ALBERT

Description: The phase II CAVALLI (NCT02055820) study assessed efficacy and safety of venetoclax, a selective, B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) inhibitor, with rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) in first-line (1L) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), including patients demonstrating Bcl-2 protein overexpression by immunohistochemistry (Bcl-2 IHC-positive). Eligible patients ≥18 years with previously untreated DLBCL, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status ≤2, and International Prognostic Index 2-5. Venetoclax 800 mg (days 4-10, cycle 1 and days 1-10, cycles 2-8) was administered with rituximab (8 cycles) and CHOP (6-8 cycles); 21-day cycles. Primary endpoints: safety, tolerability, and complete response (CR) at end of treatment (EOT). Secondary endpoints: progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival. Comparative analyses used covariate-adjusted R-CHOP controls from the GOYA/BO21005 study, an appropriate contemporary benchmark for safety and efficacy. Safety and efficacy analyses included 206 patients. CR rate at EOT was 69% in the overall population and was maintained across Bcl-2 IHC-positive subgroups. With median follow-up of 32.2 months, trends were observed for improved investigator-assessed PFS for venetoclax plus R-CHOP in the overall population (Hazard ratio [HR] = 0.61, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.43-0.87) and Bcl-2 IHC-positive subgroups (HR = 0.55, 95% CI, 0.34-0.89), versus R-CHOP. Despite a higher incidence of grade 3/4 hematologic adverse events (86%), related mortality was not increased (2%). Chemotherapy dose intensity was similar in CAVALLI versus GOYA. The addition of venetoclax to R-CHOP in 1L DLBCL demonstrates increased but manageable myelosuppression and the potential of improved efficacy particularly in high-risk, Bcl-2 IHC-positive patient subgroups.

Description: Introduction: Recent studies linking cancer genomics and immunity have reinforced the concepts that some mutations trigger T cell effector responses and that the likelihood of an immunogenic mutation increases with increasing mutation load. Importantly, these data highlight the potential utility of such markers in identifying patient subsets likely to respond to cancer immunotherapies. This study investigated the clinical impact of mutation load and its association with T cell gene expression in newly diagnosed patients with follicular lymphoma (FL). Methods: We used clinical and genomic data from FL patients (n = 249; 216 with follow-up information) with evaluable pre-treatment tumor tissue who were treated in a randomized study of rituximab maintenance vs observation (PRIMA; ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT00140582). We estimated mutation load per megabase (Mb) as a proxy for neoantigen formation using FoundationOne Heme (Foundation Medicine, Inc). We quantified expression of T cytotoxic effector genes (GZMA, GZMB, PRF1, IFNG, EOMES, CD8A) as a surrogate for pre-existing immunity (and the inflammatory state of the tumor) using TruSeq (Illumina, Inc) RNA seq (n = 142). We used Cox regression to examine associations between these markers and progression-free survival (PFS), adjusting for the FL International Prognostic Index, age, sex, treatment arm and response to induction therapy. Pvalues were calculated for exploratory purposes. Results: The mutation load estimate among newly diagnosed patients with FL was highly variable (range, 0-33 mutations/Mb; Q1: 4.2; median: 6.6; Q3: 10.0). Patients with 〉 15 mutations/Mb (n = 19) were considered to have a high probability of neoantigen formation, and the remaining patients were stratified into mutation-low (〈 6.6 mutations/Mb; n = 112) or mutation-mid (≥ 6.6 mutations/Mb and ≤ 15 mutations/Mb; n = 85) groups. The 3-year PFS in patients with high mutation load was 83% compared with 66% for mid-mutation load and 68% for low-mutation load groups, but mutation load was not independently prognostic in either the rituximab (P = .13) or observation (P = .66) arms. Of note, 92% of FL patients with high mutation load (n = 12/13) also had high T-effector gene expression compared with 