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Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 26, No 14 (May 10), 2008: pp. 2390-2395 © 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2007.13.0096 Safety and Efficacy of Gemtuzumab Ozogamicin in Combination With Chemotherapy for Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Report From The Children's Oncology Group
From the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Children's Oncology Group, Arcadia, CA; Maine Children's Cancer Program and Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center, Scarborough, ME; M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington, Department of Pediatrics; Seattle Genetics, Seattle, WA; Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, Cleveland; University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH; and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD Corresponding author: Richard Aplenc, MD, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Clinical Epidemiology/Biostatistic, 3615 Civic Center Blvd, 916G ARC, Philadelphia, PA 19104-4318; e-mail: raplenc{at}mail.med.upenn.edu
Purpose While gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GTMZ) is commonly used in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in combination with standard chemotherapy agents, the pediatric maximum-tolerated dose (MTD) of GMTZ in combination with chemotherapy has not been determined. Patients and Methods The Children's Oncology Group AAML00P2 trial sought to define the MTD of GMTZ in combination with cytarabine and mitoxantrone and cytarabine and l-asparaginase chemotherapy regimens. Results The MTD for GMTZ in combination with cytarabine and mitoxantrone was 3 mg/m2 while the MTD in combination with cytarabine and l-asparaginase was 2 mg/m2. Toxicities observed in both treatment regimens were typical of those seen in the relapsed AML setting and consisted primarily of infectious complications. The overall remission response rate (mean ± SE) was 45% ± 15% and the 1 year event-free survival and overall survival estimates were 38% ± 14% and 53% ± 15%, respectively. Conclusion This trial determined the pediatric MTD for GMTZ with two commonly used AML chemotherapy combinations. Based on these results, an ongoing phase III trial conducted within the Children's Oncology Group is evaluating the effect of GMTZ when added to standard AML therapy.
Although acute myeloid leukemia (AML) occurs less frequently than acute lymphoid leukemia in children, the number of children who suffer a relapse of AML or acute lymphoid leukemia are approximately equal.1 Unfortunately, despite intensive salvage therapies that include hematopoeitic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT), a substantial portion of children with relapsed AML die from refractory disease or treatment-related toxicity. Thus, new therapies are needed both for de novo and relapsed AML. Current efforts to improve AML outcome have focused on the development of targeted therapies that may allow improved antileukemic effect without substantially increasing toxicity. Of these molecularly targeted therapies, gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GTMZ) is perhaps the most comprehensively studied in adults.2,3 GMTZ consists of a humanized anti-CD33 antibody linked to calicheamicin, a highly potent chemotherapeutic. After binding to CD33, GMTZ is internalized, with subsequent hydrolysis releasing calicheamicin that in turn binds the minor grove of DNA and causes double-stranded DNA breaks. Multiple adult studies have determined the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD) of GMTZ as a single agent and in combination with multiple chemotherapy regimens.2,4 A phase I trial determining dose-limiting toxicity of GMTZ as a single agent in children with AML has been reported.5 While additional pediatric case series of GMTZ have been reported,6 dose-finding studies of GMTZ in chemotherapy combinations in children have not been reported. The Children's Oncology Group (COG) trial AAML00P2 sought to determine the MTD and provide preliminary response data using GMTZ in combination with two chemotherapy regimens commonly used in pediatric AML: high-dose cytarabine and mitoxantrone and high-dose cytarabine with l-asparaginase (Capizzi II). This report summarizes the results of the AAML00P2 trial.
