Cemiplimab for Cisplatin Resistant Metastatic Penile Cancer

Abstract

We report on a 75-year old man who presented with metastatic, squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC) of the penis whose disease had progressed after radiotherapy (RT) and cisplatin-based chemotherapy (CT). A strong PD-L1 expression as well as a CDKN2A mutation was documented, and he was given cemiplimab every 3 weeks at time of disease progression. Complete response (CR) was demonstrated after 10 cycles, and no toxicity was reported. However, this treatment was stopped after 13 cycles when the patient developed moderate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonitis which required a 2-week hospitalization for oxygen support. Six months later, he remains in CR. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a CR with cemiplimab in a metastatic penile SCC patient previously treated with CT and RT for relapse. Furthermore, the patient remains disease-free despite cemiplimab was withdrawn due to SARS-CoV-2 pneumonitis.

Simultaneous and Spatially-Resolved Analysis of T-Lymphocytes, Macrophages and PD-L1 Immune Checkpoint in Rare Cancers

“…Different mechanisms of immune evasion have been studied in penile [ 11 , 21 , 53 , 54 ] vulvar [ 14 , 18 , 20 , 55 ] and anal cancers [ 17 , 19 ], and included immune checkpoint proteins and exhausted phenotypes for infiltrating-lymphocytes, suggesting that patients with these type of tumors can benefit from anti PD-L1 therapy [ 9 , 27 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ]. Currently, there are several clinical trials ongoing for the use of immune therapy targeting PD-L1 (or its receptor PD-1) as treatment for penile, vulvar or anal cancer [ 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 ]. Therefore, multiplexed immunofluorescence and an objective analysis of the tumor microenvironment may contribute significantly to improve the understanding of different therapeutic targets when the access to biological material is reduced or limited.…”

Sintilimab-Induced Diabetic Ketoacidosis in a Patient with Radiation and Multichemorefractory Penile Cancer: A Case Report and Literature Review

“…Several ICIs, such as nivolumab [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], atezolizumab [ 13 ], pembrolizmab [ 14 , 15 ], cemiplimab [ 16 ], and toripalimab [ 17 ], have been experimentally utilized as single second-line agents to treat metastatic penile cancer. Comfortingly, most of the patients in these case reports presented with a partial response or a near-complete response.…”

Sintilimab-Induced Diabetic Ketoacidosis in A Patient with Radiation and Multichemorefractory Penile Cancer: A Case Report and Literature Review

“…Baweja et al [9] report a case of metastatic penile cancer with a dramatic treatment response to ipilimumab and nivolumab, whose tumor molecular profiling showed a high PD-L1 expression, TMB and microsatellite instability. There are also nine patients with metastatic-relapsed penile cancer reported documenting use of immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as nivolumab [10,11], atezolizumab [11], pembrolizmab [12,13] or cemiplimab [14] in few case reports. Comfortingly, six patients presented with partial response or nearcomplete response.…”