A Phase II, Open-Label, Study of Subcutaneous Canakinumab, an Anti-IL-1β Human Monoclonal Antibody, for Patients With Low or Int-1 Risk IPSS/IPSS-R Myelodysplastic Syndromes and Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia CANAKINUMAB

What's the purpose of this trial?

This phase II trial studies how well canakinumab works for the treatment of low- or intermediate-risk myelodysplastic syndrome or chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. Canakinumab is a monoclonal antibody that may interfere with the ability of cancer cells to grow and spread.

This trial is currently open and accepting patients.


What will happen during the trial?

You may be able to join this trial if you:

The following criteria is a partial list of reasons why patients may be eligible to participate in this clinical trial. Further evaluation with a medical professional is required.

  • Age ≥ 18 years as MDS and CCUS are very rare conditions in the pediatric setting.
  • Cohorts 1-3: Diagnosis of MDS according to WHO 2016 classification and low or intermediate-1 risk by IPSS or IPSS-R with a score of ≤ 3.5.
  • Cohort 4: Diagnosis of CCUS defined as:
  • Presence of a somatic pathogenic variant associated with hematological malignancy without morphological evidence of myelodysplasia
  • Variant allele fraction of greater than or equal to 2% in at least one identified somatic pathogenic variant
  • Bone marrow aspirate excluding hematological malignancy and MDS
    • Presence of a cytopenia for >30 days. Cytopenia will be defined using accepted CHRS (Clonal Hematopoiesis Risk Score) criteria (Weeks et al, NEJM Evidence in press): ANC <1.8 or hgb <12 in females and <13 in males or a platelet count of <150.
  • Cohort 1: Participants need to have not responded to prior therapy with ESAs or hypomethylating agents (HMAs). These could include azacitidine, decitabine, SGI-110, ASTX727, or CC-486. Patients will need to have received at least 4 cycles of HMA. Participants with relapse or progression after any number of cycles of HMA by IWG 2006 criteria will also be candidates. Participants with evidence of del 5q alteration also are required to have been treated with Lenalidomide.
  • Cohort 1: Hemoglobin <10g/dL with symptomatic anemia or transfusion dependency defined as the need for prior transfusion in the past 8 weeks for a hemoglobin level less than 8g/dl.
  • Cohort 2: Transfusion dependency defined as the need for prior transfusion in the past 8 weeks of (1) at least 2 units of PRBC for a hemoglobin level less than 8g/dl or symptomatic anemia (hemoglobin <10g/dL), or (2) any platelet transfusion.
  • Participants (or patient's legally authorized representative) must have signed an informed consent document indicating that the patient understands the purpose of and procedures required for the study and is willing to participate in the study.
  • Adequate hepatic function with total bilirubin </=3 x ULN, AST or ALT </= 3xULN.
  • Serum creatinine clearance >30mL/min and no end/stage renal disease (using Cockcroft-Gault).
  • ECOG performance status </=2.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Active infection not adequately responding to appropriate antibiotics.
  • Prior treatment with IL-1/IL-1r inhibitors
  • Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) <0.5x109 k/ul; colony-stimulating factors can be administered prior to study drug initiation.
  • Female participants who are pregnant or lactating.
  • Participants with reproductive potential who are unwilling to following contraception requirements (including condom use for males with sexual partners, and for females: prescription oral contraceptives [birth control pills], contraceptive injections, intrauterine devices [IUD], double-barrier method [spermicidal jelly or foam with condoms or diaphragm], contraceptive patch, or surgical sterilization) throughout the study. Reproductive potential is defined as no previous surgical sterilization or females that are not post-menopausal for 12 months.
  • Female participants with reproductive potential who do not have a negative urine or blood beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (beta HCG) pregnancy test at screening.
  • History of an active malignancy within the past 2 years prior to study entry, with the exception of: a. Adequately treated in situ carcinoma of the cervix uteri b. Adequately treated basal cell carcinoma or localized squamous cell carcinoma of the skin or any other malignancy with a life expectancy of more than 2 years.
  • Participants receiving any other concurrent investigational agent or chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy (within 14 days of initiating study treatment).
  • Known history of testing positive for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections.

