An Integrated Analysis of Dostarlimab Immunogenicity

Dostarlimab: A promising new PD-1 inhibitor for cancer immunotherapy

OBJECTIVE

Dostarlimab, a humanized monoclonal PD-1 blocking antibody, is being tested as a cancer therapy in this review. Specifically, it addresses mismatch repair failure in endometrial cancer and locally progressed rectal cancer patients.

DATA SOURCES

A thorough database search found Dostarlimab clinical trials and studies. Published publications and ongoing clinical trials on Dostarlimab's efficacy as a single therapy and in conjunction with other medicines across cancer types were searched.

DATA SUMMARY

The review recommends Dostarlimab for endometrial cancer mismatch repair failure, as supported by GARNET studies. The analysis also highlights locally advanced rectal cancer findings. In the evolving area of cancer therapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors including pembrolizumab, avelumab, atezolizumab, nivolumab, and durvalumab were discussed.

CONCLUSIONS

Locally advanced rectal cancer patients responded 100% to Dostarlimab. Many clinical trials, including ROSCAN, AMBER, IOLite, CITRINO, JASPER, OPAL, PRIME, PERLA, and others, are investigating Dostarlimab in combination treatment. This research sheds light on Dostarlimab's current and future possibilities, in improving cancer immunotherapy understanding.

Treatment-emergent antidrug antibodies related to PD-1, PD-L1, or CTLA-4 inhibitors across tumor types: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Increased understanding of how the immune system regulates tumor growth has innovated the use of immunotherapeutics to treat various cancers. The impact of such therapies, including programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) inhibitors, on the production of antidrug antibodies (ADAs) and their impact on outcomes, is poorly understood. This study aims to evaluate the clinical trial evidence on ADA incidence associated with PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4 inhibitors in the treatment of cancer and to assess associations between treatment administered, ADA incidence, and treatment outcomes.

METHODS

Embase®, Medline®, and EBM Reviews were searched via the OVID® platform on February 15, 2022. Conference proceedings, clinical trial registries, and global regulatory and reimbursement body websites were also searched. Eligible publications included clinical trials enrolling patients receiving cancer treatment with either PD-1, PD-L1, or CTLA-4 reporting outcomes including incidence or prevalence of ADAs and the impact of immunogenicity on treatment safety and efficacy. Reference lists of eligible publications were also searched. The review was conducted and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and evidence quality assessment was conducted using the appropriate Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal tool.

RESULTS

After screening 4160 records and reviewing 97 full publications, a total of 34 publications reporting on 68 trials were included. A further 41 relevant clinical trials were identified on ClinicalTrials.gov and a further 32 from searches of packaging inserts. In total, 141 relevant trials covering 15 different checkpoint inhibitors and 16 different tumor types were included. Across the included trials, atezolizumab was associated with the highest incidence of ADAs (29.6% of 639 patients), followed by nivolumab (11.2% of 2,085 patients). Combination checkpoint inhibitor treatment appeared to increase the rate of ADAs versus monotherapy. Only 17 trials reported on the impact of ADAs on treatment outcomes with mixed results for the impact of ADAs on treatment efficacy, safety, and pharmacokinetics.

CONCLUSIONS

Checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of cancer are immunogenic, with the incidence of treatment-emergent ADAs varying between individual therapies. It remains unclear what impact ADAs have on treatment outcomes.

Immunogenicity of Cemiplimab: Low Incidence of Antidrug Antibodies and Cut-Point Suitability Across Tumor Types