Patients The AAML00P2 trial enrolled patients with refractory disease after initial induction therapy for de novo AML, an initial remission duration of less than 1 year, or secondary AML without prior therapy. Enrollment criteria included age younger than 21 years at time of study enrollment, adequate cardiac, renal, and hepatic function, no prior history of veno-occlusive disease (VOD), an appropriate performance status, and a 6-month duration between study enrollment and prior SCT. Exclusion criteria included CNS leukemia defined by either no clinical evidence of CNS disease or a negative lumbar puncture, pregnancy, Trisomy-21, Fanconi anemia, and history of clinical VOD. Cytogenetic results were not centrally reviewed. Initial dose finding was performed in a limited number of institutions. Once the MTD was established for each study arm, the study was opened throughout COG. Planned accrual was 20 assessable patients for each study arm once the MTD was determined. Signed informed consent was obtained from either study participants or guardians. The trial was approved by local institutional review boards and performed in a manner consistent with tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and with Good Clinical Practice guidelines.
Treatment Regimens Arm A contained cytarabine 1,000 mg/m2/dose (33 mg/kg/dose for patients < 3 years of age) as an intravenous (IV) infusion over 2 hours every 12 hours, on days 1 through 4, for a total of eight doses (8 g/m2 or 264 mg/kg for patients < 3 years of age) and mitoxantrone 12 mg/m2/dose (0.4 mg/kg/dose for patients < 3 years of age) as an IV infusion over 1 hour on days 3 through 6 for a total of four doses (48 mg/m2 or 1.6 mg/kg for patients < 3 years of age). GTMZ was given as an IV infusion over 2 hours on day 7. Arm B used cytarabine 3,000 mg/m2/dose (100 mg/kg/dose for patients < 3 years of age) as an IV infusion over 3 hours every 12 hours, on days 1 and 2, for a total of four doses (12 g/m2 or 400 mg/kg for patients < 3 years of age) and l-asparaginase 6,000 U/m2 intramuscularly (IM) on day 2, hour 18 (for patients < 3 years of age, 200 U/kg IM). GMTZ was given as an IV infusion over 2 hours on day 3. Cytarabine 3,000 mg/m2/dose (100 mg/kg/dose for patients < 3 years of age) was given as an IV infusion over 3 hours every 12 hours, on days 8 and 9, for a total of four doses (12 g/m2 or 400 mg/kg for patients < 3 years of age) and L-asparaginase 6,000 U/m2 IM on day 9, hour 18 (for patients < 3 years of age, 200 U/kg IM). Intrathecal therapy was not given on either study arm. Poststudy treatment was at the discretion of the treating physician.
Safety Assessments
Efficacy Assessments
Statistics
Patient Characteristics AAML00P2 patient characteristics are found in Table 1. Patient characteristics were typical for patients with relapsed, refractory, or secondary AML. Significant differences in sex, age, ethnicity, disease type, and presentation WBC were not observed. However, eight patients with primary induction failure were enrolled onto arm B while only one patient with refractory disease was enrolled onto arm A. This difference was statistically significant (P = .027). Data on two arm B patients who were enrolled but unassessable for response are also included in Table 1. Two patients were deemed ineligible; one patient was noted not to meet eligibility criteria on data review and the other patient did not have appropriate documentation of informed consent.
MTD Determination The starting GMTZ dose of 3 mg/m2 was well tolerated in the first three patients enrolled onto the cytarabine and mitoxantrone study arm (arm A) and was set as the MTD for this study arm. In the high-dose cytarabine and L-asparaginase arm (arm B), all three patients treated with GMTZ at 3 mg/m2 had dose-limiting toxicities. Patient 1 experienced grade 3 pharyngitis and transaminitis; patient 2 experienced grade 4 pancreatitis; and patient 3 had grade 3 transaminitis and grade 2 hyperbilirubinemia concurrent with fatal Pseudomonas sepsis. Because of these dose-limiting toxicities, the GMTZ dose was de-escalated to 2 mg/m2 in arm B and a total of six patients were treated at this dose level. Of these six patients, one had grade 4 pancreatitis with a grade 3 infection, two additional patients had grade 3 infections, and three patients had minimal nonhematologic toxicities. Thus, the MTD of GMTZ was set at 2 mg/m2 in combination with high-dose cytarabine and L-asparaginase using the Capizzi II regimen schedule.
