A Study of IMU-131 (HER-Vaxx) in Combination With Chemotherapy or Pembrolizumab in Patients With Metastatic HER2/Neu Over-Expressing Gastric Cancer (nextHERIZON)

Gastric Cancer Clinical Trial

— nextHERIZON  

Official title:

nextHERIZON: An Open-Label, Signal Generating, Phase 2 Study of HER-Vaxx in Combination With Chemotherapy or Pembrolizumab in Patients With Metastatic HER2/Neu Over-Expressing Gastric or Gastroesophageal Junction (GEJ) Adenocarcinomas Who Have Previously Received Trastuzumab and Progressed on This Treatment

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05311176
• Other study ID #: IMU.131.203
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: Phase 2
• Start date: August 17, 2022
• Est. completion date: July 1, 2026

Study information

• Verified date: February 2024
• Source: Imugene Limited
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This is a Phase 2, signal generating, open-label, 2-Arm, non-randomized study, in patients with metastatic HER2/neu over-expressing gastric cancer or gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas.

Description:

It is hypothesized that the introduction of HER-Vaxx after 1L treatment in patients that have progressed under trastuzumab may overcome potential resistance against trastuzumab in combination with chemotherapy and can be continued after chemotherapy is terminated. Based on pre-clinical data HER-Vaxx may also synergize with pembrolizumab and therefore serve as a potentially better tolerated and chemotherapy-free treatment opportunity in metastatic patients that progressed under their previous therapy.

The study is designed to generate safety data and efficacy signals to support further development of HER-Vaxx in ≥2L mGC/GEJ cancer after progression with trastuzumab.

The study includes two treatment arms that will be analyzed independently using a 2-Stage design:

• Arm 1: HER-Vaxx in combination with chemotherapy (ramucirumab plus paclitaxel)

• Arm 2: HER-Vaxx in combination with pembrolizumab.

All patients must have received trastuzumab and progressed after 1L to be eligible for enrolment. Patients who have received an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) previously will exclusively be enrolled in Arm 1 (HER-Vaxx + chemotherapy). Patients who are naïve to ICI treatment will exclusively be enrolled into Arm 2 (HER-Vaxx + pembrolizumab).

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 7
• Est. completion date: July 1, 2026
• Est. primary completion date: March 31, 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age = 18 years with confirmed diagnosis of advanced or metastatic HER2/neu overexpressing gastric or GEJ adenocarcinoma;

2. Progressed on or after trastuzumab therapy;

3. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-1;

4. Life expectancy of a minimum of 3 months;

5. At least one measurable lesion as defined by RECIST 1.1 criteria and assessed by the local investigator;

6. HER2/neu overexpression assessed using post-progression fresh or archival tissue, or post-progression pathology report;

7. Adequate left ventricular ejection function at baseline, defined as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) > 50% by echocardiogram or Multi Gated Acquisition (MUGA) scan;

8. Adequate hematologic, liver and renal function;

9. A female patient of childbearing potential must agree to use a highly effective method of contraception throughout the study and for at least 120 days after the last dose of assigned treatment.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Previous malignant disease (other than primary malignancy) within the last 5 years, except basal or squamous cell carcinoma of the skin or cervical carcinoma in situ;

2. Concurrent active malignancy except for adequately controlled limited basal cell carcinoma of the skin;

3. Systemic chemotherapy or major surgery within 28 days before starting study treatment and recovered from all adverse events = Grade 1 or baseline with possible exceptions for neuropathy and endocrine-related AEs;

4. Received prior radiotherapy within 2 weeks of start of study treatment and recovered from all radiation-related toxicities and not require corticosteroids; or history of radiation pneumonitis.

5. Previous treatment with trastuzumab-deruxtecan or any other anti-HER2 therapy (except trastuzumab);

6. Clinically significant cardiovascular disease, or other diseases that in the Investigator's opinion may influence the patient's tolerance to study treatment;

7. Pleural effusion or ascites requiring more than weekly drainage;

8. Prior organ transplantation, including allogenic stem-cell transplantation;

9. Chronic immunosuppressive therapy within 7 days prior the first dose of study drug;

10. Active, known, or suspected autoimmune disease;

11. History of (non-infectious) pneumonitis / interstitial lung disease that required steroids or has current pneumonitis / interstitial lung disease;

