to understand tumor microenvironments [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Cancer Evolution: The Dynamics of Progression and Persistence; 2025 Dec 4-6; Albuquerque, NM. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(23_Suppl):Abstract nr A015.