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Single-agent nivolumab showed durable responses, manageable safety, and promising survival in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in the phase 1-2 CheckMate 040 study. We aimed to investigate nivolumab monotherapy compared with sorafenib monotherapy in the first-line setting for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.In this randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial done at medical centres across 22 countries and territories in Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North America, patients at least 18 years old with histologically confirmed advanced hepatocellular carcinoma not eligible for, or whose disease had progressed after, surgery or locoregional treatment; with no previous systemic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma, with Child-Pugh class A and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score of 0 or 1, and regardless of viral hepatitis status were randomly assigned (1:1) via an interactive voice response system to receive nivolumab (240 mg intravenously every 2 weeks) or sorafenib (400 mg orally twice daily) until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was overall survival assessed in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was assessed in all patients who received at least one dose of study drug. This completed trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02576509.Between Jan 11, 2016, and May 24, 2017, 743 patients were randomly assigned to treatment (nivolumab, n=371; sorafenib, n=372). At the primary analysis, the median follow-up for overall survival was 15·2 months (IQR 5·7-28·0) for the nivolumab group and 13·4 months (5·7-25·9) in the sorafenib group. Median overall survival was 16·4 months (95% CI 13·9-18·4) with nivolumab and 14·7 months (11·9-17·2) with sorafenib (hazard ratio 0·85 [95% CI 0·72-1·02]; p=0·075; minimum follow-up 22·8 months); the protocol-defined significance level of p=0·0419 was not reached. The most common grade 3 or worse treatment-related adverse events were palmar-plantar erythrodysaesthesia (1 [1%] of 367 patients in the nivolumab group vs 52 [14%] of patients in the sorafenib group), aspartate aminotransferase increase (22 [6%] vs 13 [4%]), and hypertension (0 vs 26 [7%]). Serious treatment-related adverse events were reported in 43 (12%) patients receiving nivolumab and 39 (11%) patients receiving sorafenib. Four deaths in the nivolumab group and one death in the sorafenib group were assessed as treatment related.First-line nivolumab treatment did not significantly improve overall survival compared with sorafenib, but clinical activity and a favourable safety profile were observed in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Thus, nivolumab might be considered a therapeutic option for patients in whom tyrosine kinase inhibitors and antiangiogenic drugs are contraindicated or have substantial risks.Bristol Myers Squibb in collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical.

In the phase 3 CheckMate 459 study (NCT02576509), first-line nivolumab (NIVO) treatment demonstrated higher overall response rate (ORR) and a favorable safety profile, but no significant improvement in overall survival (OS) compared with sorafenib (SORA) in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we report exploratory biomarker analyses from the trial with a potential to identify patients who may benefit from NIVO. Archival or fresh tumor samples were collected before treatment and subjected to whole exome sequencing (WES) (400/730: 55%) for genetic alterations including high microsatellite instability (MSI-H) and WNT/beta-catenin pathway components, as well as whole transcriptome RNA sequencing (469/730: 64%) for analysis of individual genes, inflammation signatures and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). Associations between biomarkers and best overall response (BOR), progression free survival (PFS) and OS were evaluated at a minimum follow-up of 33·6 months. RNA sequencing analysis demonstrated that high Gajewski inflammation gene signature score of ≥0.47 (30% of tumors) was associated with an improvement in BOR (p=0.0043), PFS (p=0.00065) and OS (p=0.0073) within the NIVO arm only. Upon comparison of NIVO versus SORA, only patients whose tumors were inflammation high demonstrated NIVO benefit for BOR (p=0.017), PFS (p=0.0063) and OS (p=0.037). Responses to NIVO were associated with higher expression of CD8A, CD8B, PDCD1 (PD-1) and other inflammation-associated genes within the tumor (false discovery rate, FDR Citation Format: Jaclyn Neely, Jin Yao, Masatoshi Kudo, Richard S. Finn, Bruno Sangro, Ignacio Melero, Anthony El-Khoueiry, Marina Tschaika, Damir Begic, Ashwin Sama, Parul Doshi, Thomas Yau, Robin Kate Kelley. Genomic and transcriptomic analyses related to the clinical efficacy of first-line nivolumab in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma from the phase 3 CheckMate 459 trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 2145.

