Plinabulin/Nivolumab/Ipilimumab Combo Shows Preliminary Activity in SCLC

Jyoti Malhotra, MD, MPH, a medical oncologist at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and assistant professor of medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, discusses the preliminary efficacy signals of the combination therapy plinabulin, nivolumab (Opdivo), and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in patients with relapsed/refractory small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

Malhotra says there were promising efficacy signals observed in the 16 patients enrolled on the phase 1 trial (NCT03575793). There were 10 patients with immunotherapy-resistant SCLC and 6 patients had immunotherapy-naïve SCLC. Those with immunotherapy-naïve disease had a response rate of approximately 50%. Patients with immunotherapy-resistant disease had a promising 43% response rate, which was very exciting according to Malhotra.

Of note, patients who responded also had significant tumor reduction ranging from 45% to 99% in the first 2 to 3 weeks of treatment. Some of the data are still immature at the completion of the phase 1 portion of this trial. Malhotra says she is looking forward to seeing the survival benefits and other preliminary analyses. The single-arm phase 2 part of this study in patients with relapsed/refractory SCLC who have received prior checkpoint inhibition is ongoing to evaluate the preliminary signals of clinical activity and reduced immune toxicity.