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Regulatory Issues: FDA |
Division of Biologic Oncology Products, Office of Oncology Drug Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA
Key Words. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia • Progressive disease • First-line therapy • Alemtuzumab • Chlorambucil
Correspondence: Suzanne Demko, P.A.-C., U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, WO#22 Room 2307, Mail Stop 2343, Silver Spring, Maryland 20993, USA. Telephone: 301-796-2108; Fax: 301-796-9849; e-mail: suzanne.demko{at}fda.hhs.gov
Received November 2, 2007; accepted for publication January 8, 2008.
Disclosure: No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors, planners, reviewers, or staff managers of this article.
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Top
Footnotes
Learning Objectives
Abstract
Introduction
Patients and Methods
Results
Safety
Discussion
Acknowledgments
References
After completing this course, the reader will be able to:
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval for alemtuzumab on May 7, 2001, for the treatment of patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) who had been treated with alkylating agents and failed fludarabine therapy based on evidence of durable objective response rates in the range of 21%–33% across three single-arm studies. U.S. regulatory approval was contingent upon completion of a postmarketing commitment to confirm clinical benefit in the CAM 307 trial. CAM 307 was an open-label, international, multicenter, randomized trial designed to demonstrate a longer progression-free survival (PFS) duration with single-agent alemtuzumab than with single-agent chlorambucil in patients with previously untreated, Rai stage I–IV B-CLL experiencing progression of their disease requiring initiation of antileukemia treatment. The analyses of the primary (PFS) and key secondary endpoints were performed on an intent-to-treat (ITT) population of 297 patients. Conversion from accelerated to regular approval for alemtuzumab and a new labeling claim for the initial treatment of B-CLL on September 19, 2007, were supported by evidence of a significant and clinically meaningful longer PFS time, supported by higher overall and complete response rates.
| PATIENTS AND METHODS |
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= 0.05 (two-sided). Randomization was stratified with an adaptive randomization method used to achieve balance between the treatment arms for study center, Rai stage group (Rai I–II versus Rai III–IV), age (<65 years versus
65 years), World Health Organization (WHO) performance status score (0 or 1 versus 2), gender, and maximum lymph node size (nonpalpable or <5 cm versus
5 cm).
The primary efficacy endpoint for the trial was the PFS duration, calculated from the date of randomization to the date of disease progression or relapse as documented by an independent response review panel (IRRP) or the date of death from any cause, whichever occurred earlier. Patients without IRRP-documented disease progression who were alive on the date of last evaluation were censored at the date of last contact. Patients with missing tumor response assessments were considered to have progressed on the date of the inevaluable response determination plus 1 day. The statistical analysis plan specified a single interim analysis of PFS after 95 events and a final analysis of PFS after 70% of the population had progressed or died (190 events). Protocol-specified exploratory analyses of PFS were planned to assess for consistency of treatment effect within the following subgroups: age (<65 years versus
65 years), maximum lymph node diameter (nonpalpable or <5 cm versus
5 cm), gender, performance status (0 or 1 versus 2), percent marrow involvement, β2-microglobulin, and cytogenetic abnormalities. Additional study endpoints included overall survival, investigator-determined PFS, IRRP-determined overall and complete response rates, duration of response, time to treatment failure, and time to alternative treatment. Complete response (CR) and partial response (PR) were defined using the 1996 National Cancer Institute Working Group (NCIWG) criteria summarized in Table 1.
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Patients with previously untreated B-CLL exhibiting evidence of progressive disease were eligible to participate in the trial. Other relevant eligibility criteria are summarized in Table 2.
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Dose modifications (delay or discontinuation of alemtuzumab) were required for serious infection, disease progression, Common Toxicity Criteria (CTC) grade
3 pulmonary, renal, or hepatic toxicity, a positive qualitative polymerase chain reaction assay for cytomegalovirus (CMV), autoimmune anemia, or autoimmune thrombocytopenia, an absolute neutrophil count
0.25 x 109/l, a platelet count
50% of the baseline value in patients with a baseline value
0.25 x 109/l; if alemtuzumab dosing was held for >4 weeks, treatment was terminated.
Chlorambucil was administered at a dose of 40 mg/m2 orally once every 28 days for a maximum of 12 months. Chlorambucil was interrupted or discontinued for disease progression, CTC grade
3 pulmonary, renal, hepatic, or nonhematologic toxicity, serious infection, autoimmune anemia or autoimmune thrombocytopenia, complete remission, and a response plateau. Allopurinol was given prior to the first day of chlorambucil treatment and for 8 days thereafter for the first three treatment cycles.
| RESULTS |
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The baseline characteristics for the ITT population, by treatment arm, are shown in Table 3. The treatment arms were balanced for major demographic and prognostic factors. Gender stratification was similar to that seen in B-CLL, where there is a 2:1 male-to-female ratio. Ninety-nine percent of patients were white, and 65% were <65 years of age. The majority of patients enrolled in the study were IRRP-confirmed RAI stage I–II (63%), had a WHO performance status score of 0 or 1 (96%), and had a maximal lymph node diameter of <5 cm (77%).
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The difference in PFS duration between the alemtuzumab and chlorambucil treatment arms using the log-rank test, stratified by Rai stage (I–II versus III–IV) was highly statistically significant, with a p-value of .0001 and an estimated hazard ratio of 0.58 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.43–0.77). The median PFS time was 445 days (14.6 months) in the alemtuzumab arm compared with 357 days (11.7 months) in the chlorambucil arm (Table 4). Figure 1 represents the Kaplan-Meier curves for PFS.
