Latest / The Eye Believe Podcast / Are We in a Clinical Trial Drought? | The Eye Believe Podcast
Transcript
- 0:03hey everybody welcome back to the Eye Believe podcast
- 0:05I'm joined today with Doctor
- 0:07Marlana Orloff from Thomas Jefferson
- 0:09we are so glad to have you back Doctor
- 0:11Orloff thanks for joining us today
- 0:13absolutely
- 0:14okay so guys today we're talking
- 0:16about something that's a little bit um
- 0:18maybe a little bit uncertain in the uveal
- 0:20melanoma metastatic world
- 0:22uh it kind of feels a little bit like
- 0:24there's a little bit of a clinical trial drought um so
- 0:28Doctor Orloff can you just kind of
- 0:29talk to us about like what's going on right now and
- 0:32should we be worried
- 0:33should we you know where should we be keeping
- 0:35our focus as metastatic patients
- 0:37yeah um absolutely so I I think you know any cancer any
- 0:43disease really that you know relies heavily
- 0:45on clinical trials for pushing the field forward um
- 0:49it can feel like there's peaks and valleys
- 0:51ebbs and flows
- 0:52you know you could at some point in time have
- 0:55you know a dozen or more
- 0:57really great clinical trials all different lines of
- 1:00you know therapy previously treated treatment naive
- 1:04you know for uveal melanoma specifically
- 1:06HLA positive negative and then all of a sudden
- 1:09it feels like there's very few
- 1:11um and you know it's it's really I think
- 1:14right now we're kind of coming
- 1:16down off of what I would consider probably a high
- 1:19and you know I think a lot of patients
- 1:21are kind of asking questions like okay well
- 1:24you know what's
- 1:25what's out there for me what should I be doing what should I be thinking
- 1:28about so I thought we would use this time um
- 1:30I have a short presentation just to kind of
- 1:33talk about maybe some of the things that have just wrapped up
- 1:36um that are kind of no longer available
- 1:38right now but then also trials
- 1:41that are available and then maybe what's coming down
- 1:43the pike okay so I'm gonna share yes let's do this
- 1:49so the real question is are we in a clinical trials
- 1:53drought so um you know I think
- 1:57again um as I mentioned I think for a while
- 2:00you know it was raining the rivers were high
- 2:04um and now we're feeling kind of as some trials
- 2:07have wrapped up and the water has receded
- 2:10you know are we are we in a drought
- 2:12so as I mentioned I just wanted to start out by kind of
- 2:15wrapping up um
- 2:16you know or talking about the trials
- 2:18that have maybe since wrapped up um
- 2:20and you know maybe given a little bit of insight
- 2:22about where things are headed so
- 2:25I think one of the biggest trials
- 2:26that is you know since wrapped up
- 2:28um was really a multi prong trial
- 2:30you know here I'm showing kind of the study design
- 2:33for the randomized trial which was the frontline trial
- 2:37for A2 negative patients um looking at uh drugs
- 2:40Darovasertib and Crizotinib so that's the PKC
- 2:43inhibitor and the met inhibitor
- 2:45and these were targeted therapies and if you're
- 2:47you know not a stranger to um this podcast
- 2:50or you know keeping an eye on things all going in uveal
- 2:53melanoma you've
- 2:54heard about this trial for a number of years
- 2:56perhaps you even participated in it and
- 2:59this was the randomized trial
- 3:00um that really is an effort to get this drug
- 3:03potentially approved so it was
- 3:05pure first line A2 negative
- 3:08um because the A2 positive patients
- 3:10have Tebentafusp
- 3:11um versus investigator choice which was widely
- 3:14pretty much um immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy
- 3:17um and so this trial enrolled very quickly
- 3:19um and has since completed um and um
- 3:24and you know again hopefully leading
- 3:26um to kind of an accelerated type approval
- 3:29at the same time this trial was open um
- 3:32there was also kind of the earlier
- 3:33trial that allowed patients who were previously treated
- 3:36and actually even allowed a to positive patients so
- 3:40what um what was recently presented um back in October
- 3:44was actually the first reported overall uh
- 3:46survival of this combination
- 3:49as part of kind of that original trial we call OptimUM-01
- 3:53again just wanted to kind of highlight
- 3:54cause this is the
- 3:55the most data that's out there there will be
- 3:58more data coming out for OptimUM-02
- 4:00which was the randomized trial that just finished
- 4:02but um you know that will be
- 4:04a little bit more post ASCO
- 4:06so you know again this is kind of um some pretty um uh
- 4:11you know uh high level data this is part of the
- 4:14the presentation at SMR but
- 4:16you know again here you can see that these drugs
- 4:19are really targeting that mutation
- 4:20that we commonly see in uveal melanoma the GNAQ GNA11
- 4:24and the important thing with this trial was that
- 4:26it um it was really
- 4:28the trial that also established dose
- 4:30of the Darovasertib 300 mg BID plus
- 4:33Crizotinib 200 mg BID
