This phase II trial studies how well nirogacestat works in treating patients with skin Kaposi sarcoma (KS). Several anti-cancer drugs work well in treating KS, but there is no treatment that cures KS. Nirogacestat binds to a protein called gamma secretase, which blocks the activation of other proteins called Notch receptors. Blocking these proteins may help keep tumor cells from growing and may kill them. Nirogacestat is a type of gamma secretase inhibitor. Nirogacestat may be effective in shrinking the size of KS lesions and reducing the spread of lesions.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: I. Evaluate the efficacy of nirogacestat in terms of overall response (partial response \[PR\]) or complete response \[CR\]) of Kaposi sarcoma (KS) tumors. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. Evaluate the safety and tolerability of nirogacestat. II. Evaluate the duration of response of KS tumors to nirogacestat. III. Assess the effect of nirogacestat on blood biomarkers such as CD4+ and CD8+ T, CD19+, cell number, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) virus load. IV. Assess baseline levels of Notch target and regulatory gene products as a target of nirogacestat activity. EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES: I. Assess the effect of nirogacestat on tumor-associated KSHV latent and lytic gene expression. II. Assess effects of nirogacestat on activation of Notch target genes and Notch regulatory genes. III. Assess effects of nirogacestat on tumor-associated endothelial-mesenchymal transition. IV. Assess the pharmacology of nirogacestat in KS patients. V. Assess effects of nirogacestat on tissue biomarkers at progression by single cell transcriptomics or single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq). VI. Assess effects of nirogacestat on tissue biomarkers by multiplex immunohistochemistry (IHC) at baseline and after 28 days of therapy. OUTLINE: Patients receive nirogacestat orally (PO) twice daily (BID) on days 1-28 of each cycle. Cycles repeat every 28 days for 12 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo skin biopsy and chest X-ray during screening as well as blood sample collection throughout the study. Patients may also undergo an additional optional skin biopsy on study and computed tomography (CT) throughout the study. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed every 6 months for 5 years.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Undergo collection of blood
Undergo chest X-ray
Undergo CT
Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University
St Louis, Missouri, United States
Overall response rate (ORR)
The ORR will be estimated for each dose group and for all groups combined. The 95% confidence intervals will be constructed for the ORR.
Time frame: Up to 5 years after completion of study treatment
Incidence of adverse events (AEs)
The AEs will be tabulated by type, grade, and attribution.
Time frame: Up to 5 years after completion of study treatment
Duration of the response (DOR)
Non-responders will be excluded in DOR analysis. Participants who begin treatment but drop out prior to the first post-baseline response assessment will be considered non-responders. The Kaplan-Meier method will be used to describe the DOR for all treated participants. The proportional hazards model will be used to evaluate the association of HIV status and pretreatment status on the DOR.
Time frame: From the first date on which a partial response or complete response is documented until progression or death due to any cause, assessed up to 5 years after completion of study treatment
Cumulative proportion of study participants still in response
Will be estimated using the point estimate and the 95% confidence interval using Greenwood's formula for the standard error of the Kaplan-Meier estimate.
Time frame: At 1 year
Blood biomarkers
Will assess the effect of nirogacestat on blood biomarkers such as CD4+ and CD8+ T, CD19+, cell number, HIV and Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus virus load. The analysis of variance will be used to evaluate the changes from entry to 4 or 12 weeks in CD4 and CD8 cell counts and percentages and levels of plasma-associated HIV-1 ribonucleic acid (RNA). Descriptive statistics for biomarkers will be reported using mean, standard deviation, median, and range. Linear regression analysis and correlation coefficient analysis will be performed to examine the association between change from baseline in a specific biomarker and study covariates.
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Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
28
Given PO
Undergo skin biopsy
Time frame: Up to 5 years after completion of study treatment
Levels of Notch target and regulatory gene products
Will assess baseline levels of Notch target and regulatory gene products as a target of Nirogacestat activity. Notch target and regulatory gene expression at baseline will be summarized using descriptive statistics, and data visualization will be performed using principal component analysis and T-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) plots. Linear and generalized linear models will be used to examine the association between expression level and study covariates. When multiplicity adjustment is needed, Bonferroni correction and false discovery rate approaches will be considered.
Time frame: Baseline up to 5 years after completion of study treatment