Staphylococcus aureus small colony variants (SCVs) are slow-growing morphological variants associated with persistent infections. While vancomycin activity has been shown to be attenuated against SCVs of S. aureus, few data exist regarding daptomycin. The objective was to evaluate the pharmacodynamics of daptomycin against defined S. aureus mutants displaying the SCV phenotype.Two S. aureus hemB mutants (Ia48 and III33) displaying the SCV phenotype and their parental strains (COL and Newman) were evaluated. Time-kill experiments were performed using a starting inoculum of 10(6) cfu/mL at 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 times the MIC. Samples were obtained at 0, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 24 h, plated and incubated to determine colony counts. A Hill-type pharmacodynamic mathematical model was fitted to the data to characterize the effect.Bactericidal activity for daptomycin was achieved and occurred in a concentration-dependent manner against both hemB mutants and their parental strains. Against strains with normal phenotype, bactericidal activity was achieved rapidly, within 2 h at concentrationsor =16 times the MIC, while against SCVs, bactericidal activity was achieved within 6 h at concentrationsor =16 times the MIC. Against both hemB mutants, daptomycin maintained bactericidal activity at 24 h, with similar profiles of killing activity when compared with their parental strains.Daptomycin achieved bactericidal activity against S. aureus hemB mutants and parenteral isolates. Daptomycin represents a potential therapeutic option for infections caused by S. aureus strains displaying the SCV phenotype and additional studies are warranted.

TPS9107Background: Effective second-line chemotherapeutic treatment options for pts with NSCLC are limited. Pembro, a PD-1–blocking antibody, has demonstrated antitumor activity and proven second-l...

6029Background: For pts with advanced NPC, no approved chemotherapy is available in the second-line setting or beyond, and treatment options are limited. Hypermethylation contributes to the initiat...

327 Background: nab-P + Gem demonstrated significantly better overall survival (OS; median: 8.7 vs 6.6 mo; HR 0.72; P < 0.001) than Gem alone as first-line treatment for pts with MPC in the MPACT study. This phase II bridging study evaluated efficacy and safety of nab-P + Gem in Chinese pts with MPC. Methods: Efficacy and safety of nab-P 125 mg/m2 + Gem 1000 mg/m2 on days 1, 8, and 15 every 4 weeks was evaluated in a 3-part sequential study. In part 1, safety was examined. In part 2, efficacy was evaluated by the Simon optimal 2-stage design. If there were > 2 responses in 28 pts in stage 1 of part 2, an additional 54 pts would be treated in stage 2. The study would be completed if > 9 responses were observed. If there was an insufficient number of responses in either stage of part 2, part 3 would be triggered to compare nab-P + Gem vs Gem alone. The primary endpoint was overall response rate (ORR). Secondary endpoints included duration of response (DOR), OS, and safety. Correlation of OS and baseline neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was also analyzed. Results: Eighty-three pts were treated. Median age was 57.0 y; 19% were aged > 65 y; baseline Karnofsky performance status was 90 - 100 in 70% of pts and 70 - 80 in 30%. Combining results for stages 1 and 2, ORR was 35% by independent assessment, median DOR was 8.9 mo (95% CI, 6.01 - 8.94), median OS and PFS were 9.2 mo (95% CI, 7.60 - 11.10) and 5.5 mo (95% CI, 5.29 - 7.16), respectively (Table). Baseline NLR ≤ 5 was associated with a nonsignificant trend toward longer OS vs NLR > 5 (median, 10.0 vs 8.3 mo; HR 0.62; P= 0.148). The most common grade ≥ 3 adverse events included neutropenia (37%), leukopenia (31%), and fatigue (14%). Grade ≥ 3 peripheral neuropathy occurred in 7% of pts. Part 3 was not triggered per study design. Conclusions: nab-P + Gem demonstrated efficacy in Chinese pts with MPC. The OS and ORR were numerically better than those of the phase III MPACT trial (Table). A trend toward longer OS in pts with baseline NLR ≤ 5 vs > 5 confirmed previous findings from the MPACT study. No new safety signals were identified. Clinical trial information: NCT02135822. [Table: see text]