Toxicity Data Six patients died while on protocol or within 30 days of termination of protocol therapy. Two patients died from sepsis with Pseudomonas and Pseudomonas/Acinetobacter sepsis, respectively. One patient on arm A died with presumed culture negative sepsis with an acute drop in cardiac shortening fraction to 14% approximately 17 days after receiving GMTZ. One patient died from toxicity during salvage chemotherapy for the treatment of PD after completing AAML00P2 protocol specified therapy. Two patients died of PD. One patient, who received a matched-related donor SCT 229 days before AAML00P2 therapy, developed VOD on arm B at a GMTZ dose of 3 mg/m2. Concurrent with VOD, the patient experienced grade 4 pancreatitis and recovered with supportive care measures alone. Four of 28 patients developed VOD during HSCT with two patients having grade 1 and one patient each with grades 3 and 4. The interval to HSCT was fewer than 3 months in the patient with grade 4 VOD. All four patients with VOD recovered with only the patient with grade 4 VOD receiving defibrotide. Twelve of 28 patients died after SCT. Of these, four died from transplant-related toxicity. Reported causes of death were acute respiratory distress syndrome, multisystem organ failure, and infection. Transplant-related mortality was not associated with AAML00P2 treatment arm.
Response Data
The median follow-up for all patients alive at last contact was 642 days (range, 192 to 1,190). The median for arm A patients is 703 days (range, 192 to 1,190) and for arm B 2 mg/m2 patients is 422 days (range, 288 to 597). Figure 1 illustrates EFS and OS for the overall trial; 2-year EFS and OS estimates are 31% ± 15% and 45% ± 16%, respectively. EFS and OS estimates at 1 year by study arm are reported in Table 3. These results parallel the remission induction results with an increased survival in arm A patients. However, the survival differences are not statistically significantly different. Moreover, Table 3 also reports EFS and OS by initial diagnosis (induction failure, relapsed AML, or secondary AML), demonstrating the different proportions and outcomes among these patient subgroups.
This study has defined the pediatric MTD of GMTZ to be 3 mg/m2 in combination with cytabarbine and mitoxantrone and 2 mg/m2 in combination with cytarabine and L-asparaginase. Moreover, the toxicities of GMTZ combined with chemotherapy did not appear substantially different from standard relapsed AML reinduction regimens.10,11 As expected in the relapsed AML setting, infectious complications were most prominent.12 The overall rate of infectious complications did not appear to differ substantially from other reported AML treatment regimens. Thus, the addition of GMTZ to standard AML chemotherapy does not appear to increase the risk of infectious complications. Notably, the two patients who died of culture-proven sepsis both received protocol therapy on an outpatient basis. While the utility and cost-effectiveness of mandated hospitalization until neutrophil recovery is controversial, this experience provides at least anectodal evidence supporting hospitalization until neutrophil recovery in patients with high-risk AML. The occurrence of pancreatitis in two patients treated on arm B therapy was unexpected. However, additional data from ongoing trials is needed to determine whether the observed pancreatitis rate is higher than that seen with the Capizzi high-dose cytarabine and L-asparaginase regimen alone. Although a substantial concern before study opening, VOD was not a clinically important observed toxicity for patients during protocol therapy. This observation is concordant with the Medical Research Council trial of GMTZ/chemotherapy combinations that did not use thioguanine or repeated GMTZ dosing.4 The observed rate of severe VOD (16% ± 14%; mean ± SE) in HSCT did not differ substantially from the rate expected in high-risk unrelated donor transplants.7 Consistent with other reports, the two patients with severe VOD (grade IV) underwent HSCT fewer than 3 months after GMTZ exposure.5,13 Thus, concerns for GMTZ-associated VOD in SCT would be most relevant for patients who required a myeloablative conditioning in close temporal proximity to a GMTZ-containing reinduction regimen. The remission reinduction rates at the