- 4:36and so what this trial was really looking at um
- 4:38is a subset of patients that were treated
- 4:41in that earlier trial
- 4:43um and here you can see just in 41 patients
- 4:46overall response rate 34% um a lot of patients having
- 4:51partial and stable disease and we call a disease
- 4:54control rate of about 90% so that's really having a
- 4:57response or stable disease um and duration of
- 5:00response you can see there about nine months
- 5:03so again this was very positive data
- 5:05you know I think we're hoping
- 5:06that the subsequent randomized data um will will um
- 5:11fully show this some of that data has
- 5:13since been released and looks pretty good
- 5:14um but again so you know again this trial wrapping up
- 5:18right now a lot of patients are like okay great
- 5:20the data is fantastic can I get these drugs
- 5:23and the truth is not right now so you know with the randomized
- 5:27trial wrapped up
- 5:28the O1 kind of backfill cohort trial closed um
- 5:33you know these drugs are not really available
- 5:35yet for patients with metastatic disease
- 5:37so we're kind of in this weird in between period
- 5:41which we've experienced before even with Tebentafusp
- 5:43where we have a positive trial
- 5:45drug looks you know potentially
- 5:46good but we're still waiting potentially
- 5:48now for approval to be able to get patients
- 5:50access to it so my hope is just that it's coming
- 5:55so another trial um that you know wasn't necessarily
- 5:59kind of a global trial
- 6:01um but something that did wrap up um was the Chopin
- 6:05trials this was kind of the long awaited
- 6:07read out of the the comparison again randomized of
- 6:11PHP alone versus kind of PHP sandwiched with Ipi Nivo
- 6:15and there were early signs
- 6:16that this was potentially a really um uh
- 6:19important or effective approach
- 6:22with just a few patients
- 6:23uh treated and presented a number of years ago
- 6:26but this was the first randomized trial and you can see good numbers
- 6:28in the arms 38 in each arm and what we're seeing
- 6:32here is that the combination group so again that
- 6:34that sandwich approach had a much improved PFS
- 6:38one year PFS and median PFS
- 6:40um as well as an improved um potentially
- 6:43two year overall survival one year overall survival
- 6:46still a bit similar with an improved median OS
- 6:49so again this is single center um
- 6:51it hasn't necessarily been replicated kind of globally
- 6:54but it was randomized
- 6:56and the different thing about this data
- 6:59coming out that looks good and positive
- 7:01and potentially promising compared to the Daro/Criz
- 7:04is that because
- 7:05PHP and Ipi Nivo are already approved therapies
- 7:08it's not like we're in this holding pattern
- 7:10until this necessarily gets approved
- 7:12so a lot of patients if they're eligible for
- 7:15PHP if they're eligible for Ipi Nivo
- 7:18are now getting we call the Chopin
- 7:20kind of style approach or the Chopin combo
- 7:24as kind of standard of care now so you know
- 7:27again even though this is the trial is wrapped up
- 7:29um these are therapies that are an option for patients
- 7:34um
- 7:34and though this is just a bit more about the overall
- 7:37response um and the safety
- 7:40so another trial that was enrolling
- 7:42uh pretty quickly here um
- 7:45uh in especially in the US was the
- 7:47uh trial of Roginolisib um or Rogie for short
- 7:51uh which is a PI3 kinase inhibitor um the trial
- 7:54was patients who were previously
- 7:55treated so it really met
- 7:57an unmet need for us in the space
- 7:59whereas patients could have
- 8:00you know could have progressed on prior liver directed
- 8:04could have progressed
- 8:05on prior Tebe could have progressed on prior Daro/Criz
- 8:09and then
- 8:09all they had to have had to get on this trial was prior
- 8:12um essentially immunotherapy
- 8:14exposure cause the thought is that this drug
- 8:16Roginolisib can kind of like reinvigorate
- 8:19the immune system that might have already seen um
- 8:22in immunotherapy
- 8:23and this was randomized to essentially anything
- 8:25you could have randomized to what we called
- 8:28Investigator choice which could have included
- 8:30you know best alternative care
- 8:31which could have been just supportive therapy
- 8:34um other immunotherapies
- 8:36um potentially even liver directed therapy
- 8:39um and this trial has since now closed um so
- 8:43the the difference about this trial
- 8:45instead of the Daro/Criz
- 8:46trial was that this trial wasn't necessarily powered
- 8:49to to get approval safe for Roginolisib in it
- 8:52um this was really more of like a signal seeking
- 8:54like do we move forward
- 8:57um to try to you know do a larger study to to try to
- 9:01you know see what happens next um but we'll see um
- 9:05you know sometimes even small trials
- 9:07can get the attention um and get things um
- 9:10approved and what not but I think this
- 9:12we'll wait to see this data
- 9:14um this data may then launch into another trial um
- 9:18that that may bring you know this drug as as an option