49% of those with midlevel (n = 24/49) and 44% of those with low mutation load (n = 35/80) (P = .001). Mutation load was also associated with benefit from rituximab maintenance: FL patients with low mutation load experienced a significant benefit from rituximab maintenance (HR, 0.29 [95% CI, 0.15-0.54]; P 〈 .001), whereas no statistically significant benefit was seen among FL patients with medium (HR, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.43-1.5]; P = .51) or high mutation load (HR, 0.29 [95% CI, 0.026-3.3]; P = .32). Importantly, the T/NK gene signature was prognostic as a continuous predictor (P = .008) and clearly separated 2 large groups of FL patients into an "inflamed" subset (T-effector signature high; n = 74) and an "uninflamed" subset (T-effector signature low; n = 75), with longer PFS seen in the "inflamed" FL subset (PFS HR, 0.39 [95% CI, 0.21-0.70]; P = .002). T-effector gene expression may be particularly useful for identifying the immunologically primed FL subset among patients with low/mid mutation load: there was a trend in 3-year PFS in 84.4% vs 56.6% for T-effector-high vs T-effector-low among low-mutation load patients (P = .002) and 76.2% vs 58.3% of mid-mutation load patients (P = .17), respectively. The subset of inflamed (T-effector signature high) FL tumors also demonstrated high expression of IDO1, which similarly correlated with longer PFS (HR, 0.25 [95% CI, 0.14-0.45]; P 〈 .001), and a strong correlation was observed between IDO1 and IFNG expression (R2 = 0.61; P〈 .001). This is consistent with an interplay of pro- and anti-inflammatory immunity, wherein pro-inflammatory IFNγ drives the clinical outcome. Conclusions: Collectively, our results suggest that mutation load and T-effector gene expression may help identify immunologically distinct lymphoma subsets appropriate for modern immunotherapies. Disclosures Bolen: Genentech, Inc.: Employment. McCord:Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Frampton:Foundation Medicine: Employment, Equity Ownership. Bourgon:Genentech, Inc.: Employment; F Hoffman-La Roche: Other: Shareholder. Punnoose:Genetech, Inc.: Employment. Szafer-Glusman:Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Xerri:Novartis: Honoraria. Salles:Gilead: Honoraria, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Mundipharma: Honoraria; Roche/Genentech: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria. Venstrom:Genentech: Employment.

Description: Central nervous system (CNS) relapse carries a poor prognosis in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Integrating biomarkers into the CNS–International Prognostic Index (CNS-IPI) risk model may improve identification of patients at high risk for developing secondary CNS disease. CNS relapse was analyzed in 1418 DLBCL patients treated with obinutuzumab or rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone chemotherapy in the phase 3 GOYA study. Cell of origin (COO) was assessed using gene-expression profiling. BCL2 and MYC protein expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. The impact of CNS-IPI, COO, and BCL2/MYC dual-expression status on CNS relapse was assessed using a multivariate Cox regression model (data available in n = 1418, n = 933, and n = 688, respectively). High CNS-IPI score (hazard ratio [HR], 4.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-12.3; P = .02) and activated B-cell‒like (ABC) (HR, 5.2; 95% CI, 2.1-12.9; P = .0004) or unclassified COO subtypes (HR, 4.2; 95% CI, 1.5-11.7; P = .006) were independently associated with CNS relapse. BCL2/MYC dual-expression status did not impact CNS relapse risk. Three risk subgroups were identified based on the presence of high CNS-IPI score and/or ABC/unclassified COO (CNS-IPI-C model): low risk (no risk factors, n = 450 [48.2%]), intermediate risk (1 factor, n = 408 [43.7%]), and high risk (both factors, n = 75 [8.0%]). Two-year CNS relapse rates were 0.5%, 4.4%, and 15.2% in the respective risk subgroups. Combining high CNS-IPI and ABC/unclassified COO improved CNS relapse prediction and identified a patient subgroup at high risk for developing CNS relapse. The study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT01287741.

