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Efficacy and safety of geptanolimab (GB226) for relapsed/refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma: an open-label phase II study (Gxplore-003)

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Abstract

Background

This study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of geptanolimab (GB226), a fully humanized, recombinant anti-programmed cell death-1 monoclonal antibody, in Chinese patients with refractory or relapsed (r/r) primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL).

Methods

This was a multicenter, open-label, single-arm phase II study (Gxplore-003), conducted at 43 hospitals in China (NCT03639181). Patients received geptanolimab intravenously at a dose of 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks until documented confirmed disease progression, intolerable toxicity, or any other cessation criteria was met. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) in the full analysis set assessed by the independent review committee (IRC) according to the Lugano Classification 2014.

Results

This study was prematurely terminated due to the slow rate of patient accrual. Between Oct 15th, 2018 and Oct 7th, 2020, 25 patients were enrolled and treated. By the data cutoff date on Dec 23rd, 2020, the IRC-assessed ORR was 68.0% (17/25; 95% confidence interval [CI] 46.5–85.1%), with the complete response rate of 24%. The disease control rate was 88% (22/25; 95%CI 68.8–97.5%). Median duration of response was not reached (NR) (95%CI, 5.62 months to NR), with 79.5% of patients having response durations of more than 12 months. Median progression-free survival was NR (95%CI, 6.83 months to NR). Treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) were reported in 20 of 25 (80.0%) patients, and grade 3 or higher TRAEs occurred in 11 of 25 (44%) patients. No treatment-related deaths occurred. The immune-related adverse events (irAEs) of any grade were observed in 6 (24.0%) patients, and no grade 4 or grade 5 irAEs were reported.

Conclusion

Geptanolimab (GB226) demonstrated promising efficacy and a manageable safety profile in Chinese patients with r/r PMBCL.

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Data availability

Data generated and analyzed in this study are on file with Genor Biopharma Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China and are not publicly available according to the company.

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Acknowledgements

We thank for all the patients and their families, all the investigators and study teams that contributed to this study. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Haizhu Chen (National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, China) for providing medical writing assistance with this article, funded by Genor Biopharma Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China.

Funding

This study was funded by Genor Biopharma Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China and partly supported by China National Major Project for New Drug Innovation (2017ZX09304015).

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

YKS was the leading principal investigator, and contributed to the conceptualization and design of this study, study supervision, data acquisition and interpretation, manuscript writing and revision. YKS, JC, HZ, XHZ, LQZ, JNC, YHG, CJ, XLL, HL, ZGP, LPX, HLZ, WHZ, HYZ, LYZ and FZ contributed to patient recruitment and data acquisition. GG and WDH contributed to data collection, data analysis and data interpretation. All authors had full access to the data in this study, reviewed and approved the final version for submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuankai Shi.

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Conflict of interest

Genny Guo and Wenduo He are employees of Genor Biopharma Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval

This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and International Council for Harmonisation guidelines for Good Clinical Practice. The study protocol, amendments, and patient informed consent were approved by the independent ethics committee at each participating hospital.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all patients before screening.

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Shi, Y., Cui, J., Zhou, H. et al. Efficacy and safety of geptanolimab (GB226) for relapsed/refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma: an open-label phase II study (Gxplore-003). Cancer Immunol Immunother 72, 2991–3002 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-023-03467-7

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