Abstract CT087: Phase I/II study of the WEE1 inhibitor adavosertib in combination with carboplatin in children with advanced malignancies: arm C of the AcSé-ESMART trial
Authors: Gatz Susanne A. , Harttrampf Anne C. , Brard Caroline , Bautista Francisco J. , André Nicolas , Abbou Samuel , Rubino Jonathan , Rondof Windy , Deloger Marc , Rübsam Marc , Hübschmann Daniel , Marshall Lynley V. , Nebchi Souad , Aerts Isabelle , Thebaud Estelle , De Carli Emilie , Defachelles Anne-Sophie , Paoletti Xavier , Godin Robert , Miah Kowser , Mortimer Peter G. , Vassal Gilles , Geoerger Birgit 
Published: April 2023

Background: AcSé-ESMART is a proof-of-concept, phase I/II platform trial designed to explore targeted agents in a molecularly enriched pediatric population. WEE1 plays a role in DNA repair and cell cycle control and is overexpressed in pediatric cancers. Adavosertib combinations resulted in enhanced antitumor activity compared to single agent in neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, medulloblastoma and high-grade glioma in vivo models. The efficacy and safety of the adavosertib-carboplatin combination has been established in adults with focus on TP53 mutated ovarian cancer. Arm C of AcSé-ESMART applied this regimen to children with advanced malignancies enriched for alterations in TP53, DNA repair/replication stress and cell cycle control.

Methods: Adavosertib was administered orally, twice daily on Days 1 to 3 and carboplatin intravenously on Day 1 of a 21-day cycle. Dose finding used the continuous reassessment method starting at adavosertib 100 mg/m2/dose and carboplatin AUC 5. Pharmacokinetic (PK) and retrospective molecular bioinformatic analysis was performed.

Results: Twenty patients (median age: 14.0 years, range 3.4-23.5) were included, 18 received a total of 69 cycles. Seven dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs) were observed leading to two de-escalations to adavosertib 75 mg/m2/dose and carboplatin AUC 4. All patients with DLT had thrombocytopenia grade 3/4 requiring transfusions for &gt;7 days and/or neutropenia grade 4 for &gt;7 days. Main overall treatment-related toxicities were hematologic and gastrointestinal. Based on the identified DLT risk, no recommended Phase 2 dose was defined. PK analysis demonstrated equivalent adavosertib exposure in children to that in adults and both doses (75 and 100 mg/m2) achieved the cell kill target. Two patients with neuroblastoma achieved partial response (PR), one with medulloblastoma unconfirmed PR, and five had stable disease (SD) &gt;4 cycles. Patients with PR/SD &gt;4 cycles were considered as clinical benefit (CB) for retrospective molecular analysis. There was no correlation between TP53 genomic alteration alone and response. However, 7 of 8 patients with CB but none of the 10 patients without CB had 1 to 3 genomic alterations in the DNA repair (BRCA2 mutation, 11q loss containing ATM, MRE11A, CHEK1), cell cycle control/replication stress (CCNE1 amplification, RB1 mutation/loss, SETD2 mutation/loss) and RAS pathway (KRAS mutation and amplification, NF1 loss, PTPN11 mutation) in their tumor.

Conclusions: Adavosertib combined with carboplatin exhibited significant hematologic toxicity. Activity signals and identified potential molecular biomarkers suggest further combination studies with less hematotoxic DNA damaging therapy in molecularly enriched pediatric cancers.

Citation Format: Susanne A. Gatz, Anne C. Harttrampf, Caroline Brard, Francisco J. Bautista, Nicolas André, Samuel Abbou, Jonathan Rubino, Windy Rondof, Marc Deloger, Marc Rübsam, Daniel Hübschmann, Lynley V. Marshall, Souad Nebchi, Isabelle Aerts, Estelle Thebaud, Emilie De Carli, Anne-Sophie Defachelles, Xavier Paoletti, Robert Godin, Kowser Miah, Peter G. Mortimer, Gilles Vassal, Birgit Geoerger. Phase I/II study of the WEE1 inhibitor adavosertib in combination with carboplatin in children with advanced malignancies: arm C of the AcSé-ESMART trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 2 (Clinical Trials and Late-Breaking Research); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(8_Suppl):Abstract nr CT087.