Peripheral T Cell Determinants of Response and Resistance to Pembrolizumab in Melanoma

Sponsor
University of California, San Francisco (Other)
Overall Status
Recruiting
CT.gov ID
NCT05105100
Collaborator
Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC (Industry)
25
1
58
0.4

Study Details

Study Description

Brief Summary

This is a non-therapeutic study assessing peripheral T cell determinants of response and resistance to immunotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma.The hypothesis is that systemic T cells traffic into the tumor microenvironment (TME) can predict response and resistance to immunotherapy. These systemic tumor directed T cells can be defined by tumor/blood small conditional RNA (scRNA) using T cell receptor (TCR) as a barcode and can help predict response to PD-1 therapy.

Condition or Disease Intervention/Treatment Phase
  • Procedure: Biopsy
  • Procedure: Biospecimen Collection

Detailed Description

Primary Objective:

To understand how the systemic immune profile (T cell activation and expansion in TME) changes in response to pembrolizumab therapy in patients with advanced melanoma on pembrolizumab monotherapy.

Exploratory Objectives :
  1. To correlate the peripheral T cell profiles with the objective response rate (ORR) at 24 weeks in patients with advanced melanoma on pembrolizumab monotherapy.

  2. To correlate the peripheral T cell profiles with progression free survival (PFS) in patients with advanced melanoma on pembrolizumab monotherapy.

  3. To correlate the peripheral T cell profiles with overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced melanoma on pembrolizumab monotherapy.

  4. To correlate the peripheral T cell profiles with toxicity profile. V. Transcriptional and phenotypic features of tumor directed T cells in blood using a combination of phenotypic markers derived from COMET and cite-seq.

Patients will be followed for 6 months from time of treatment initiation. After 6 months, patients do not need to be followed but standard of care scans and survival status can be assessed for up to 5 years.

Study Design

Study Type:
Observational
Anticipated Enrollment :
25 participants
Observational Model:
Cohort
Time Perspective:
Prospective
Official Title:
Peripheral T Cell Determinants of Response and Resistance to Pembrolizumab in Melanoma
Actual Study Start Date :
Oct 29, 2021
Anticipated Primary Completion Date :
Aug 28, 2026
Anticipated Study Completion Date :
Aug 28, 2026

Arms and Interventions

Arm Intervention/Treatment
Participants with Melanoma

Participants will undergo a pre-treatment tumor core biopsy and Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) collection. Then, patients will be started on pembrolizumab per standard of care and PBMCs will be collected every 3 weeks (1 cycle)

Procedure: Biopsy
Tumor tissue collection
Other Names:
  • Excisional Biopsy
  • Procedure: Biospecimen Collection
    Intravenously Blood draw
    Other Names:
  • Specimen Collection
  • Outcome Measures

    Primary Outcome Measures

    1. Number of genes predictive of response at Baseline [Baseline]

      The investigators will identify the genes predictive of response to anti-PD-1 therapy by testing for significant associations across expression rates of each gene and response/resistance, within a hurdle-Gaussian mixed-effect framework that accounts for variance across patients and technical noise present in single-cell data.

    2. Number of genes predictive of response at 24 weeks [24 weeks]

      The investigators will identify the genes predictive of response to anti-PD-1 therapy by testing for significant associations across expression rates of each gene and response/resistance, within a hurdle-Gaussian mixed-effect framework that accounts for variance across patients and technical noise present in single-cell data.

    3. Number of T-cell sub-populations [Baseline and 24 weeks]

      The investigators will identify T cell sub-populations in the tumor-directed component in blood whose relative frequency is indicative of response to anti-PD-1 therapy, using a negative binomial regression model. We will test for predictive differences in relative frequencies before and after treatment initiation separately, as well as when combining both time points with appropriate interaction terms

    4. Proportion of participants with a change in clonal expansion of T cells associated with response to anti-PD-1 therapy [24 weeks]

      The investigators will build a novel computational framework to identify T-cell clonal behavior associated with response to anti-PD-1 therapy using profiling of TCR sequences at single-cell resolution to compare clonal expansion in each of the sub-populations for their association with response to anti-PD-1 therapy.

    5. Proportion of participants with a change in distribution of T cells associated with response to anti-PD-1 therapy [24 weeks]

      The investigators will build a novel computational framework to identify T-cell clonal behavior associated with response to anti-PD-1 therapy using profiling of TCR sequences at single-cell resolution to compare distribution of T cells in each of the sub-populations for their association with response to anti-PD-1 therapy.

    6. Number of transcriptional migration events [24 weeks]

      The investigators will search for "transcriptional migration" events, in which T cell clones change their transcriptional profile following treatment and will assess the predictive power of such events to the success of anti-PD-1 therapy.

    Eligibility Criteria

    Criteria

    Ages Eligible for Study:
    18 Years and Older
    Sexes Eligible for Study:
    All
    Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
    No
    Inclusion Criteria:
    1. Patients must have histologically confirmed locally advanced or metastatic melanoma and be starting on standard of care pembrolizumab monotherapy. Patients may have received any or no prior anti-cancer therapy without limitation.

    2. Must have one or more sites of disease amenable to biopsy (tumor, skin, lymph node, pleural fluid, peritoneal fluid, cerebral spinal fluid (CSF)).

    3. Have measurable disease based on Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1. Lesions situated in a previously irradiated area are considered measurable if progression has been demonstrated in such lesions.

    4. Participants must be age 18 years or older on the day of signing informed consent.

    5. Have the ability to provide written informed consent for the trial.

    6. Be able and willing to comply with study procedures including provision of basic demographic information and medical history.

    7. Be willing to receive periodic follow up phone calls to monitor health status and survival status.

    Exclusion Criteria:
    1. Has received prior therapy with an anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, or anti PD L2 agent or with an agent directed to another stimulatory or co-inhibitory T-cell receptor (e.g., cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), OX 40, Cluster of Differentiation 137 (CD137)).

    2. Has received prior systemic anti-cancer therapy including investigational agents within the prior 2 weeks.

    3. Has a diagnosis of immunodeficiency or is receiving chronic systemic steroid therapy (in dosing exceeding 10 mg daily of prednisone equivalent) or any other form of immunosuppressive therapy within 7 days prior to the first dose of study drug.

    4. Has a contraindication to tissue biopsy for minimally-invasive research-procedure

    5. Contraindication to phlebotomy (up to 20 milliliters (mL)) per phlebotomy every three weeks).

    Contacts and Locations

    Locations

    Site City State Country Postal Code
    1 University of California, San Francisco San Francisco California United States 94143

    Sponsors and Collaborators

    • University of California, San Francisco
    • Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC

    Investigators

    • Principal Investigator: Adil Daud, MD, University of California, San Francisco

    Study Documents (Full-Text)

    None provided.

    More Information

    Publications

    None provided.
    Responsible Party:
    University of California, San Francisco
    ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
    NCT05105100
    Other Study ID Numbers:
    • 21853
    First Posted:
    Nov 3, 2021
    Last Update Posted:
    Nov 17, 2021
    Last Verified:
    Nov 1, 2021
    Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:
    No
    Plan to Share IPD:
    No
    Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product:
    No
    Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product:
    No
    Keywords provided by University of California, San Francisco
    Additional relevant MeSH terms:

    Study Results

    No Results Posted as of Nov 17, 2021