The prognosis of advanced metastatic melanoma remains poor although a breakthrough has been achieved with the novel anti-CTLA-4 treatment (ipilimumab) for a subset of patients. Unfortunately, due to immune resistance, the majority of patients do not obtain long-lasting clinical benefit. Radiotherapy is able to interfere with immune resistance by inducing immunogenic cell death. Preclinical evidence indicates that combining radiotherapy with anti-CTLA-4 treatment increases response rates compared to single agent treatment. These data are supported by several spectacular clinical cases and one retrospective study. The investigators hypothesize that combining ipilimumab with radiotherapy will result in a higher response rate compared to ipilimumab or radiotherapy in monotherapy. Given the complexity of the interaction in anti-tumor immunity, the first goal of this project is to assess the safety of the combined treatment.
The safety profiles of ipilimumab and SBRT are well studied separately 22-24, but prospective data on the combination of ipilimumab and high-dose SBRT are lacking. Consequently, the first goal of the proposed prospective phase I trial is to assess the safety (dose limiting toxicity, DLT) of the combination of high-dose SBRT and ipilimumab in patients with advanced melanoma.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
13
The SBRT dose will be escalated in 3 steps as described above and will be given on d39, d41 and d43
Ipilimumab 3mg/kg will be given IV on d1, d22, d43 and d64
Dept. of Radiotherapy, Ghent University Hospital
Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Maximal tolerated dose (MDT) that is associated with dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) in 25% of patients.
Time frame: 2 years
Preliminary anti-tumor activity following escalating doses of radiation combined to ipilimumab using the immune related response criteria irRC
Time frame: 2 years
Overall survival
Time frame: 2 years
Progression-free survival
Time frame: 2 years
Immunomonitoring (absolute lymphocyte count)
absolute lymphocyte count
Time frame: 2 years
Immunomonitoring (frequencies of Foxp3+ Treg-cells)
frequencies of Foxp3+ Treg-cells
Time frame: 2 years
Immunomonitoring (functional analysis looking at shifts in Th1/Th2/Th17)
functional analysis looking at shifts in Th1/Th2/Th17
Time frame: 2 years
Immunomonitoring (plasmacytoid dendritic cells and myeloid derived suppressor cells and their IDO expression)
plasmacytoid dendritic cells and myeloid derived suppressor cells and their IDO expression,
Time frame: 2 years
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