- 9:22um and this is just the way that the trial was designed
- 9:27so you know
- 9:29again I think even though some of these kind of
- 9:31important fully enroll you know trials
- 9:34that were you know enrolling a lot of patients
- 9:35have closed um
- 9:38you know there are still options
- 9:39and I and I would argue to say that if we're feeling
- 9:41like we're in a bit of a drought
- 9:43that I think the rain is coming
- 9:45um and so let's see oh oh my
- 9:49sorry my animation didn't work as as I planned
- 9:52there but there we go um
- 9:53but it is it is I think the rain is is coming so
- 9:58you know again I think also when when
- 10:00we're feeling like we might be in a clinical trials
- 10:02drought
- 10:03you know we do still have plenty of standard of care options
- 10:05you know obviously
- 10:06we're always still looking for kind of the next best
- 10:09but you know
- 10:09patients who are HLA positive there's tebentafusp
- 10:12there's all the liver directed therapies
- 10:14there's things like ablation and Histotripsy
- 10:15there's radiation
- 10:16there's still the immune checkpoint inhibitors
- 10:18so there are still a variety of standard of care
- 10:20options
- 10:22there are also trials that are still open
- 10:25so this is the RP2 plus Nivo trial
- 10:29which is a randomized trial of a a an approach
- 10:33that I've talked about I think on here actually before
- 10:36which is a modified virus that's injected
- 10:38directly into the tumor and this is in combination
- 10:41with Nivo and this is essentially verse Ipi Nivo
- 10:45and so um this trial really came out of prior uh
- 10:51experience with this in in uveal
- 10:53melanoma small numbers of patients
- 10:55but here you can see there's patients who had
- 10:57their tumors injected
- 10:58that responded and even tumors that weren't injected
- 11:01um in the liver that responded
- 11:03um and these were also patients in that
- 11:05group that actually
- 11:05progressed on prior immunotherapy but
- 11:07this trial um that again is still open and rolling
- 11:11is um metastatic uveal
- 11:13um you can't have had prior immune checkpoint
- 11:16um so you can't have had prior Ipi Nivo um or Opdualag
- 11:20or anything like that because that's basically
- 11:22what the trial is randomized to
- 11:24so um and you can't have had more than one prior line
- 11:28so essentially what this allows is prior Tebentafusp
- 11:32or prior really Daro/Criz um
- 11:35the only other thing that I would say though that's a little kind of unique
- 11:39um about this trial um is that there are some cut offs
- 11:43when it comes to liver function um as well as number of
- 11:49kind of organ sites outside the liver
- 11:51so there can't be more than kind of two other
- 11:53organ systems affected
- 11:55by the melanoma outside the liver
- 11:57um so there there is a little bit of nuance um
- 12:01and oh and there's also um a limit on percent liver
- 12:03involvement can't have more than half the liver
- 12:05involved so there is a bit more
- 12:06kind of nuance on this trial to be eligible
- 12:09um but you know again someone coming right up
- 12:12right off a Tebe um
- 12:14you know certainly this this could be an option
- 12:16but say you've previously had the Chopin trial
- 12:19you would or the Chopin approach
- 12:20you would not be eligible
- 12:22one because you've now had also
- 12:23low bar full liver directed
- 12:25therapy which is not allowed necessarily
- 12:27um and you've also previously had Ipi Nivo
- 12:30so again just you know you folks
- 12:33have probably heard me talk about this before I think
- 12:35when you start at square one it's always
- 12:38important to kind of understand what option A B C D
- 12:41might be
- 12:42so that if you're really hoping to do option C
- 12:45you make sure that option A or B won't then exclude C
- 12:49um and so I think that's something that you really have to think about if you're considering
- 12:52the RP2 trial just because of some of those um
- 12:56inclusion exclusion criteria
- 12:58um the other trial that is enrolling um
- 13:02though I think because of the nature of being a phase
- 13:051 study
- 13:05it's a little bit tricky to to get maybe a slot
- 13:08and and I think the future of subsequent studies
- 13:10is still a little TBD
- 13:12but but hoping that they'll be a subsequent
- 13:13phase 2 study is the NovelWise or NBM-BMX
- 13:17so this is a type of HDAC inhibitor
- 13:20um HDAC8 specifically
- 13:22single agent um in the phase 1 obviously
- 13:25still trying to explore dose
- 13:27um and then like most phase ones
- 13:29this is nice because there's no really limit to prior
- 13:32therapy so can have previously
- 13:33been treated with a variety of different things
- 13:36um again this is open few sites in the US
- 13:39but um only a few slots
- 13:41normally there's only like three or so slots
- 13:43per dose cohort can take a little while to enroll
- 13:46um but there hopefully will be a future
- 13:49trial that will then enroll more patients
- 13:53um and then I just put this slide
