Immunotherapy added to BRAF/MEK inhibitor improves OS for anaplastic thyroid cancer
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The triplet combination of vemurafenib/cobimetinib/atezolizumab showed improvement in overall survival in patients with BRAF-mutated anaplastic thyroid cancer, according to research presented at American Thyroid Association Annual Meeting.
"We showed a 2-year overall survival of 67%, which is a really remarkable outcome for this aggressive cancer, where the medium overall survival before we had the two FDA approved drugs, dabrafenib and trametinib, for these patients was just dismal; it was just a matter of a few months," Maria E. Cabanillas, MD, an oncologic endocrinologist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center told Healio?.
A total of 18 patients with BRAF-mutated anaplastic thyroid cancer were enrolled in the nonrandomized trial between August 2017 and March 2020.
Patients received vemurafenib (Zelboraf, Genentech) and cobimetinib (Cotellic Genentech) daily for 28 days before atezolizumab (Tecentriq, Genentech) was added once every 2 weeks. At that time, the venmurafenib dose was decreased.
For the doublet of approved drugs, dabrafenib (Tafinlar, Novartis) and trametinib (Mekinist, Novartis), the 2-year overall survival was only 0.32 in the clinical trial, Cabanillas said. Single-agent immunotherapy treatment with spartalizumab (PR001, Novartis) has shown a median OS of approximately 6 months, according to the study. With the triplet of BRAF/MEK inhibitor/checkpoint inhibitor, the 2 year overall survival was estimated to be 0.72 (95% CI: 0.460.87); higher than the 2‐year OS of 0.32 (95% CI: 0.160.48) in the dabrafenib/trametinib trial.
Following treatment, Cabanillas said a "significant number of patients" were able to undergo surgery to resect their primary tumor due to favorable response to therapy. "Immunotherapy has been shown to be effective in anaplastic thyroid cancer, and probably the triplet is superior to just BRAF/MEK inhibitor alone,” she said.
Reference:
- Cabanillas M, et al. Late Breaking Oral 48. Presented at: American Thyroid Association Annual Meeting; Oct. 19-23, 2022; Montreal.
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- Cabanillas M, et al. Late Breaking Oral 48. Presented at: American Thyroid Association Annual Meeting; Oct. 19-23, 2022; Montreal.
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