Anetumab Ravtansine Shows Encouraging Activity in Multiple Solid Tumor Types

Anetumab ravtansine yielded manageable safety and encouraging antitumor activity in a study of heavily pretreated patients with mesothelin-expressing solid tumors (J Clin Oncol. 2020 Mar 26. Epub ahead of print).

A total of 148 adults with mesothelioma or ovarian, pancreatic, non–small-cell lung, and breast cancers were enrolled in the open-label, multi-center clinical trial led by Raffit Hassan, MD, Thoracic and GI Malignancies Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and clinical activity of anetumab ravtansine in patients with advanced, metastatic, or recurrent solid tumors expressing mesothelin.

This included 10 dose-escalation cohorts comprising 45 patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors given anetumab ravtansine 0.15 mg/kg to 7.5 mg/kg once every 3 weeks, and 6 expansion cohorts of patients with advanced, recurrent ovarian cancer or malignant mesothelioma given anetumab ravtansine 6.5 mg/kg once every 3 weeks (n = 32), 1.8 mg/kg once weekly (n = 35), and 2.2 mg/kg once weekly (n = 36).

Fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, anorexia, vomiting, peripheral sensory neuropathy, and keratitis/keratopathy were the most frequently reported drug-related adverse events, and no drug-related deaths occurred.

Ultimately, 1 patient had a complete response, 11 had partial responses, and 66 had stable disease.

Furthermore, patients with clinical activity had high levels of tumor mesothelin expression.

“Anetumab ravtansine exhibited a manageable safety and favorable pharmacokinetic profile with encouraging preliminary antitumor activity in heavily pretreated patients with mesothelin-expressing solid tumors,” Dr Hassan and colleagues stated.

“The results allowed for the determination of recommended doses, schedules, and patient populations for anetumab ravtansine in phase II studies they concluded.—Hina Porcelli