Description: Introduction. Minimal residual disease (MRD) is an objective measure of disease status defined by the number of leukemic cells in the blood or bone marrow of leukemic patients. In recent clinical studies of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), undetectable MRD levels (〈 1 tumor cell/10,000 leukocytes) have been shown to correlate with prolonged progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival, independent of treatment or known risk factors. MRD assessment has been proposed as an alternative to PFS as a primary endpoint in frontline CLL pivotal studies to evaluate the efficacy of novel therapies at an earlier time-point. Thorough standardization and validation are needed to use MRD as a primary surrogate endpoint. Allele specific oligonucleotide (ASO)-PCR of immunoglobulin (IG) gene rearrangements is a method for quantifying MRD using patient-specific PCR primers and has been standardized by the EuroMRD Consortium (www.EuroMRD.org). Given that each patient has individualized PCR primers designed for their leukemic clone, this posed a unique challenge for the analytical validation studies to demonstrate that the assays are uniform in their reproducibility and analytical sensitivity to measure MRD across patients with CLL. Here we report a comprehensive, IVD-guided analytical validation of the ASO-PCR technique according to the guidance of regulatory authorities. We provide evidence that the ASO-PCR methodology can reproducibly measure MRD to the required threshold of 10-4, across patients with CLL. Results. Performance of ASO-PCR was assessed using a combination of retrospective data from the CLL11 clinical trial and prospectively performed experiments. Patient assays from 60 CLL patients were tested in two EuroMRD laboratories to demonstrate linearity across the measurement range of 10-1 to 10-5, and a limit of detection of 6.3x10-5, which is below the cut-off of 10-4 used for defining MRD negativity. Concordance of the method to an orthogonal method was determined from the previously published comparison of flow cytometry with ASO-PCR (Boettcher et al., Leukemia 2009; 23: 2007) with 93.8 % overall agreement between both methods (n=452). Agreement of MRD status was 〉97% when comparing individually designed ASO primers for the same patient within the lab. The overall agreement between the two different laboratories using independently designed ASO-PCR assays was 93.5%. Precision was assessed above and below the threshold of 10-4 using ASO-PCR assays of 3 individual patient samples diluted to appropriate MRD levels listed in Table 1. Theexperiment was designed to mimic sources of variation by evaluating MRD samples over the course of the clinical study (3 days x 2 operators x 3 patients x 2 laboratories x 3 replicates). Overall variability was estimated using a mixed effects model including fixed patient effects and random effects for operator and day. Based on the known MRD distribution of frontline CLL patients, we estimate acceptable overall variability on the order of 80% CV at lower concentrations (≤ 3.2x10-4) and 40% CV at higher concentrations (〉 3.2x10-4). This precision estimate provides reasonable misclassification rates (〈 5%) due to the fact that the majority of patients had MRD levels either well above or below 10-4 level. Experiments also addressed stability of patient specimens and critical assay components. Table 1. Precision of ASO-PCR results obtained at MRD levels 10-2 to 10-5Table 1.Estimated Total CV (%) Averaged Across 3 patientsMRD levelKielErasmus1.00E-028.7034.791.00E-0310.0235.743.20E-0415.8233.271.00E-0431.7036.383.20E-0589.8978.801.00E-05258.06277.27 Conclusion. The analytical validation studies described here provide evidence that the ASO-PCR methodology, standardized by EuroMRD, performs well to reproducibly detect MRD status across CLL patients at the threshold of 10-4. These studies serve as an example for the validation of personalized, patient-specific quantitative clinical assays for use as a primary endpoint in clinical trials. The authors would like to acknowledge the valuable work of the following people who contributed to this work: M. Brüggemann (UKSH Kiel), R Raja, C. Cox, W. Darbonne, R. Desai, and K. Trunzer. Disclosures Langerak: DAKO: Patents & Royalties: Licensing of IP and Patent on Split-Signal FISH. Royalties for Dept. of Immunology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, NL; InVivoScribe: Patents & Royalties: Licensing of IP and Patent on BIOMED-2-based methods for PCR-based Clonality Diagnostics.; Roche: Other: Lab services in the field of MRD diagnostics provided by Dept of Immunology, Erasmus MC (Rotterdam). van Dongen:BD Biosciences (cont'd): Other: Laboratory Services in the field of technical validation of EuroFlow-OneFlow antibody tubes in dried format. The Laboratory Services are provided by the Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Dept. of Immunology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, NL; Cytognos: Patents & Royalties: Licensing of IP on Infinicyt software, Patents on EuroFlow-based flowcytometric Diagnosis and Classification of hematological malignancies, Patents on MRD diagnostics, and Patents on PID diagnostics.; Cytognos (continued): Patents & Royalties: Royalty income for EuroFlow Consortium. The Infinicyt software is provided to all EuroFlow members free-of-charge.Licensing of Patent on detection of IgE+ B-cells in allergic diseases. Royalties for Dept. of Immunology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, NL; DAKO: Patents & Royalties: Licensing of IP and Patent on Split-Signal FISH. Royalties for Dept. of Immunology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, NL; InVivoScribe: Patents & Royalties: Licensing of IP and Patent on BIOMED-2-based methods for PCR-based Clonality Diagnostics.. Royalty income for EuroClonality-BIOMED-2 Consortium; Immunostep: Patents & Royalties: Licensing of IP and Patents on immunobead-based dection of fusion proteins in acute leukemias and other tumors. Royalties for Dept. of Immunology, Erasmus MC and for EuroFlow Consortium; BD Biosciences: Other: Educational Services: Educational Lectures and Educational Workshops (+ related travelling costs). The lectures and workshops fully focus on the scientific achievements of the EuroFlow Consortium (No advertisement of products of BD Biosciences)., Patents & Royalties: Licensing of IP and Patent on EuroFlow-based flowcytometric Diagnosis and Classification of hematological malignancies; Royalty income for EuroFlow Consortium.; Roche: Consultancy, Other: Laboratory Services in the field of MRD diagnostics, provided by the Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Dept. of Immunology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, NL.. Ray:Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Punnoose:Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Kim:Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Haberberger:Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Bernaards:Roche: Employment. Zhu:Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Lewin-Koh:Genentech, Inc.: Employment. Ritgen:Roche: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding.

