a study of bempegaldesleukin (bempeg: nktr-214) in combination with nivolumab in children, adolescents and young adults with recurrent or treatment-resistant cancer

Conditions: Ependymoma; Ewing Sarcoma; High-grade Glioma; Leukemia and Lymphoma; Medulloblastoma; Miscellaneous Brain Tumors; Miscellaneous Solid Tumors; Neuroblastoma; Relapsed, Refractory Malignant Neoplasms; Rhabdomyosarcoma

Summary: the purpose of this study is to first, in part a, assess the safety, tolerability and drug levels of bempegaldesleukin (bempeg) in combination with nivolumab and then, in part b, to estimate the preliminary efficacy in children, adolescents and young adults with recurrent or treatment-resistant cancer.


Eligibility criteria:
inclusion criteria: * age \< 18 years for part a and part b * age up to 30 years for part b cohorts b2, b3 and b4 * must have received standard of care therapy and there must be no potentially curative treatment available * histologically confirmed with malignant neoplasms that are refractory, relapsed, or curative treatments are lacking * must have measurable or evaluable disease based on response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (recist) v1.1 for solid tumors, response assessment in neuro-oncology (rano) or response assessment in pediatric neuro-oncology (rapno) for central nervous system tumors, international pediatric non-hodgkin lymphoma response criteria for non-hodgkin lymphoma (nhl), revised international neuroblastoma response criteria (inrc) for neuroblastoma, modified national comprehensive cancer network (nccn) criteria for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and modified cheson et al international working group criteria for acute myeloid leukemia * lansky play score for age ≤ 16 years or karnofsky performance score for age \> 16 years assessed within 2 weeks of enrollment must be ≥ 60 exclusion criteria: * osteosarcoma, t-cell/natural killer (nk) cell leukemia/lymphoma, and hodgkin's lymphoma * need for \> 2 antihypertensive medications for management of hypertension (including diuretics) * known cardiovascular history, including unstable or deteriorating cardiac disease, within the previous 12 months prior to screening * inadequately treated adrenal insufficiency * active, known, or suspected autoimmune disease * active infection requiring systemic therapy within 14 days prior to first dose * condition requiring systemic treatment with either corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive medications within 14 days of start of study treatment * prior allogeneic stem cell transplant * previous severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) infection either suspected or confirmed within 4 weeks prior to screening other protocol-defined inclusion/exclusion criteria apply

Keywords: b-cell leukemia/lymphoma/non-hodgkin lymphoma (nhl) bempeg bempegaldesleukin cd122-biased agonist cd122-biased cytokine check point inhibitor ependymoma ewing sarcoma high-grade glioma (hgg)/diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (dipg) immunotherapy il-2 il-2 receptor agonist leukemia and lymphoma medulloblastoma melanoma miscellaneous brain tumors miscellaneous solid tumors neuroblastoma nivolumab nktr-214 nivo non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft-tissue sarcomas opdivo® pediatric cancer pediatric malignancy rhabdomyosarcoma