- 13:55up here this happens to be our kind of
- 13:57institutional Tebentafusp plus trial
- 14:00um this one we're um you know um
- 14:03exploring the combination of Tebentafusp and liver directed
- 14:05therapy specifically immune embolization up front
- 14:08um but there's actually a lot of sites um around
- 14:11us and abroad that are looking at Tebentafusp plus
- 14:14so whether that's Tebentafusp
- 14:16plus something like a cytokine like IL-2 or
- 14:19Tebentafusp
- 14:20plus another type of liver directed therapy such as PHP
- 14:23so kind of now a combination of therapies
- 14:25that we already have approved a standard of care
- 14:28um and I would definitely encourage folks
- 14:30um you know to to kind of investigate those trials
- 14:34um to see if they're
- 14:36um if they're eligible because sometimes
- 14:38it's nice to kind of do this combination or
- 14:41sequence approach um uh
- 14:43because I think there you know as the Chopin
- 14:45trial has showed us you know there's possible
- 14:47synergy between these systemic and liver directed
- 14:49therapies
- 14:51so I think um definitely
- 14:53stay tuned to discussion post ASCO
- 14:56I think that maybe where some of the
- 14:58some of the rain is in the forecast um
- 15:00so I think there's gonna be a number of trials
- 15:02being discussed at ASCO
- 15:03um many smaller trials that are gonna
- 15:06have um maybe abstracts presented
- 15:08may lend themselves to larger trials
- 15:10in the upcoming months this includes things like TIL
- 15:13things like that radio
- 15:15uh kind of ligand therapy MC1R
- 15:18um other combinations
- 15:20certainly treatment in the adjuvant and neo adjuvant
- 15:22setting um other abstracts
- 15:24if you've already perused um what's going to
- 15:26potentially happen at ASCO also some uh
- 15:29interesting things about modes of surveillance
- 15:31um but you know I would still say um
- 15:34and I and I I know the community feels
- 15:36this that there's still a large unmet need for these
- 15:38two plus you know second line plus trials right
- 15:42you've had a prior liver directed
- 15:43you've had a prior Tebe
- 15:44now what you've had prior Daro/Criz
- 15:47maybe you also have Tebe now what um you know um
- 15:51you know I think when it comes to trials right now
- 15:54we're definitely
- 15:55you know not you know there's not a whole lot um
- 15:58for patients who've had a lot of prior therapy
- 16:01and while we have some effective therapies
- 16:03that are really improving patients um survival I think
- 16:07um you know none of these yet
- 16:10you know for the most part are
- 16:11are really a home run right we're not we're not curing
- 16:14you know um
- 16:15folks yet so I think really having something
- 16:18you know beyond that second line
- 16:20for patients who are still feeling well
- 16:22liver functions good you know still a
- 16:24really large unmet need and and I know that's where
- 16:27a lot of us um researchers and and um
- 16:32physicians are really trying to you know push
- 16:35um to get to get options for patients
- 16:38so oh there's my animation again
- 16:40um so with that I will end my presentation
- 16:44Dr. Orloff thank you so much like I feel like this helps
- 16:47kind of put things in perspective and
- 16:49um and really just shows like a what happened
- 16:52right we've got trials that they didn't close
- 16:54because they're not effective they closed for gathering
- 16:57data and to the be able to move to the next step
- 16:59and that's huge in our community
- 17:01because that's the only way we get something like Tebentafusp
- 17:04or the Hepzato PHP approach like
- 17:06that's the only way that those things happen is when the trial
- 17:09closes and then we get the data that
- 17:11that says hey let's get approved
- 17:14yeah yeah and I know I I feel like you know
- 17:17though that waiting period you know um
- 17:20can feel like forever
- 17:21right if if you're a patient waiting for something
- 17:24like that waiting period
- 17:25like I get it I I wish I could push a you know fast
- 17:29fast forward button but um but unfortunately
- 17:32it it takes a bit
- 17:33so we are we are in that there now though yeah
- 17:36so while we are in this kind of waiting period you mentioned
- 17:40focusing on those standard of care options
- 17:42so let's just kind of run through
- 17:43just like discuss those um outside of trials
- 17:47which I know you mentioned
- 17:48the couple of enrolling trials that are still there
- 17:51uh huh
- 17:53what do we have to focus on if we're in the metastatic
- 17:55community cause I know like myself I'm metastatic
- 17:57I know there's plenty of people who might be listening
- 17:59who you guys are also metastatic
- 18:01so where should we be keeping our focus
- 18:03in the standard of care
- 18:05so I
- 18:05I think some of it's gonna depend on what you've already had
- 18:08um you know um so if
- 18:10if you've not previously had Ipi Nivo for instance
- 18:14um and you're a candidate for liver directed therapy um
- 18:17then certainly exploring you know the Chopin
