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Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 23, No 3 (January 20), 2005: pp. 585-590 © 2005 American Society of Clinical Oncology. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2005.06.125 Imatinib Mesylate in Patients With Adenoid Cystic Cancers of the Salivary Glands Expressing c-kit: A Princess Margaret Hospital Phase II Consortium StudyFrom the Princess Margaret Hospital Phase II Consortium; The University of Chicago Phase II Consortium; and Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD Address reprint requests to Sebastien J. Hotte, MD, Juravinski Cancer Centre at Hamilton Health Sciences, 699 Concession St, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8V 5C2; e-mail: sebastien.hotte{at}hrcc.on.ca
PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess the antitumor activity of imatinib in adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the salivary gland expressing c-kit. A high level of c-kit expression has been identified in more than 90% of ACCs. Imatinib specifically inhibits autophosphorylation of the bcr-abl, platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta, and c-kit tyrosine kinases. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a single-arm, two-stage, phase II clinical trial, adult patients with unresectable or metastatic ACC measurable by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors Group criteria and expressing c-kit by immunohistochemistry were treated with imatinib 400 mg orally bid. Response was assessed every 8 weeks. RESULTS: Sixteen patients have been enrolled onto the study; 10 were female. Median age was 47 years (range, 31 to 69 years). Median Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status was 1 (range, 0 to 2). Fourteen patients had lung metastases, 14 had prior radiotherapy, and six had prior chemotherapy. Toxicities occurring in at least 50% of patients included fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, edema, dyspnea, and/or headache, usually of mild to moderate severity. In 15 patients assessable for response, no objective responses have been observed. Nine patients had stable disease as best response. Six patients had progressive disease after two cycles. CONCLUSION: Because of the lack of activity, the study has been stopped after the first stage and additional evaluation of imatinib in this population is not warranted. Overexpression of wild-type c-kit was not sufficient for clinical benefit from imatinib in ACC. Accrual to this study was rapid for a relatively rare cancer, encouraging additional efforts to identify more effective systemic therapy for these patients.
Salivary gland cancers are uncommon malignancies, with an incidence of 10 occurrences per million in the United States, and account for 7% of head and neck tumors. Among the many different histologic subtypes of salivary gland cancers with heterogeneous clinical behaviors, adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), lymphoepithelioma-like salivary gland carcinoma, and myoepithelial salivary gland carcinoma share the common feature of c-kit overexpression, rendering these subtypes attractive for molecular targeted therapeutics. Approximately 22% of malignant salivary tumors are ACC, with a greater occurrence in minor than major salivary glands. The natural history of ACC is often protracted, with patients occasionally living for 10 to 20 years after confirmation of metastatic disease.1 Typical survival figures are 50% to 90% at 5 years, 30% to 67% at 10 years, and 25% at 15 years, respectively.1 Initial definitive therapy for these malignancies usually consists of surgical resection followed by radiotherapy for tumors deemed to have a high risk of local recurrence. The role of systemic therapy in ACC is in the management of local recurrence no longer amenable to additional surgery or radiotherapy, and in the palliation of symptoms from distant metastases. The response rates of ACC to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy have been generally modest, and were primarily derived from small institutional series and clinical trials. For example, the objective response rates of ACC to cytotoxic agents such as fluorouracil, anthracyclines, platinum compounds, paclitaxel, and vinorelbine are in the range of 15% to 30%.2-7 Duration of responses to chemotherapy typically was in the range of 6 to 9 months, with some responses lasting in excess of a year. The c-kit proto-oncogene encodes a 145- to 165-kd transmembrane cell surface receptor (Kit) in the same subclass as the receptors for platelet-derived growth factor and colony-stimulating factor.8 Various mutations in c-kit may result in aberrant signaling pathways.9-11 For instance, gain of function mutations in exon 11 (juxtamembrane domain) and exon 17 (tyrosine kinase domain) are involved in c-kit activation in gastrointestinal stroma tumors (GISTs) and mast cell tumors, respectively.8 In one series,9 c-kit expression was identified in ACC (20 of 25), and lymphoepithelium-like (six of six) and myoepithelial (two of two) carcinomas of the salivary gland. Expression of c-kit was not identified in other types of salivary gland tumors (zero