The immunogenicity of cemiplimab, a fully human immunoglobulin G4 monoclonal antibody directed against programmed cell death 1, was assessed in patients across multiple tumor types. The development of antidrug antibodies (ADAs) against cemiplimab was monitored using a validated bridging immunoassay. To identify ADA-positive samples in the assay, statistically determined cut points were established by analyzing baseline clinical study samples from a mixed population of different tumor types, and this validation cut point was used to assess immunogenicity in all subsequent studies. Regulatory guidance requires that ADA assay cut points be verified for appropriateness in different patient populations. Thus, for the cemiplimab ADA assay, we evaluated whether each new oncology population was comparable with the validation population used to set the cut point. Assay responses from 2393 individual serum samples from 8 different tumor types were compared with the validation population, using established statistical methods for cut-point determination and comparison, with no significant differences observed. Across tumor types, the immunogenicity of cemiplimab was low, with an overall treatment-emergent ADA incidence rate of 1.9% and 2.5% at intravenous dose regimens of 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks and 350 mg every 3 weeks, respectively. Moreover, no neutralizing antibodies to cemiplimab were detected in patients with ADA-positive samples, and there was no observed impact of cemiplimab ADAs on pharmacokinetics. Study-specific cut points may be required in some diseases, such as immune and inflammatory diseases; however, based on this analysis, in-study cut points are not required for each new oncology disease indication for cemiplimab.

Dostarlimab: From preclinical investigation to drug approval and future directions

Immune checkpoint blockers (ICB) act by reverting the immunosuppressive phenotype of cancer cells, thus allowing host immune system to generate an immune response to the tumor. One of the key mechanisms targeted by ICB is the PD-1/PD-L1 axis, which lies onto the interaction between the programmed-cell death protein 1 and its ligand, overexpressed in several tumor types. This interaction leads to the inhibition of T-cell proliferation and their apoptosis and exhaustion. Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies are now the mainstay of treatment for several advanced stage tumors. Dostarlimab is a novel IgG4 anti-PD-1 antibody which has yielded remarkable results in mismatch-repair deficient endometrial cancer and locally advanced rectal cancer. This product review will illustrate the preclinical development of dostarlimab and its pharmacological characteristics, the clinical trials published so far and the ongoing clinical investigations.

Promise of dostarlimab in cancer therapy: Advancements and cross-talk considerations

In recent years, immunotherapy for cancer treatment using monoclonal antibodies has shown clinical success, particularly with programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligand programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1). Dostarlimab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, interacts with adaptive immunity by binding to human PD-1, inhibiting PD-L1 and PD-L2 interactions, and cross-talk with adaptive immunity. Recent clinical trials have shown that dostarlimab is effective in treating mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR) in endometrial cancer patients, leading to its approval in the United States and the European Union in 2021. This article provides a comprehensive overview of dostarlimab, its therapeutic ability, and the different indications for which it is being used. Dostarlimab could serve as a potential alternative to many cancer treatments that frequently have severe consequences on patients' quality of life. Teaser The comprehensive story behind dostarlimab is how it cured all 18 cancer patients who took part in the experimental clinical trial, ultimately leading to its approval by the US FDA.

Dostarlimab an Inhibitor of PD-1/PD-L1: A New Paradigm for the Treatment of Cancer

Immunomodulation checkpoints usually adopted by healthy cells by tumors might cause an imbalance between host surveillance and tumor progression. Several tumors are incredibly resistant to standard treatment. The dynamic and long-lasting tumor regressions caused by antibodies targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint have suggested a rebalancing of the host-tumor relationship. Checkpoint antibody inhibitors, like anti-PD-1/PD-L1, are unique inhibitors that reduce tumor growth by modulating the interaction between immune cells and tumor cells. These checkpoint inhibitors are swiftly emerging as a highly promising strategy for treating cancer because they produce impressive antitumor responses while having a limited number of adverse effects. Over the past several years, numerous checkpoint antibody inhibitors pointing to PD-1, PDL-1, and CTLA-4 have been available on the market. Despite its enormous success and usefulness, the anti-PD treatment response is restricted to certain kinds of cancer. This restriction can be attributed to the inadequate and diverse PD-1 expression in the tumor (MET) micro-environment. Dostarlimab (TSR-042), a drug that interferes with the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway, eliminates a crucial inhibitory response of an immune system and, as a result, has the potential to cause severe or deadly immune-mediated adverse effects. As cancer immunotherapy, dostarlimab enhances the antitumor immune response of the body.