- 18:20style approach um which was that kind of PHP
- 18:23Ipi Nivo sandwich
- 18:25sequence um you know I think is definitely something
- 18:28um the patient should consider
- 18:30I do think a little bit of the tricky
- 18:32part is if you really look at the trial
- 18:34it was essentially in patients
- 18:35who were previously untreated
- 18:37so I think there is some uncertainty
- 18:39in knowing how the data
- 18:41how someone's gonna benefit from that approach
- 18:44say if they've already had Tebentafusp
- 18:46or they've already had Daro/Criz
- 18:48and Tebentafusp or they've already had Y90 um
- 18:51you know cause I think the
- 18:52the trial was more so in kind of a patient
- 18:54population who had not
- 18:56significant had significant treatment before
- 18:59um but but I think it's still worth
- 19:01worth a shot you know specifically if you're
- 19:03eligible for
- 19:04PHP and previously had not had checkpoint
- 19:06I think what we really don't know is if you did have checkpoint
- 19:09you know is it worth it to combine the checkpoint
- 19:11again with PHP right say you were
- 19:13on the Daro/Criz trial or even the RP2 trial
- 19:16and you got randomized to the Ipi Nivo
- 19:17arm and you had a couple of doses and maybe progressed
- 19:20is it worth it to try the Ipi Nivo again with the
- 19:23PHP if you're gonna go down that road I think we don't know that
- 19:25um so yeah
- 19:28from a I guess the place
- 19:30the place that I think of the Chopin approach from like
- 19:34just the theory
- 19:35maybe behind it that obviously we can't prove
- 19:38for sure but like the theory
- 19:39behind it that I like to kind of live in as a patient
- 19:42um is this idea that
- 19:44Hepzato or like the PHP helps to sort of wake up the immune system
- 19:50to what's there becasue dying cells become more available to the immune system
- 19:54and then in theory it could make the immune therapy a little bit more likely to pick up on it
- 20:00yeah yeah so for exactly or it somehow clears
- 20:03out the bad immune
- 20:04cells so there's these things called
- 20:06Tregs that maybe live in the liver yeah exactly so
- 20:09so in that case if we kind of just go on that theory
- 20:12then yeah maybe reintroducing Ipi Nivo after PHP
- 20:15may have more benefit
- 20:17than you know somehow the PHP resensitizing someone
- 20:20um you know to to to the immunotherapy so
- 20:23you know I think it's a harder probably conversation
- 20:25if you had tox with that Ipi Nivo
- 20:27back you know whenever you got it but but you know
- 20:29again that's you know that's a conversation to to have
- 20:32so what's your opinion generally
- 20:34like just as an oncologist
- 20:36who's been in this space for a long time
- 20:38um what's your opinion on Ipi Nivo
- 20:39cause I feel like in the community
- 20:41there's kind of this general myth
- 20:43that's existed that like oh Ipi Nivo is terrible
- 20:46we never wanna do Ipi Nivo
- 20:47um but I've talked to oncologists who are like well
- 20:50we can manage the side effects whats your judgment call
- 20:55yeah so I you know I I wish we had something
- 20:57better I mean listen Ipi Nivo in skin melanoma
- 21:00like you know obviously
- 21:02it's been amazing for um for patients
- 21:06I think in uveal you know I think there's real sometimes
- 21:11hesitation just because we know the response
- 21:13rates aren't fantastic but it still has all the tox
- 21:16um and the tox can become life threatening
- 21:19the tox can prevent you from getting other things
- 21:21but I think the hard part is
- 21:23that there are some patients who respond
- 21:25um and we don't
- 21:27we have some clues on maybe who that could be um
- 21:30but generally I don't think we we are fairly confident
- 21:33in predicting who's gonna actually get a response
- 21:36from from Ipi Nivo
- 21:37but there's definitely patients who do
- 21:39so if if you got
- 21:40you know if you don't have any other better option
- 21:43and certainly if someone's progressing with disease
- 21:45outside the liver and you
- 21:47you know for which you know you can't do liver directed
- 21:48therapy
- 21:50you know then I think Ipi Nivo is an is an option
- 21:53um because there are some patients who do respond
- 21:56and and yes we can manage the side effects
- 21:59though sometimes obviously they're not very fun
- 22:01um and some can be pretty hard to manage um
- 22:05but um but yeah I I I don't love it I I
- 22:10wish it was better I wish you know it was
- 22:12it wasn't as toxic I wish it had a bit better of a
- 22:14response rate but we definitely do use it um
- 22:18you know I would say with all of the clinical trials
- 22:21that we have with Ipi Nivo as the comparator arm
- 22:23or now with the Chopin style approach
- 22:26you know I would try to if you're gonna expose yourself
- 22:29Ipi Nivo I would do so kind of either in a trial setting
- 22:33you know or in the PHP combo setting
- 22:35so you're not doing it just to do it you know so
- 22:38it's it's sometimes unfortunate you know if a patient
