Glioblastoma is the most lethal primary brain cancer. Clinical outcomes for glioblastoma remain poor, and new treatments are needed.
To investigate whether adding autologous tumor lysate-loaded ...dendritic cell vaccine (DCVax-L) to standard of care (SOC) extends survival among patients with glioblastoma.
This phase 3, prospective, externally controlled nonrandomized trial compared overall survival (OS) in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (nGBM) and recurrent glioblastoma (rGBM) treated with DCVax-L plus SOC vs contemporaneous matched external control patients treated with SOC. This international, multicenter trial was conducted at 94 sites in 4 countries from August 2007 to November 2015. Data analysis was conducted from October 2020 to September 2021.
The active treatment was DCVax-L plus SOC temozolomide. The nGBM external control patients received SOC temozolomide and placebo; the rGBM external controls received approved rGBM therapies.
The primary and secondary end points compared overall survival (OS) in nGBM and rGBM, respectively, with contemporaneous matched external control populations from the control groups of other formal randomized clinical trials.
A total of 331 patients were enrolled in the trial, with 232 randomized to the DCVax-L group and 99 to the placebo group. Median OS (mOS) for the 232 patients with nGBM receiving DCVax-L was 19.3 (95% CI, 17.5-21.3) months from randomization (22.4 months from surgery) vs 16.5 (95% CI, 16.0-17.5) months from randomization in control patients (HR = 0.80; 98% CI, 0.00-0.94; P = .002). Survival at 48 months from randomization was 15.7% vs 9.9%, and at 60 months, it was 13.0% vs 5.7%. For 64 patients with rGBM receiving DCVax-L, mOS was 13.2 (95% CI, 9.7-16.8) months from relapse vs 7.8 (95% CI, 7.2-8.2) months among control patients (HR, 0.58; 98% CI, 0.00-0.76; P < .001). Survival at 24 and 30 months after recurrence was 20.7% vs 9.6% and 11.1% vs 5.1%, respectively. Survival was improved in patients with nGBM with methylated MGMT receiving DCVax-L compared with external control patients (HR, 0.74; 98% CI, 0.55-1.00; P = .03).
In this study, adding DCVax-L to SOC resulted in clinically meaningful and statistically significant extension of survival for patients with both nGBM and rGBM compared with contemporaneous, matched external controls who received SOC alone.
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00045968.
Abstract
The presence of therapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs) in recurrent high-grade glioma (HGG) patients contributes to poor clinical outcomes. The ChemoID functional anti-cancer assay ...targets cancer stem cells along with the bulk of the tumor cells. This trial aims to determine if ChemoID assay-guided treatment improves survival rates for recurrent HGG patients compared to the empirically physician-selected treatment. Patients with grade-III/IV recurrent glioma who failed standard of care (SOC) therapy were randomized (1:1) between two intervention groups. They received one of fourteen mono or combination chemotherapies based on the ChemoID assay or physician choice. The study met the primary outcome in the first interim analysis of 50 patients as per protocol. The ChemoID group had an improved survival rate (vs physician-choice). Median OS (mOS) was 12.5 months in the ChemoID group (95% CI, 10.2-14.7) vs 9 months in the physician-choice (95% CI, 4.2-13.8; log-rank P = .010). Mortality risk was lower in the ChemoID group (HR = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.24-0.81; P = .008). Median progression-free survival was 10.1 months in the ChemoID group vs 3.5 months in the physician choice (95% CI, 4.8-15.4 vs 1.9-5.1; log-rank < 0.001). Risk of progression was lower in the ChemoID group (HR = 0.25; 95% CI, 0.14-0.44; P < 0.001). The intention to treat (ITT) analysis of 78 patients showed substantially improved OS. The ChemoID group had a statistically significant longer median survival of 4.5 months. mOS was 12.0 months in the ChemoID group (95% CI, 10.8-13.2) vs 7.5 in the physician-choice group (95% CI, 3.5-11.5; log-rank P = .009). The ChemoID group had a decreased mortality risk (HR = 0.52; 95% CI, 0.24-0.81; P = .008). Compared with the physician-choice, the ChemoID group had a significantly longer OS in the ITT population. Our findings support that screening standard cytotoxic chemotherapies with a patient-specific anti-cancer assay improves survival outcomes in recurrent HGG patients.
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Standard of care (SOC) and patient survival in glioblastoma have changed little in the past 17 years. We evaluated in a phase 3 trial whether adding an autologous tumor ...lysate-loaded dendritic cell vaccine (murcidencel) to SOC extends survival. Patients and
METHODS
Newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients were randomized 2:1 to either murcidencel or placebo. Under a crossover design, all patients could receive murcidencel following tumor recurrence. All parties remained blinded regarding treatments before recurrence. Patients thus received murcidencel at new diagnosis (nGBM) or at recurrence (rGBM) following crossover from placebo. The primary and secondary endpoints compare overall survival (OS) with contemporaneous, matched external controls. Four sets of analyses were conducted to ensure rigorous matching of the controls, reduce biases, and confirm the robustness of the results.
RESULTS
331 patients were enrolled. With the crossover, 89% received murcidencel. Median OS (mOS) for nGBM patients (n = 232) was 19.3 months from randomization (22.4 months from surgery) with murcidencel vs. 16.5 months from randomization in the controls (HR = 0.80, p = 0.002). Survival at 48 months from randomization was 15.7% vs. 9.9%, and at 60 months was 13% vs. 5.7%. For rGBM (n = 64), mOS was 13.2 months from relapse vs. 7.8 months in the controls (HR = 0.58, p < 0.001). Survival at 24 months post-recurrence was 20.7% vs. 9.6%, and at 30 months post-recurrence was 11.1% vs 5.1%. In nGBM patients with methylated MGMT (n = 90), mOS was 30.2 months from randomization (33 months from surgery) with murcidencel vs. 21.3 months from randomization in the controls (HR = 0.74, p = 0.027). The treatment was well tolerated, with only 5 serious adverse events deemed at least possibly related to the vaccine.
CONCLUSION
Clinically meaningful and statistically significant survival extension was seen in both nGBM and rGBM patients treated with murcidencel and SOC compared with contemporaneous, matched external controls who received SOC alone.
