Podcast

Welcome back to the D.I.S.C.O., FDA’s Drug Information Soundcast in Clinical Oncology, Burst Edition, brought to you by FDA’s Division of Drug Information in partnership with FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence. Today we’ll provide a quick update on a recent FDA cancer drug approval.

On January 25, 2022, the FDA approved tebentafusp-tebn (brand name Kimmtrak), a bispecific gp100 peptide-HLA-directed CD3 T cell engager, for HLA-A*02:01-positive adult patients with unresectable or metastatic uveal melanoma.

Efficacy was evaluated in IMCgp100-202, a randomized, open-label, multicenter trial of 378 patients with metastatic uveal melanoma. Patients were required to be HLA-A*02:01 genotype positive identified by a central assay. Patients were excluded if prior systemic therapy or localized liver-directed therapy were administered. Prior surgical resection of oligometastatic disease was permitted. Patients with clinically significant cardiac disease or symptomatic, untreated brain metastases were excluded.

Patients were randomized 2:1 to receive tebentafusp-tebn or investigator’s choice of either pembrolizumab, ipilimumab, or dacarbazine. The main efficacy outcome measure was overall survival. An additional efficacy outcome was investigator-assessed progression-free survival per RECIST 1.1. Median overall survival was 21.7 months for patients treated with tebentafusp-tebn and 16 months in the investigator’s choice arm. Progression-free survival was 3.3 months for those receiving tebentafusp-tebn and 2.9 months in the investigator’s choice arm.

The most common adverse reactions reported in more than 30% of patients were cytokine release syndrome, rash, pyrexia, pruritus, fatigue, nausea, chills, abdominal pain, edema, hypotension, dry skin, headache, and vomiting. The most common laboratory abnormalities reported in more than 50% were decreased lymphocyte count, increased creatinine, increased glucose, increased aspartate aminotransferase, increased alanine aminotransferase, decreased hemoglobin, and decreased phosphate.

This review was conducted under Project Orbis, an initiative of the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence. Project Orbis provides a framework for concurrent submission and review of oncology drugs among international partners. The application reviews may be ongoing at the other regulatory agencies.

This review used the Real-Time Oncology Review pilot program, which streamlined data submission prior to the filing of the entire clinical application, and the Assessment Aid, a voluntary submission from the applicant to facilitate the FDA’s assessment.

Full prescribing information for these approvals can be found on the web at www.fda.gov/drugsatFDA.

Health care professionals should report serious adverse events to FDA’s MedWatch Reporting Program at www.fda.gov/medwatch.

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