of 46). Among the salivary tumors with c-kit protein expression, genetic alterations in exon 11 or 17 were not detected by DNA sequencing. Hence, c-kit overexpression is likely implicated in the pathogenesis of these salivary gland tumors, but genetic mutation is not the mechanism of c-kit activation. Similarly, in another series of 30 ACC patients, c-kit protein expression was demonstrated in 90% of the archival tumor specimens, but again no mutations in exons 11 or 17 were identified.12 Kit-positivity was associated with histologic grade 3 tumors and solid growth patterns. Imatinib (formerly known as STI 571) is a derivative of the 2-phenylaminopyrimidine series of protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors. It has been shown to inhibit potently the tyrosine kinases of ABL, the platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), and the receptor for c-kit. In a randomized study of 1,105 patients with newly diagnosed, chronic-phase, chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), imatinib was far superior to interferon and cytarabine in inducing hematologic and cytogenetic responses and in decreasing the likelihood of progression to accelerated-phase or blast-crisis CML due to constitutive activation of the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase.13 Imatinib has now been approved for use in patients with CML. Imatinib has also been evaluated in a number of other tumors expressing c-kit or PDGFR, such as GISTs,14 small-cell lung cancer,15 and systemic mast cell disease16 with varying levels of efficacy. Significant disease regression has been demonstrated with imatinib in more than 50% of patients with unresectable and/or metastatic GISTs, resulting in its approval by the US Food and Drug Administration for GIST patients in advanced stage.17 In contrast, a phase II study of imatinib in 19 patients with small-cell lung cancer reported no objective response. However, only 20% of the patients on that study had tumor specimens stained positive for c-kit by immunohistochemistry. On the basis of the lack of standard approach in the treatment of ACC of the salivary glands, the Princess Margaret Hospital Phase II Consortium, in collaboration with the University of Chicago Phase II Consortium, initiated a multi-institutional phase II study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of single-agent imatinib in this tumor type. Because reports in the literature have suggested that the vast majority of ACC overexpress the c-kit tyrosine kinase receptors, and that imatinib has demonstrated anticancer activity in some c-kitpositive tumors such as GISTs, c-kit positivity by immunohistochemistry was a requirement for entry onto the present study.
Patient Eligibility Patients 18 years of age or older with histologically documented or cytologically confirmed ACC were eligible if they had c-kitpositive tumors. C-kit positivity was determined using archival paraffin samples if possible; patients for whom archival samples were unavailable were required to undergo a biopsy to determine the c-kit status of their tumor. C-kit positivity was measured using immunohistochemistry performed locally at each participating institution and determined by primary mouse monoclonal antibody to CD117/c-kit. Immunostaining was done using the peroxidase-antiperoxidase technique after microwave treatment. The antibody dilution was 1:100 (catalog number A4502; DAKO, Carpinteria, CA). The sections were scored for c-kit positivity and classified as being absent, weak, moderate, or strong. For each case, at least one examiner scanned the entire slide at x40 to x100 magnification. Patients must have had at least weak c-kit staining to be eligible for this study.
Patients were required to have disease that was deemed unresectable and/or metastatic, radiologically documented, and measurable with at least one site of disease that could be measured unidimensionally as
Therapy
Toxicity Assessment and Dose Reductions
Assessment of Response
Statistical Considerations
Patients and Treatment Between July 2002 and May 2003, 16 patients were enrolled onto this study at four centers in Canada and the United States (16 patients were enrolled to ensure that at least 12 would be assessable at the first stage). All patients enrolled onto study had positive immunohistochemical staining for c-kit and all patients had a diagnosis of ACC. Twenty-one (88%) of the 24 patients screened for c-kit stained positive. Five patients who were screened positive for c-kit did not subsequently enroll onto the study because they failed to meet other eligibility criteria. Fifteen of 16 enrolled patients were assessable for efficacy assessment. All patients were assessable for toxicity. Patient characteristics are listed in Table 1. All patients had measurable disease. C-kit immunohistochemical staining scores and best clinical responses for each patient are listed in Table 2. Two patients completed more than six cycles of treatment: one patient had stable disease and progressed after cycle 13, and a second patient had unconfirmed partial response after cycle 8, but returned to stable disease status again in cycle 10 and experienced disease progression after cycle 12.
