Early Trials in Melanoma Show Better Response After 1 Year

Richard D. Carvajal, MD, the director of Experimental Therapeutics and director of Melanoma Service at the Columbia University Medical Center, discusses 2 therapies in clinical trials registering patients with melanoma.

The first drug Carvajal talks about is called IDE196, and the other is called IMCgp100 or tebentafusp. IDE196 is a PKC inhibitor previously named LXS196, and it targets both a conventional and novel forms of PKC. In a previous clinical trial, a cohort of about 30 patients receiving this treatment on a twice daily schedule, the response rate was fairly modest; about a quarter of the patients were doing well after a year or more. He says this is fairly remarkable for this setting. IDE196 is now under evaluation in another clinical trial which will be trying to replicate or exceed these findings (NCT03947385).

IMCgp100 is a bispecific immunotherapy agent which targets TP100 in an HLA-restricted fashion; it also binds to CD3 and brings the CD3 cells in proximity with the tumor cells, according to Carvajal. The phase I trial investigating this drug recruited patients with HLA A2-positive malignant melanoma (NCT01211262). In previous trials, there has been a modest response rate, and over 70% of patients were alive at 1 year. He says compared to past control studies, this was much better.

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