Antitumor immune effects of preoperative sitravatinib and nivolumab in oral cavity cancer: SNOW window-of-opportunity study

• Published in: Journal for immunotherapy of cancer 2021-10, Vol.9 (10), p.e003476
• Main Authors: Oliva, Marc, Chepeha, Douglas, Araujo, Daniel V, Diaz-Mejia, J. Javier, Olson, Peter, Prawira, Amy, Spreafico, Anna, Bratman, Scott V, Shek, Tina, de Almeida, John, R Hansen, Aaron, Hope, Andrew, Goldstein, David, Weinreb, Ilan, Smith, Stephen, Perez-Ordoñez, Bayardo, Irish, Jonathan, Torti, Dax, Bruce, Jeffrey P., Wang, Ben X., Fortuna, Anthony, Pugh, Trevor J., Der-Torossian, Hirak, Shazer, Ronald, Attanasio, Nickolas, Au, Qingyan, Tin, Antony, Feeney, Jordan, Sethi, Himanshu, Aleshin, Alexey, Chen, Isan, Siu, Lillian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Anilides - pharmacology; Anilides - therapeutic use; Anorexia; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols - pharmacology; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols - therapeutic use; Cancer; clinical trials as topic; Clinical/Translational Cancer Immunotherapy; Drug dosages; Female; Head & neck cancer; head and neck neoplasms; Human papillomavirus; Humans; Hypertension; Hypoxia; Immunotherapy; Ligands; macrophages; Male; Metastasis; Middle Aged; Monoclonal antibodies; Mouth Neoplasms - drug therapy; Nivolumab - pharmacology; Nivolumab - therapeutic use; Ostomy; Patients; Preoperative Period; Pyridines - pharmacology; Pyridines - therapeutic use; Radiation therapy; Regulatory approval; Surgery; Targeted cancer therapy; Thrombocytopenia; Tongue; Tracheotomy; tumor biomarkers; Tumors
• ISSN: 2051-1426; 2051-1426
• DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2021-003476

BackgroundSitravatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets TYRO3, AXL, MERTK and the VEGF receptor family, is predicted to increase the M1 to M2-polarized tumor-associated macrophages ratio in the tumor microenvironment and have synergistic antitumor activity in combination with anti-programmed death-1/ligand-1 agents. SNOW is a window-of-opportunity study designed to evaluate the immune and molecular effects of preoperative sitravatinib and nivolumab in patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.MethodsPatients with newly-diagnosed untreated T2-4a, N0-2 or T1 >1 cm-N2 oral cavity carcinomas were eligible. All patients received sitravatinib 120 mg daily from day 1 up to 48 hours pre-surgery and one dose of nivolumab 240 mg on day 15. Surgery was planned between day 23 and 30. Standard of care adjuvant radiotherapy was given based on clinical stage. Tumor photographs, fresh tumor biopsies and blood samples were collected at baseline, at day 15 after sitravatinib alone, and at surgery after sitravatinib–nivolumab combination. Tumor flow cytometry, multiplex immunofluorescence staining and single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) were performed on tumor biopsies to study changes in immune-cell populations. Tumor whole-exome sequencing and circulating tumor DNA and cell-free DNA were evaluated at each time point.ResultsTen patients were included. Grade 3 toxicity occurred in one patient (hypertension); one patient required sitravatinib dose reduction, and one patient required discontinuation and surgery delay due to G2 thrombocytopenia. Nine patients had clinical-to-pathological downstaging, with one complete response. Independent pathological treatment response (PTR) assessment confirmed a complete PTR and two major PTRs. With a median follow-up of 21 months, all patients are alive with no recurrence. Circulating tumor DNA and cell-free DNA dynamics correlated with clinical and pathological response and distinguished two patient groups with different tumor biological behavior after sitravatinib alone (1A) versus sitravatinib–nivolumab (1B). Tumor immunophenotyping and scRNAseq analyses revealed differential changes in the expression of immune cell populations and sitravatinib-targeted and hypoxia-related genes in group 1A vs 1B patients.ConclusionsThe SNOW study shows sitravatinib plus nivolumab is safe and leads to deep clinical and pathological responses in oral cavity carcinomas. Multi-omic biomarker analyses dissect the differential molecular ef