- 22:41has already had Ipi Nivo as first line just because
- 22:44then they come to us and they're not eligible for either the RP2 trial
- 22:48or now you're hesitant to do the PHP
- 22:51Ipi Nivo thing or when Daro/Criz
- 22:53was available then they're not eligible for that so
- 22:56you know again kind of and
- 22:58you know it's hard to go backwards
- 22:59but certainly if you're a patient with new diagnosis
- 23:02you know just at least having consultation somewhere
- 23:06to make sure that there's nothing else you should be doing
- 23:09first line as to not you know burn burn a bridge so
- 23:13what about liver directed therapies outside of PHP
- 23:18where do you feel like those live in this kind of space of this waiting
- 23:21you know between all the trials and what's gonna be coming
- 23:24yeah so you know obviously a lot of you folks
- 23:27know at our
- 23:28institution we still do a lot of liver directed therapy
- 23:31um whether
- 23:31whether it's immuno embolization
- 23:33either on that trial with Tebentafusp or by itself
- 23:36um chemo embolization
- 23:39um so that's chemotherapy but embolizing
- 23:41so not the perfusion like in PHP
- 23:44um Y90 radio embolization still an option
- 23:48so these are definitely all still options um
- 23:50certainly for patients
- 23:51with liver dominant liver only liver dominant disease
- 23:54um patients who
- 23:56maybe there's not a clinical trial that makes sense
- 23:58patients who don't want a systemic
- 24:00therapy for you know whatever reason you know or
- 24:04certainly the chemo embo
- 24:06I would say the place that we're using it a lot is
- 24:09if even if someone does have Extrahepatic disease
- 24:12if someone's coming in with
- 24:14pretty bulky or rapidly growing tumors in the liver
- 24:18and you know
- 24:20um maybe it's gonna take a minute to get PHP set up
- 24:23um or Ipi Nivo set up or they're not eligible for PHP
- 24:27you know we can use chemo embo
- 24:29um because we can do that pretty quickly like yeah
- 24:32you know normally
- 24:32we see a patient we can do within a week or so
- 24:35um it's kind of a stop gap to try to kind of hold
- 24:38hold things so then you have a minute to breathe
- 24:40and then kind of say okay
- 24:41is there a trial is there another approach
- 24:44we want to be taken or time to get things set up yeah
- 24:48are you I mean I guess it really just depends
- 24:51on where somebody is in the metastatic
- 24:53journey um but like
- 24:56if you have somebody who shows up and they've got
- 24:58you know new metastatic diagnosis
- 25:00maybe one or two liver lesions
- 25:01like are you looking at like IE or CE
- 25:04more or are you looking more at like maybe ablation
- 25:07or surgical like where do you feel like those other options fit in
- 25:10yes so I I think so you're right so I think a patient
- 25:12who presents with very limited disease um
- 25:15you know I think in some ways these are sometimes
- 25:17the harder patients
- 25:17right cause maybe you have all the options on the table
- 25:20you know maybe RP2's on the table
- 25:21PHP and Ipi Nivo is on the table immunoembos on the table
- 25:25check if it's just one or two tumors
- 25:26yeah things like ablation could be on the table
- 25:29um so you know in those cases
- 25:31you know we kind of hash it all out right so
- 25:34again you've um
- 25:36you've probably heard me talk about this but kind of my decision
- 25:38tree so you know knowing HLA so again patients
- 25:42who have very limited disease who are A2 positive
- 25:45certainly things like Tebentafusp um
- 25:47on a clinical trial or by itself
- 25:49um you know can make sense um
- 25:53we would normally do immuno
- 25:54embo if we were gonna reach for a liver directed
- 25:56therapy
- 25:56if we're really just talking about one or two tumors
- 25:58very limited disease
- 26:00you know the the way that we think about ablation
- 26:03or histotripsy rarely surgery um
- 26:07is is patients who've really declared themselves
- 26:10as having
- 26:10truly slow growing kind of oligometastatic disease so
- 26:14we like to see maybe a couple MRIs showing
- 26:18no other tumors because you don't want to put somebody
- 26:20through an ablation or Histotripsy
- 26:22and then your scan a month or two later
- 26:25there's five more tumors so you know often
- 26:28if we have a patient who maybe we've been following
- 26:30this like 7 millimeter thing
- 26:32and then it's 8 millimeters then we biopsy it
- 26:35then we get another scan and it's 1.2 cm
- 26:39you know we'll we will ablate that
- 26:42it still doesn't have friends we will ablate
- 26:44that I think we feel very comfortable ablating
- 26:46something like that um
- 26:48you know the thing though to
- 26:49remember is that things like ablation
- 26:51surgery and Histotripsy
- 26:53depending there are some trials
- 26:55that consider that a line of therapy um and so
- 26:59you know do you want to do this you know
- 27:02potentially short term
- 27:05you know very directed therapy
- 27:06that could buy you a period of time of no treatment
- 27:10um or