Dostarlimab as a Miracle Drug: Rising Hope against Cancer Treatment

Immunotherapy is one of the four pillars of cancer treatment that has recently emerged as a beacon of hope for cancer patients. Certain immunotherapies, for example, immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, monoclonal antibody therapy and chimeric antigen T-cell therapy have garnered extensive interest in response to their exceptional properties that activate the immune system to respond to cancer cells, inhibiting their progression. In the era of rapid development, dostarlimab, an anti-programmed cell death protein (PD-1) monoclonal antibody has mesmerized the medical profession by showing complete (100%) cure of patients with colorectal cancer. Not only this, the results obtained from clinical trials revealed no major side effects in any of the participants in the study. Dostarlimab has also shown promising results in endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, melanoma, head and neck cancer, and breast cancer therapy. This review focuses upon the action of immunotherapy, extensively emphasizing the miraculous therapy to activate T-cells for cancer treatment. Based on this, we discuss major ongoing clinical trials and combination immunotherapies to enlighten future clinicians and researchers about the response of dostarlimab against various cancers.

Dostarlimab: A Review

Dostarlimab (JEMPERLI) is a PD-1 monoclonal antibody for the treatment of adult patients, with mismatch repair deficient (dMMR), recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer that has progressed on or following prior therapy with a platinum-containing regimen. As determined by an FDA-approved test this indication was granted rapid approval based on the rate of tumor response and the duration of the response. Continued approval for this indication is conditioned on further confirmatory trials demonstrating and documenting clinical benefit. In June 2022, the clinical trial NCT04165772 reported a 100% remission rate for rectal cancer. This clinical trial brought proof that we can match a tumor and the genetics of what is driving it, with therapy. This clinical trial continues to enroll patient and is currently enrolling patients with gastric, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. Dostarlamib is being recommended for rectal cancer. The focus of this review is to summarize the existing knowledge regarding Dostarlimab and explore the possibilities of mono- and combination therapies.

The Impact of the Microbiome on Resistance to Cancer Treatment with Chemotherapeutic Agents and Immunotherapy

Understanding the mechanisms of resistance to therapy in human cancer cells has become a multifaceted limiting factor to achieving optimal cures in cancer patients. Besides genetic and epigenetic alterations, enhanced DNA damage repair activity, deregulation of cell death, overexpression of transmembrane transporters, and complex interactions within the tumor microenvironment, other mechanisms of cancer treatment resistance have been recently proposed. In this review, we will summarize the preclinical and clinical studies highlighting the critical role of the microbiome in the efficacy of cancer treatment, concerning mainly chemotherapy and immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors. In addition to involvement in drug metabolism and immune surveillance, the production of microbiota-derived metabolites might represent the link between gut/intratumoral bacteria and response to anticancer therapies. Importantly, an emerging trend of using microbiota modulation by probiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to overcome cancer treatment resistance will be also discussed.

A bridging assay for detection and characterization of anti-drug antibodies to dostarlimab, a new anti-PD-1 therapeutic monoclonal antibody

Dostarlimab (JEMPERLI) is a humanized anti-programmed death 1 (PD-1) immunoglobulin (Ig)G4-kappa monoclonal antibody that binds to the PD-1 receptor and competitively inhibits binding of its ligands, PD-L1 and PD-L2. Dostarlimab was recently approved in the USA and the European Union. Because dostarlimab is a macromolecular therapeutic, it has the potential to elicit the formation of anti-drug antibodies, which have the capability to impact the drug’s safety and efficacy and to alter pharmacokinetics. The immunogenic potential of dostarlimab remains unknown, and it was therefore necessary to develop analytical assays to detect and characterize anti-drug antibodies as a key component in the mitigation of immunogenicity risk. Here, we present the development and optimization of a 3-tiered electrochemiluminescense bridging assay for the investigation of dostarlimab clinical immunogenicity. In this work, the full details of the method, statistical data analysis and cut point determinations, assay performance during clinical sample analysis, and associated regulatory expectations are discussed. The full validation of this 3-tier anti-drug antibody assay enabled dostarlimab immunogenicity evaluation in clinical studies. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02715284. Registered 9 March 2016