Project description:Abstract The RET receptor tyrosine kinase proto-oncogene is activated by somatic or germline mutations in a majority of medullary thyroid cancers (MTC). However, treatment of MTC has been challenging due to the lack of effective and tolerable RET-specific therapy, thus testing tumors for the presence of somatic RET mutation has not been warranted. In a first-in-human, phase 1/2 clinical trial (LIBRETTO-001, NCT03157128), selpercatinib (LOXO-292), an investigational, highly selective, potent small molecule RET kinase inhibitor, demonstrated significant and durable anti-tumor activity in patients with advanced RET-mutant MTC or with diverse RET fusion-positive cancers (1). Among the primary analysis set of patients with RET-mutant MTC previously treated with cabozantinib and/or vandetanib (N=55), the investigator-assessed objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST 1.1 was 56% (95% CI 42.3-69.7, n=31/55). Duration of response was not reached with a 10.6-months median follow-up (data cutoff date 17-Jun-2019). Here, we evaluated investigator-assessed ORR per RECIST 1.1 and clinical benefit rate (CBR) in this previously treated patient population by RET alteration and by germline or somatic testing used for enrollment. The ORR remained consistent across subgroups with RET M918T (49%, 95% CI 30.8-66.5, n=16/33), V804M/L gatekeeper mutations (60%, 95% CI 14.7-94.7, n=3/5), extracellular cysteine mutations (43%, 95% CI 9.9-81.6, n=3/7), other mutations (90%, 95% CI 55.5-99.7, n=9/10), and germline (50%, 95% CI 6.8-93.2, n=2/4) or somatic (57%, 95% CI 42.2-70.7, n=29/51) testing. The CBR, defined as the proportion of patients with best overall response of confirmed complete response, confirmed or unconfirmed partial response, or stable disease lasting 16 weeks or more, in this patient set was 87% (95% CI 75.5-94.7, n=48/55). The CBR remained consistent across subgroups with RET M918T (88%, 95% CI 71.8-96.6, n=29/33), V804M/L gatekeeper mutations (80%, 95% CI 28.4-99.5, n=4/5), extracellular cysteine mutations (71%, 95% CI 29.0-96.3, n=5/7), other mutations (100%, 95% CI 69.2-100.0, n=10/10), and germline (75%, 95% CI 19.4-99.4, n=3/4) or somatic (88%, 95% CI 76.1-95.6, n=45/51) testing. The primary technologies used to identify RET alterations were tumor next-generation sequencing (n=43) and polymerase chain reaction (n=9). As previously reported, selpercatinib was well tolerated with an acceptable safety profile (1). These results indicate broad anti-tumor activity for selpercatinib in patients with RET-mutant MTC irrespective of the specific RET mutation, and support implementation of RET mutation testing for patients with advanced MTC, including somatic testing, to identify patients who may benefit from selpercatinib. Reference: (1) Wirth et al., Ann Oncol. 2019 Oct; 30(supplement 5): v933.
| S-EPMC7208240 | biostudies-literature