- 27:11do you just wanna go right onto potentially a trial or
- 27:13another treatment because
- 27:16you know if you do the ablation then you can't so
- 27:19again these are all things that certainly come up in um
- 27:22come up in conversation and
- 27:24and you always wish you have a crystal ball
- 27:26um but I haven't found a crystal ball
- 27:28yet so you kind of you know use your experience
- 27:31your judgment discussion with the patients
- 27:34you know and understanding of hopefully
- 27:35what's out there what's to come
- 27:37um you know to to hopefully make the right choice
- 27:41yeah well and I wanted to ask you you mentioned
- 27:43like you know that we have this big discussion
- 27:45um do you feel like you have that discussion
- 27:47like first and foremost just mostly with the patient
- 27:51or do you guys have at Jefferson
- 27:52like I just know that some some areas
- 27:54like some of the regional centers
- 27:56like the bigger centers they have like a tumor board
- 27:58or they have like a large group of doctors
- 28:00that they all get together and they look at the scans
- 28:02and they go like oh my gosh what are we looking at here
- 28:04how do you guys typically approach a new metastatic or a progressing matastatic patient
- 28:09yeah um so we have a tumor board every Monday morning
- 28:14where we review all the patients
- 28:16that we're gonna see in clinic that day um
- 28:18as well as then probably 20 or 30 or more um
- 28:22other patients who were following their scans um
- 28:25and certainly if it's a new patient referred
- 28:27to us or it's a patient that has new progression
- 28:30exactly you know um
- 28:31our tumor boards really radiology driven so
- 28:34you know MRIs of livers cat scans
- 28:37you know up on the screen um IRs present
- 28:40met med oncs present sometimes radiation oncology is
- 28:43present our research coordinators are present
- 28:45and we hash it out um
- 28:47and sometimes there's you know um you know uh
- 28:51agreement between all parties um
- 28:53you know and sometimes people have different thoughts
- 28:56um and you know ultimately we take that conversation to
- 29:01to the patient so then we also see patients together so
- 29:04then med onc and IR
- 29:05will actually see patients
- 29:06together in the same room at the same time
- 29:08that same day if it's patient being seen that day
- 29:11and we'll kind of rehash what our group discussed
- 29:14and you know often times we come out of that meeting
- 29:16saying like okay I think we're gonna recommend A
- 29:20you know if the patients feeling
- 29:22a certain way about it you know B or C are totally
- 29:24other you know also reasonable
- 29:26or we only recommend A and
- 29:29these are the reasons why we wouldn't do B or C
- 29:31and essentially then we take that conversation
- 29:34um into clinic with the patients and and go from there
- 29:37yeah no I love it I think it's so it's so
- 29:40interesting to hear like this kind of it's
- 29:42such a collaborative approach
- 29:43and I think that it allows room for
- 29:47those kind of out of the box options to become
- 29:49part of the discussion
- 29:51or just the creativity of medical care
- 29:54especially in uveal melanoma like I feel like that's
- 29:57it's one of the challenges
- 29:58but it's also I think one of the cool things that we get to witness
- 30:01that you guys do as doctors so I love that
- 30:04um what about Kimmtrak
- 30:06I know like we just got some data
- 30:08about Kimmtrak and that's obviously
- 30:09only for HLA-A02:01 positive patients um but
- 30:13where do you I mean where do you live now on Kimmtrak
- 30:16now that we've got a little bit more of that overall survival
- 30:18data to go on
- 30:20yeah so I I so yeah so for for those uh
- 30:23listening that may not know all the data
- 30:24but you know so the original trial
- 30:26read out then there was a three year overall
- 30:28overall survival follow up and then most recently
- 30:31I think at AACR um
- 30:32there's the five year overall survival follow up and
- 30:35and I think it's pretty similar to what we've been experiencing
- 30:38you know now that we've been using the drug for a while
- 30:41um
- 30:41you know there does seems to be a subset of patients
- 30:44who just have a very prolonged
- 30:47you know benefit from the drug and and survival um
- 30:50you know I think what what you kind of see
- 30:52kind of in that group are patients
- 30:54who've either had prior Tebe
- 30:55and are now on something else and still
- 30:57having good survival
- 30:58or there's actually patients that are still on Tebe
- 31:00for just a really long time um
- 31:03you know um we've certainly had patients
- 31:05who've been on now 5, 6+ years
- 31:08um you know on weekly Tebentafusp therapy
- 31:12some of them have gotten
- 31:13other things sprinkled in over time so I think that is the nice thing about Tebe
- 31:17um is that because there's so few side effects
- 31:20kind of beyond those first um few doses
- 31:23uh you know if someone maybe has a mixed response