Participants requiring systemic steroids, methotrexate or other immunosuppressive drugs will not be included in the study.


Additional Trial Information

Phase 2

Enrollment: 60 patients (estimated)

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Published Results

A Phase 2 Study of Canakinumab in Patients with Lower-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes or Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia

December 09, 2023

Findings: Between August 2020 and May 2023, 27 patients were enrolled in the phase 2 portion of this study, and 2 patients failed screening. The median age was 74 years with 15 (60%) male patients; 20 patients (80%) were post-hypomethylating agent failure with a median number of prior lines of therapy of 2 (1-5). Transfusion dependency was observed in 24 patients (96%) prior to canakinumab initiation. Fourteen (56%) patients showed normal karyotype. IPSS-R stratification revealed an intermediate-2 risk in 12 (48%) patients and a high risk in one (4%). The most common mutations were SF3B1 (40%), TET2 (32%), DNMT3A (28%), and RUNX1 (24%). IPSS-M risk score was calculated for 24 cases showing one (4%) very low (VL), four (16%) low (L), 14 (16%) moderate low (ML), eight (32%) moderate high (MH), five (20%) high (H), and two (8%) very high (VH) risk categories. Canakinumab was well tolerated and no drug-related toxicities were observed. One death due to sepsis, which was deemed not treatment-related, occurred on the study drug. Out of 23 evaluable patients, the overall response rate was 17·4%, with erythroid and platelet hematological improvement (HI-E and HI-P, respectively) confirmed in 3 (13.0%) patients and 1 (4.3%) patient, respectively. Thirteen patients had stable disease (56·5%) and 6 (26·1%) progressed during therapy, 1 of which transformed to AML (Fig. 1). TI was achieved in 3 patients (median DoR 8·53 months (95% CI 0·41-16·1) and 2 of them maintained TI for over 12 months. With a median follow-up time of 22·6 months (95% CI 15·0-29·4), median OS was 17·3 months (95% CI 14·3-not estimable). We performed separate univariate analyses to evaluate any associations between the IPSS-M and OS/PFS. The median OS in patients with higher-risk MDS by IPSS-M (MH, H, VH) was 15·0 months vs 29·4 months in the lower-risk disease by IPSS-M (VL, L, ML) group (p=0·12). Interestingly, statistically significant findings were observed with 1-year PFS when stratifying patients into higher vs lower risk MDS by IPSS-M (64·3% vs 100·0%, respectively; p=0·022, Fig. 2).

Conclusion: In this cohort of MDS patients who had experienced multiple lines of prior therapy and exhibited high-molecular-complexity, canakinumab showed limited efficacy (HI 17.3%). Nevertheless, canakinumab showed a good safety profile and yielded sustained long-term responses in patients with single somatic driver mutation in TET2 or DNMT3A. This suggests that clonal complexity, and therefore disease burden, may be a determining factor in response to canakinumab. Therefore, we have amended the protocol of a phase 1/2 clinical trial evaluating the safety and activity of canakinumab in clonal cytopenia of unknown significance (CCUS) and low-molecular complexity MDS patients. Our results will clarify the role of IL-1β signaling in MDS initiation and progression.

Clinical and Biological Effects of Canakinumab in Lower-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS): Results from a Phase 2 Clinical Trial

November 15, 2022

Twenty-six patients have been enrolled in the clinical trial. Patients' clinical characteristics are included in Table 1. Twenty-three patients were evaluable for response. Among the 22 out of the 23 patients who were transfusion dependent at baseline, one achieved transfusion independence, and another had platelet count improvement. Three out of the 23 had progressive disease, and 18 had stable disease. Treatment was well tolerated with no severe adverse events. One patient died of sepsis unrelated to therapy. Overall, we did not observe any improvement in the blast counts and cytogenetic and/or mutational burden.

Trial Locations

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Texas

MD Anderson Cancer Center The University of Texas

Houston, TX

Open and Accepting
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