12. Positivity for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (HIV 1/2 antibodies) or active hepatitis B (HBsAg reactive) or active hepatitis C (HCV ribonucleic acid [RNA] qualitative) infection;

13. Current participation or has participated in a study of an investigational agent or has used an investigational device within 4 weeks prior to the first dose of study treatment;

14. Any vaccination within 30 days prior to starting study treatment;

15. Pregnant or lactating females;

16. Arm 2 only: Has received prior therapy with an anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, or anti-PD-L2 agent;

17. Arm 2 only: Has received prior therapy with an ICI or with an agent directed to another stimulatory or co-inhibitory T-cell receptor (e.g., CTLA-4, OX 40, CD137) and was discontinued from treatment due to a grade 3 or higher adverse event.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Adenocarcinoma
• Cancer of Stomach
• Gastric Adenocarcinoma
• Gastric Cancer
• Gastroesophageal Junction Adenocarcinoma
• Stomach Adenocarcinoma
• Stomach Cancer
• Stomach Neoplasms

Intervention

Biological:
• IMU-131
IMU-131 will be administered intramuscularly into the deltoid region of the arm on Day 1, 15, 29 and 57 and then every 63 days until disease progression or treatment discontinuation.

Drug:
• Ramucirumab plus Paclitaxel
Chemotherapy to be administered every 3 weeks (Q3W) starting on Day 1.

Biological:
• Pembrolizumab
Pembrolizumab will be administered every 3 weeks (Q3W) starting on Day 1 until disease progression or treatment discontinuation.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Australia	Southern Medical Day Care Centre	Wollongong	New South Wales
Australia	The Queen Elizabeth Hospital	Woodville South	South Australia
Taiwan	Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital	Kaohsiung City
Taiwan	National Cheng Kung University Hospital	Tainan City
Taiwan	National Taiwan University Hospital	Taipei
Taiwan	Taipei Veterans General Hospital	Taipei
Taiwan	Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou	Taoyuan City

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Imugene Limited

Countries where clinical trial is conducted

Australia,  Taiwan, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Exploratory Outcome: Humoral immunogenicity	Evaluated by P467-specific antibodies and HER2-specific antibodies	From date of enrollment until the date of first documented progression or date of death from any cause, an average of 6 months
Other	Exploratory Outcome: Cellular immunogenicity assessed by multiplex immunoassay	Evaluated by vaccine-specific IL-12p70, IFN-gamma, IL-10, IL-2 and TNF-alpha cytokine levels measured in pg/ml	From date of enrollment until the date of first documented progression or date of death from any cause, an average of 6 months
Other	Exploratory Outcome: Associations between clinical outcome and HER2/neu, PD-L1 expression	Analysis of HER2/neu and PD-L1 expression in pre- and post-treatment tumor biopsies/liquid biopsies (ctDNA/NGS)	From date of enrollment through study completion, an average of 6 months
Primary	Frequency and Severity of Treatment-Emergent Adverse Events [safety and tolerability] of HER-Vaxx in combination with chemotherapy or pembrolizumab	Treatment-Emergent Adverse Events [safety and tolerability] will be graded according to CTCAE v5.0	From date of enrollment through study completion, an average of 6 months
Primary	Objective Response Rate of HER-Vaxx in combination with chemotherapy or pembrolizumab	Objective Response Rate (ORR) measured from enrollment as the proportion of patients achieving a confirmed best overall response of complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) according to RECIST 1.1	From date of enrollment until the date of first documented progression or date of death from any cause, an average of 6 months
Secondary	Overall Survival	Overall Survival (OS) is defined as the time from first dose of study drug to death due from any cause.	From date of enrollment until the date of death from any cause, an average of 1 year
Secondary	Progression Free Survival	Progression Free Survival (PFS) defined as the time from first dose of study drug to first documentation of progressive disease (PD) based on RECIST 1.1, or to death from any cause	From date of enrollment until the date of first documented progression or date of death from any cause, an average of 6 months
Secondary	Duration of Response	Duration of Response (DoR) measured from earliest CR or PR until first documentation of PD based on RECIST 1.1 or death due to any cause.	From date of earliest CR or PR until the date of first documented progression or date of death from any cause, an average of 3 months

External Links

•   Imugene Limited (ASX: IMU) is a publicly-listed Australian biotechnology company developing cancer immunotherapies.