- 31:26you know a couple years in or something
- 31:28new pop up you can radiate it you can ablate it um
- 31:32you can do liver directed therapy
- 31:34um and you can kind of keep Tebe on
- 31:36um in in the background um so yeah I
- 31:39again I think going back to the you know early days of
- 31:42of Tebe
- 31:43you know obviously it was a huge deal to have a drug
- 31:46um approved um you know I think we were
- 31:50you know we were hopeful
- 31:51maybe was gonna have more of a response
- 31:53rate but it seems like even without having that
- 31:55you know you know big
- 31:57response rate up front there's patients who clearly
- 31:59continue to derive benefit um so we still
- 32:02use a lot of it either by itself or like I said in combination
- 32:06um again only for the A2 positive patients
- 32:09um but it's a definitely certainly something
- 32:12um that we use and again to just um let everybody
- 32:15know that if they're thinking about Tebentafusp
- 32:18you know to potentially look
- 32:19around or ask about these trials that are popping up
- 32:22in a couple places
- 32:23where it's kind of Tebe plus something
- 32:25um because I think that's potentially gonna
- 32:27move the needle um a little more forward
- 32:30oh I love that
- 32:31um okay well well overall I feel like we've covered
- 32:34obviously we've covered a lot
- 32:35you guys who are listening
- 32:36I know we covered a lot so please feel free
- 32:38go back and I I should have said this at the beginning
- 32:40but if you've been tuning in on the podcast
- 32:42and you haven't
- 32:42actually been able to like watch the slides
- 32:45head over to the YouTube channel
- 32:46because we do have the slides
- 32:47up on the YouTube channel uh but like this has been
- 32:51really helpful
- 32:52just to break it down and to kind of see
- 32:54the benefit of where we're at right now in the uveal
- 32:57space um and I think overall my takeaway here is that
- 33:00even with standard of care
- 33:01like one of the big benefits
- 33:02that we always talk about is that this gives us some more time
- 33:05right using standard of care options
- 33:07is going to give metastatic patients time and
- 33:10time means time for the rain to fall as you said
- 33:14yes I feel like we need to like insert
- 33:15the Hilary Duff song or whatever but um but yes
- 33:19well a lot there's a lot I think there's a Lady
- 33:21Gaga song about rain but yeah no I I I feel it um
- 33:25yeah I I feel it um I know you know patients are
- 33:28you know in need of
- 33:30more things um and just to know that
- 33:32we're working on it
- 33:33um and like I said I would I would tune in post ASCO
- 33:36um you know for potentially some uh
- 33:38some new things coming down the pike
- 33:40okay so post ASCO
- 33:42that's where you think we should kind of keep our focus
- 33:44going into the summer and these research
- 33:46obviously we've had AACR just happened
- 33:48so we've got AACR that just happened
- 33:51and just you know keep that in mind
- 33:53that as we go into the summer we here at A Cure In Sight
- 33:56we've got the Eye On Research
- 33:57convention that we will do it's just that like
- 33:59seminar that's virtual
- 34:01and we're gonna kind of pull together all the
- 34:03important pieces from AACR and ASCO of course coming up at the end of the month
- 34:07in May and June so theres obviously gonna be some announcements and some data
- 34:13and so keep an eye out for that literally in some cases
- 34:18I feel like that's my token joke I have one eye so then I'm like oh I'm gonna keep an eye out
- 34:22I'm like oh wait the only one I have
- 34:26but yeah like I think it is a Hilary Duff song the let the rain fall I'm coming
- 34:32yep I lover her music I grew up listenig to all of her music and I'm going to see her in concert
- 34:37yeah she's back so excited
- 34:41but thank you guys for listening thanks for tuning in
- 34:43if you're one of our subscribers
- 34:45on our YouTube channel or the podcast
- 34:46we couldn't do this without our listeners so make sure to just drop in the comments
- 34:50if you have questions tell us a little about your story and definitely reach out
- 34:53if you have big questions to Contact@ACureInSight.org
- 34:56and we'll make sure to connect you with um whether it's through our physician finder
- 35:00with doctors close to you that you can get opinions from or just to
- 35:03you know help make sure we can get your questions answered
- 35:07and let's see last and foremost or last lastly
- 35:11lastly, we're gonna just wrap with thanking our sponsors
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- 35:30And then I guess most importantly Dr. Orloff
- 35:32we just gotta thank you for being here and for
- 35:34just I feel like you always do such a good job
- 35:36of like putting things out there in a really clear
- 35:38concise way that I feel like just keeps us focused on the right things
- 35:43so thank you for being here
- 35:45absolutely
- 35:47alright you guys we will see you next time
- 35:49make sure to subscribe and we will talk to you later
- 35:51bye