MTD on arms A and B were 55% and 40%, respectively. OS and EFS rates were comparable, with differences that were not statistically significant. While these differences were not statistically significant, the modest numbers of enrolled patients limits the statistical power to detect a significant difference between treatment arms. Furthermore, treatment arm allocation on AAML00P2 was not randomized. Hence, arm A enrolled one patient with primary induction failure, while arm B enrolled eight such patients. Thus, definitive conclusions about the relative efficacy of these two treatment regimens cannot be made based on this trial. In summary, this study determined the pediatric MTD of GMTZ in combination with two commonly used AML chemotherapy regimens. The MTD of GMTZ in combination with cytarabine and mitoxantrone was 3 mg/m2 while the MTD was 2 mg/m2 in combination with cytarabine and l-asparaginase. While the observed toxicities were clinically important, these toxicities do not appear substantially different from the toxicities generally seen after AML therapy. Based on other reported pediatric relapsed AML reinduction data, both treatment regimens had an acceptable remission induction rate. This trial did not test whether the addition of GMTZ provided any additional benefit above chemotherapy alone. That clinically important question is the primary aim of the ongoing COG de novo phase III AML trial, AAML0531.
Although all authors completed the disclosure declaration, the following author(s) indicated a financial or other interest that is relevant to the subject matter under consideration in this article. Certain relationships marked with a "U" are those for which no compensation was received; those relationships marked with a "C" were compensated. For a detailed description of the disclosure categories, or for more information about ASCO's conflict of interest policy, please refer to the Author Disclosure Declaration and the Disclosures of Potential Conflicts of Interest section in Information for Contributors. Employment or Leadership Position: Eric L. Sievers, Seattle Genetics (C) Consultant or Advisory Role: None Stock Ownership: Eric L. Sievers, Seattle Genetics Honoraria: None Research Funding: None Expert Testimony: None Other Remuneration: Irwin Bernstein, Wyeth (royalties paid to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)
Conception and design: Richard Aplenc, Todd A. Alonzo, Beverly J. Lange, Craig A. Hurwitz, Irwin Bernstein, Franklin O. Smith, Eric L. Sievers, Robert J. Arceci Administrative support: Richard Aplenc, Patrick Buckley, Kathleen Krimmel Provision of study materials or patients: Richard Aplenc, Beverly J. Lange, Craig A. Hurwitz, Kathleen Krimmel, Eric L. Sievers, Robert J. Arceci Collection and assembly of data: Richard Aplenc, Todd A. Alonzo, Robert B. Gerbing, Robert J. Wells, Kathleen Krimmel, Franklin O. Smith, Eric L. Sievers, Robert J. Arceci Data analysis and interpretation: Richard Aplenc, Todd A. Alonzo, Robert B. Gerbing, Robert J. Wells, Franklin O. Smith, Robert J. Arceci Manuscript writing: Richard Aplenc, Todd A. Alonzo, Beverly J. Lange, Craig A. Hurwitz, Robert J. Wells, Irwin Bernstein, Patrick Buckley, Franklin O. Smith, Eric L. Sievers, Robert J. Arceci Final approval of manuscript: Richard Aplenc, Todd A. Alonzo, Beverly J. Lange, Craig A. Hurwitz, Robert J. Wells, Irwin Bernstein, Patrick Buckley, Kathleen Krimmel, Franklin O. Smith, Eric L. Sievers, Robert J. Arceci
Veno-occlusive disease grading system. Grade 1: mild veno-occlusive disease, requiring no symptomatic therapy; weight gain < 5% of pretreatment weight and total bilirubin < 5 mg/dL. Grade 2: two or more of the following: requires symptomatic intervention with medication alone (eg, analgesics, diuretics); weight gain > 5 to < 10% of pretreatment weight; or total bilirubin > 5 to < 10 mg/dL. Grade 3: two or more of the following: requires invasive symptomatic management for severe liver- related symptomatology (eg, paracentesis); weight gain > 10 to < 25% of pretreatment weight; or total bilirubin > 10 to < 25 mg/dL. Grade 4: two or more of the following: multisystem involvement (eg, renal compromise felt to be secondary to veno-occlusive disease); weight gain > 25% of pretreatment weight; or total bilirubin > 25 mg/dL. Grade 5: fatal.