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65 years of age (n = 104), with a hazard ratio of 0.68 (95% CI, 0.418–1.107). Because of the limited number of patients, exploratory analyses comparing effects on PFS conducted in the following subgroups were not meaningful: WHO performance status score of 2 (n = 10), lymph node size
5 cm (n = 67), and enrollment at U.S. sites (n = 24).
The study demonstrated a significantly higher overall response rate (83% versus 55%; p < .0001,
2 test) for alemtuzumab-treated patients than for those treated with chlorambucil, with an estimated odds ratio for response of 3.99 (95% CI, 2.33–6.84). The study also demonstrated a significantly higher complete response rate for alemtuzumab of 24% versus 2% when compared with chlorambucil (p < .0001,
2 test). The median duration of response for patients treated with alemtuzumab was 492 days (16.4 months), and it was 386 days (12.9 months) for patients treated with chlorambucil. The impact on the resolution of B-symptoms was also evaluated. At study entry, night sweats were common, reported in 43% of patients who received alemtuzumab and 47% who received chlorambucil. After 3 months of treatment, night sweats were reported in 3% of patients treated with alemtuzumab and 13% treated with chlorambucil.
In the analysis of time to alternative treatment, defined as the time from randomization to the date of alternative treatment or death, patients in the alemtuzumab arm experienced a longer time to alternative treatment than patients in the chlorambucil arm; the median time to alternative treatment was 708 days (23.3 months) among patients in the alemtuzumab arm and 447 days (14.7 months) among patients in the chlorambucil arm (p-value < .0001, log-rank test, unadjusted for multiplicity).
An additional secondary endpoint was time to treatment failure, defined as the time from randomization to the date of progression, death from any cause, study discontinuation because of an adverse event, or treatment interruption because of an adverse event resulting in treatment delay over 4 weeks, whichever was earliest. The time to treatment failure was not significantly different between the two treatment arms, with a median time to treatment failure of 299 days (10 months) for alemtuzumab and of 344 days (11.5 months) for chlorambucil.
There was no difference detected in overall survival between treatment arms; there were 24 deaths in each study arm at the time of analysis. However, the study was not powered to detect a difference in overall survival. There were not enough events or long enough follow-up to detect a difference in survival, and there was no plan for continued follow-up of patients in this study.
| SAFETY |
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The most common adverse reactions of alemtuzumab (NCI-CTC version 2.0 grades 1–4) were infusion reactions, which were experienced by 86% of patients receiving alemtuzumab. The most common signs and symptoms of an infusion reaction were pyrexia (69%), chills (53%), nausea (18%), hypotension (16%), urticaria (16%), headache (14%), dyspnea (14%), and vomiting (11%). Seen less frequently, with incidence rates of
10%, were tachycardia, anxiety, pruritis, tremor, and bronchospasm. The occurrence of infusion reactions was greatest during the initial week of treatment and decreased with subsequent doses. All patients were pretreated with antipyretics and antihistamines, and 43% received glucocorticoids as pretreatment.
Infections occurred in 90% of patients treated with alemtuzumab and 65% of patients treated with chlorambucil. CMV infection was reported in 16% of patients treated with alemtuzumab, of these, 5% were serious adverse events. No patients treated with chlorambucil developed CMV infection. CMV viremia was reported in 56% of patients treated with alemtuzumab and 8% treated with chlorambucil. Antiviral treatment was administered in 44% of patients who developed CMV viremia. Serious adverse events were experienced by 11% of patients, all of whom were treated with alemtuzumab.
Anti-human antibodies to alemtuzumab were detected in 8% of patients tested using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Patients with detectable antibody titers were also weakly positive when analyzed for neutralizing antibodies in 25% of cases.
| DISCUSSION |
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Single-agent alemtuzumab provided a statistically significant and clinically meaningful longer PFS time than with chlorambucil in patients with B-CLL who had been previously untreated, had evidence of disease progression, and were in need of treatment. The data from this randomized, open-label, international, multicenter trial demonstrate that alemtuzumab led to an 88 days (2.9 months) longer median PFS time when compared with chlorambucil and a 42% longer time to disease progression or death. The secondary endpoints of overall response rate and complete response rate were supportive of the primary results, with a significantly higher overall response rate (83% vs. 55%) and complete response rate (24% versus 2%) for alemtuzumab-treated patients. Survival data are immature; there was no evidence of any effect on survival.
No new safety signals were identified in this study. The most common and most serious adverse reactions of alemtuzumab identified during this study were severe and life-threatening cytopenias, infusion reactions, and infections, especially CMV; some of these events were fatal. The toxicity profile of alemtuzumab as demonstrated in this study was consistent with the information already contained in the prescribing information. While the risks associated with alemtuzumab treatment can be significant, in a risk–benefit analysis of this agent for B-CLL treatment, the potential benefits mitigate the frequency and severity of the risks.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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Collection/assembly of data: Suzanne Demko
Data analysis and interpretation: Suzanne Demko, Jeffrey Summers
Manuscript writing: Suzanne Demko
Final approval of manuscript: Richard Pazdur
Preliminary editing: Jeffrey Summers
Final editing, Division approval: Patricia Keegan
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