Response and Survival No objective responses were observed in the first 16 patients entered onto the study. One patient was removed from treatment during cycle 1 because of toxicity (rash) and was thus inassessable for response. Six patients had disease progression in cycle 2. Nine patients had radiologic stable disease after two cycles of treatment. Of these patients, one patient had symptomatic progression after cycle 2, one patient withdrew consent after cycle 2 (patient stopped taking study medication, reason unknown), and one patient died as a result of clinically progressive disease after cycle 2. Of the remaining six patients who continued therapy, one patient experienced disease progression radiologically after cycle 5, one patient experienced disease progression clinically after cycle 3, an additional patient withdrew consent (because of chronic mild toxicity, including headache, dyspnea, and dyspepsia), and one patient died suddenly at the end of cycle 4 with documented radiologic progression before death. Two patients have had a best response of prolonged stable disease and have received treatment for 13 and 12 cycles, respectively. One patient had ACC with slowly progressive lung metastases since 1993 and bone metastases despite prior chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgical decompression of spinal metastasis. This patient achieved stable disease as best response and was taken off study after 13 cycles because of disease progression. The other patient developed recurrence in the lungs shortly before entering the study after a previous period of remission of more than 4 years. This patient achieved stable disease as best response and treatment was discontinued after 12 cycles because of disease progression. Median survival for the patients entered onto this study was 30 weeks, and the 6-month survival rate was 61.4% (95% CI, 41.3% to 91.3%). Median progression-free survival was 10 weeks, and 6-month progression-free survival was 12.5% (95% CI, 3.4% to 45.7%). To date, eight patients have died and eight patients remain alive.
Toxicity
Two patients died while on the study. The first patient was a 59-year-old man with ACC of the trachea who died suddenly at home at the end of cycle 4. No postmortem examination was performed. Two weeks before death, the patient had been admitted to the hospital for pneumonia, received antibiotics, and was discharged home. A CT scan performed 2 days before death showed possible recurrence in the trachea. The second patient was a 43-year-old woman with ACC of the salivary gland who died at the end of cycle 2 of complications of a spiral CTproven pulmonary embolus, despite anticoagulant therapy.
Although patients with ACC tend to experience disease progression relatively slowly, a large number of patients with locoregional or distant metastatic recurrence will eventually die as a result of their disease. To date, no treatment has been able to improve the natural history of ACC, and there continues to be no accepted standard therapy other than surgery. The large proportion of tumors expressing c-kit in pathologic studies raised the possibility that agents targeting c-kit, such as imatinib, could play a role in the treatment of this disease and warranted clinical evaluation. Our study seems to refute this hypothesis because no objective response was observed in 16 enrolled patients. Although two patients have had prolonged stable disease of at least 6 months, the slow natural history of these tumors precludes any suggestion that imatinib played a role in arresting or slowing down tumor growth. One positive aspect of this study is that, despite the fact that ACC is a rare tumor, enrollment has been rapid, and 16 patients were enrolled within 9 months. Enthusiasm on the part of investigators and patients alike was excellent and should provide the foundation for conducting other studies evaluating novel therapeutic modalities in patients with ACC and in other uncommon malignancies.
It has been hypothesized recently that patients with GISTs who responded to imatinib were those who had specific activating mutations of c-kit.20 Heinrich et al20 examined 127 patients with GISTs enrolled onto a phase II clinical study of imatinib for mutations of c-kit or PDGFR- In conclusion, although imatinib was generally well tolerated, it was found to have no clinical activity in patients with advanced ACC. On a positive note, accrual to this study was rapid, despite the fact that ACC is a rare tumor, which should encourage additional efforts to identify more effective systemic therapy for these patients.
The authors indicated no potential conflicts of interest.
We thank Cynthia Bajda, Peggy Francis, and Trish Haines for their assistance as research coordinators on this study.
Supported by clinical trial contracts from the US National Cancer Institute, N01-CM-17107-01 and N01-CM-17102-01. Presented in part at the European Conference on Clinical Oncology (ECCO) meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 21-25, 2003. Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest are found at the end of this article.
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Copyright © 2005 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Online ISSN: 1527-7755. Print ISSN: 0732-183X
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