Supported by Grants No. 1 R01 CA108862 (R.A.) and 1 U10 CA98413-01 (T.A.A.). A complete listing of grant support for research conducted by Children's Cancer Group and Pediatric Oncology Group before initiation of the Children's Oncology Group grant in 2003 is available online at: http://www.childrensoncologygroup.org/admin/grantinfo.htm. Authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.
1. Arceci RJ: Progress and controversies in the treatment of pediatric acute myelogenous leukemia. Curr Opin Hematol 9:353-360, 2002[CrossRef][Medline] 2. Sievers EL, Appelbaum FR, Spielberger RT, et al: Selective ablation of acute myeloid leukemia using antibody-targeted chemotherapy: A phase I study of an anti-CD33 calicheamicin immunoconjugate. Blood 93:3678-3684, 1999 3. Sievers EL, Larson RA, Stadtmauer EA, et al: Efficacy and safety of gemtuzumab ozogamicin in patients with CD33-positive acute myeloid leukemia in first relapse. J Clin Oncol 19:3244-3254, 2001 4. Kell WJ, Burnett AK, Chopra R, et al: A feasibility study of simultaneous administration of gemtuzumab ozogamicin with intensive chemotherapy in induction and consolidation in younger patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Blood 102:4277-4283, 2003 5. Arceci RJ, Sande J, Lange B, et al: Safety and efficacy of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg(R)) in pediatric patients with advanced CD33-positive acute myeloid leukemia. Blood 106:1183-1188, 2005 6. Zwaan CM, Reinhardt D, Corbacioglu S, et al: Gemtuzumab ozogamicin: First clinical experiences in children with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia treated on compassionate-use basis. Blood 101:3868-3871, 2003 7. McDonald GB, Hinds MS, Fisher LD, et al: Veno-occlusive disease of the liver and multiorgan failure after bone marrow transplantation: A cohort study of 355 patients. Ann Intern Med 118:255-267, 1993 8. Kaplan E, Meier P: Nonparametric estimation from incomplete observations. J Am Stat Assoc 53:457-481, 1958[CrossRef] 9. Greenwood M: The Natural Duration of Cancer: Reports on Public Health and Medical Subjects (Vol 33, No. 1). London, United Kingdom, HM Stationery Office, 1926, pp 1-26 10. Wells RJ, Adams MT, Alonzo TA, et al: Mitoxantrone and cytarabine induction, high-dose cytarabine, and etoposide intensification for pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia: Children's Cancer Group study 2951. J Clin Oncol 21:2940-2947, 2003 11. Milligan DW, Wheatley K, Littlewood T, et al: Fludarabine and cytosine are less effective than standard ADE chemotherapy in high-risk acute myeloid leukemia, and addition of G-CSF and ATRA are not beneficial: Results of the MRC AML-HR randomized trial. Blood 107:4614-4622, 2006 12. Lehrnbecher T, Varwig D, Kaiser J, et al: Infectious complications in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia: Analysis of the prospective multi-institutional clinical trial AML-BFM 93. Leukemia 18:72-77, 2004[CrossRef][Medline] 13. Wadleigh M, Richardson PG, Zahrieh D, et al: Prior gemtuzumab ozogamicin exposure significantly increases the risk of veno-occlusive disease in patients who undergo myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Blood 8:8, 2003 Submitted June 12, 2007; accepted January 23, 2008.
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Copyright © 2008 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Online ISSN: 1527-7755. Print ISSN: 0732-183X
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