Description: Introduction . Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Although more than half of patients are cured with standard immunochemotherapy (R-CHOP) in first-line therapy, the disease relapses or is refractory to R-CHOP in ~40% of cases, with limited options for second-line treatment. Molecular characteristics, including Cell-of-Origin (COO), BCL2 expression and concomitant BCL2/MYC expression, contribute to differences in outcome for DLBCL patients (Alizadeh, Nature 2000, Iqbal Clin Cancer Res. 2011, Johnson JCO. 2012). Understanding these molecular risk factors is potentially of value to guide treatment decisions and optimize therapy. Here, we used assays validated for formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens to retrospectively assess the prevalence and prognostic value of BCL2 and MYC in patients from MAIN, a Phase III trial that evaluated bevacizumab plus R-CHOP in frontline, CD20-positive DLBCL (NCT00486759). This analysis will help assess markers relevant for risk assessment and may guide use of new investigational agents in DLBCL. Methods . Tissue microarrays (TMAs) from FFPE tumor samples were evaluated using immunohistochemistry (IHC) for BCL2 (clone 124 DAKO), and MYC (clone Y69 Epitomics). FFPE cell pellets from 26 NHL cell lines were also stained as above. BCL2 staining was scored on a 0-3 intensity scale; the BCL2 cutoff was determined by the expression level that conferred sensitivity (

Description: Abstract 5028 Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy of the bone marrow caused by the dysregulated proliferation of monoclonal antibody producing plasma cells. A hallmark feature of cancer is the ability to evade cell death signals induced by stress response cues. The Bcl-2 family of proteins regulates the intrinsic apoptosis pathways and consists of pro-apoptotic (Bax, Bak, Bad, Bim, Noxa, Puma) and pro-survival (Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, Mcl-1); the balance of which dictates the life or death status of MM tumor cells. Thus, there is a strong rationale to target members of the Bcl-2 proteins for the treatment of MM. ABT-199 is a potent BH3-only mimetic that selectively antagonizes Bcl-2 and is currently in phase I clinical trials for the treatment of hematological malignancies. Therefore, we evaluated the efficacy of ABT-199 as a single agent and in combination with standard of care drugs such as Velcade (bortezomib) in preclinical models of MM. A panel of 21 human MM cell lines was evaluated in vitro for to sensitivity to ABT-199. ABT-199 potently inhibited cell viability in a sub-set of MM cell lines (7/21) with EC50 values less than 1 μM. Expression of Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, Mcl-1, Bim and other Bcl-2 family proteins were evaluated by protein and mRNA. Cell line modeling identified thresholds for expression of Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Mcl-1 that best predicted sensitivity and resistance to ABT-199 and the dual Bcl-2/Bcl-xL antagonist, navitoclax. Consistent with the target inhibition profile of these drugs, we found that MM lines that were Bcl-2high/Bcl-xLlow/Mcl-1low are the most sensitive to ABT-199 treatment. Whereas cell lines that are Bcl-xLhigh remain sensitive to navitoclax but not ABT-199. MM cell lines that are Mcl-1high are less sensitive to both ABT-199 and navitoclax, suggesting that Mcl-1 is a resistance factor to both drugs. Utilizing a novel Mesoscale Discovery based immunoassay we determined that levels of Bcl-2/Bim complexes also correlated with sensitivity of ABT-199 in the MM cell lines tested. In addition, the t(11;14) status in these cell lines associated with sensitivity to ABT-199. The clinical relevance of the Bcl-2 pro-survival expression pattern in MM cell lines, was determined by a collection of bone marrow biopsies and aspirates (n=27) from MM patients by immunohistochemistry for prevalence of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL. Similar to our in vitro observations, the majority (75%) of the MM bone marrow biopsies and aspirates had high Bcl-2 levels whereas 50% had high Bcl-xL expression. Therefore, a subset of patient samples (33%) were identified with a favorable biomarker profile (Bcl-2high/Bcl-xLlow) that may predict ABT-199 single agent activity. ABT-199 synergized with bortezomib in decreasing cell viability in the majority of MM cell lines tested in vitro based on the Bliss model of independence analyses (Bliss score range = 10 to 40). However the window of combination activity was reduced due to high degree of sensitivity to bortezomib alone. Therefore, the combination efficacy of ABT-199 and bortezomib was further evaluated in vivo in MM xenograft models that expressed high levels of Bcl-2 protein (OPM-2, KMS-11, RPMI-8226, H929 and MM. 1s). Bortezomib treatment alone at a maximum tolerated dose resulted in tumor regressions or stasis in all xenograft models tested. ABT-199 at a maximum tolerated dose was moderately efficacious (defined by tumor growth delay) as a single agent in xenograft models that expressed high protein levels of Bcl-2 but relatively lower levels of Bcl-xL. However, the combination of ABT-199 with bortezomib significantly increased the overall response rate and durability of anti-tumor activity when compared to bortezomib, resulting in increased cell death in vivo. Treatment with bortezomib increased levels of the pro-apoptotic BH3-only protein, Noxa, in MM xenograft models that expressed high levels of Mcl-1. Given that the induction of Noxa by bortezomib results in neutralization of Mcl-1 pro-survival activity in MM models [Gomez-Bougie et al; Cancer Res. 67:5418–24 (2007)], greater efficacy may be achieved when Bcl-2 is antagonized by ABT-199 thereby inhibiting pro-survival activity occurring through either Bcl-2 or Mcl-1 and increasing cell death. Thus, our preclinical data support the clinical evaluation of ABT-199 in combination with bortezomib in MM patients in which relative expression of the Bcl-2 pro-survival proteins may serve as predictive biomarkers of drug activity. Disclosures: Sampath: Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Punnoose:Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Boghaert:Abbott Pharmaceuticals: Employment, Equity Ownership. Belmont:Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Chen:Abbott Pharmaceuticals: Employment, Equity Ownership. Peale:Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Tan:Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Darbonne:Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Yue:Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Oeh:Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Lee:Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Fairbrother:Genentech: Employment, Equity Ownership. Souers:Abbott Pharmaceuticals: Employment, Equity Ownership. Elmore:Abbott Pharmaceuticals: Employment, Equity Ownership. Leverson:Abbott Pharmaceuticals: Employment, Equity Ownership.

Description: Introduction Although CLL minimal residual disease (MRD) status is used in contemporary clinical trials aimed at maximizing response or determining treatment duration, its role as a predictive factor for PFS has only been established following chemoimmunotherapy. In contrast, whether MRD is a valuable tool for treatment choice in the era of novel targeted agents for CLL is unknown. Unlike kinase inhibitors, the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax does result in undetectable MRD (uMRD). MURANO demonstrated significant PFS benefit for venetoclax + rituximab (VenR) given for a fixed duration vs bendamustine + rituximab (BR) in relapsed/refractory (R/R) CLL. Here we present analysis of peripheral blood (PB) MRD kinetics in relation to PFS in MURANO with long follow up, when all pts have completed therapy. Methods Pts were randomized to VenR (Ven 400mg/d for 2 yrs + R for first 6 mo) or BR (6 mo). Response was assessed clinically using complete blood count and physical exam at follow-up visits. PB MRD was analysed centrally by ASO-PCR and/or flow cytometry at Cycle 4, end of combination therapy (EOCT; mo 9) and every 3 mo thereafter until 3 yrs, then every 6 mo. As strong concordance between PB and bone marrow (BM) MRD with VenR was previously shown (Hillmen et al. ASCO 2018), we focus on PB MRD. Pts were categorized into uMRD (