A phase II study of PRV111 nanoengineered cisplatin patch as a neoadjuvant therapy for early-stage oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Abstract

6056 Background: OSCC is a devastating disease causing substantial morbidity and mortality. Despite advancements in the conventional therapeutic approaches, surgical resection often leads to permanent disfigurement, while radiotherapies and systemic platinum-based chemotherapy result in significant toxicities, affecting patient wellbeing and quality of life. Thus, development of novel therapeutic approaches is paramount to improve health outcomes and survival of patients with OSCC. Systemic toxicity is often dose limiting, but could be tentatively reduced by locoregional administration. We have developed PRV111, a nanotechnology based patch for local and regional delivery of highly concentrated potent cisplatin, designed to penetrate tumor tissue, reach and enter regional lymph nodes and avoid systemic circulation. Here we present the results of phase 1/2 CLN-001 trial, designed to improve efficacy and reduce toxicity by neoadjuvant treatment with PRV111. Methods: A phase 1/2, single arm, open-label CLN-001 (NCT03502148) study has enrolled 12 patients with confirmed OSCC; unknown nodal involvement, no distant metastasis, and tumor size ≤ 4.0 cm. Three weeks prior to surgery, patients were administered 1 cycle of standalone neoadjuvant PRV111, consisting of up to 4 treatment visits (each visit dose: ≤12mg of cisplatin, each patch loading dose: 2mg of cisplatin). The primary endpoints were safety, efficacy and tumor reduction in ̃ 7 days by greater than 30%. Secondary endpoints included nanoengineered patch consistent and complete adhesion to mucosal surfaces and uniform drug release. Exploratory endpoints included immunogenesis/immunomodulation. Results: PRV111 successfully met all clinical primary endpoints, as well as safety and efficacy objectives. It caused over 70% tumor reduction in ̃7 days with over 87% response rate across 10 subjects. No dose-limiting toxicities, serious adverse event, or systemic toxicities were reported and no locoregional recurrences were evident in 6 months. PRV111 induced ̃15 times increase in tumor infiltrating lymphocytes compared with the initial biopsy. Concentrations of cisplatin found in the tumor and regional lymph nodes were over 300 and 100 times higher respectively as compared with IV cisplatin, with only negligible amount of cisplatin found in the blood. Grade 1 or 2 oral and tongue pain induced by the treatment were the most common adverse events. Furthermore, 97.5% successful patch performance was achieved across 182 patches used in the study. Conclusions: Adding neoadjuvent PRV111 to the care for patients with OSCC may improve the surgical outcome and increase event free survival. Given these encouraging results, future studies are needed to establish the application of this non-invasive platform in head and neck SCC and other epithelial cancers, including anal, colorectal, genitourinary, nasal, and skin. Clinical trial information: NCT03502148.

A nanoengineered topical transmucosal cisplatin delivery system induces anti-tumor response in animal models and patients with oral cancer

“…Several strategies for local cisplatin delivery, including polymeric NP drug carriers, have been developed to improve the OCSCC treatment efficacy and ameliorate systemic toxicities induced by intravenous administration 14 , 16 , 21 , 55 – 60 . While some nanocarrier-based cisplatin delivery systems demonstrated better tolerability and improved therapeutic efficacy in vivo 21 , 61 – 63 , only a few were tested in clinical trial settings 64 , 65 and none have achieved FDA-approval. Among the challenges that hinder clinical applicability of polymeric mucosal drug delivery systems (DDSs), is their limited ability to penetrate the epithelium deep enough to eliminate cancer cells remaining underneath superficial tumor layers 66 , 67 .…”

“…Taken together, this study indicates that PRV111 is an effective and safe method for delivering local cisplatin. As PRV111 mucoadhesive system can be engineered with a particular CLP release profile to tailor different clinical applications 17 , 65 , it lays the groundwork for its potential incorporation as a clinical management tool not only for OCSCC, but also other mucosal malignancies.…”

Cisplatin-based miRNA delivery strategy inspired by the circCPNE1/miR-330-3p pathway for oral squamous cell carcinoma

“…Importantly, it was found that localized delivery of cisplatin has the potential to "intercept" cancer development, thereby preventing the emergence of fully developed OSCC with multiple resistance mechanisms 18 . A phase I/II study of PRV 111 (a transmucosal cisplatin delivery system) in 10 subjects with OSCC demonstrated a response rate of over 87%, tumor reduction of over 70% within 7 days, and no systemic toxicity 19 . Recently, the effects of cisplatin on the tumor microenvironment (TME) have been widely studied, leading to a growing interest in the development of DDSs that improve the efficacy and safety of cisplatin 20 .…”