Safety and efficacy of the tumor-selective adenovirus enadenotucirev, in combination with nivolumab, in patients with advanced/metastatic epithelial cancer: a phase I clinical trial (SPICE)

Background Novel combination therapies to overcome anti--PD-1 resistance are required. Enadenotucirev, a tumor-selective blood stable adenoviral vector, has demonstrated a manageable safety profile and ability to increase tumor immune-cell infiltration in phase I studies in solid tumors. Methods We conducted a phase I multicenter study of intravenous enadenotucirev plus nivolumab in patients with advanced/metastatic epithelial cancer not responding to standard therapy. Co-primary objectives were safety/ tolerability and maximum tolerated dose and/or maximum feasible dose (MTD/MFD) of enadenotucirev plus nivolumab. Additional endpoints included response rate, cytokine responses, and anti-tumor immune responses. Results Overall, 51 heavily pre-treated patients were treated, 45/51 (88%) of whom had colorectal cancer (35/35 patients with information available were microsatellite instability-low/microsatellite stable) and 6/51 (12%) had squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The MTD/MFD of enadenotucirev plus nivolumab was not reached, with the highest dose level tested (1x10(12) vp day 1; 6x10(12) vp days 3 and 5) shown to be tolerable. Overall, 31/51 (61%) patients experienced a grade 3-4 treatment-emergent adverse event (TEAE), most frequently anemia (12%), infusion-related reaction (8%), hyponatremia (6%), and large intestinal obstruction (6%). Seven (14%) patients experienced serious TEAEs related to enadenotucirev; the only serious TEAE related to enadenotucirev occurring in >1 patient was infusion-related reaction (n=2). Among the 47 patients included in efficacy analyses, median progression-free survival was 1.6 months, objective response rate was 2% (one partial response for 10 months), and 45% of patients achieved stable disease. Median overall survival was 16.0 months; 69% of patients were alive at 12 months. Persistent increases in Th1 and related cytokines (IFN gamma, IL-12p70, IL-17A) were seen from similar to day 15 in two patients, one of whom had a partial response. Among the 14 patients with matching pre-tumor and post-tumor biopsies, 12 had an increase in intra-tumoral CD8(+) T-cell infiltration and 7 had increased markers of CD8 T-cell cytolytic activity. Conclusions Intravenously dosed enadenotucirev plus nivolumab demonstrated manageable tolerability, an encouraging overall survival and induced immune cell infiltration and activation in patients with advanced/ metastatic epithelial cancer. Studies of next-generation variants of enadenotucirev (T-SIGn vectors) designed to further re-program the tumor microenvironment by expressing immune-enhancer transgenes are ongoing.

Automated summary

In this study, a novel combination therapy using a specific virus injected into tumors along with an anti-PD-1 drug was tested. The results showed that this treatment approach had manageable tolerability in patients with advanced/metastatic epithelial cancer, increased tumor immune-cell infiltration, and had a positive impact on overall survival.