“This is an impressive clinical result given that historically, these cancers respond in the low single digit percentage range,” senior author David T. Ting, MD, said in a press release. He is an associate clinical director for innovation at the MGH Cancer Center and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
The phase 2 clinical trial involved 40 patients with treatment-resistant colorectal cancer and 25 patients with pancreatic cancer. The patients were treated with a combination of low-dose radiation and nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy).
Treatment evaluation showed that 37 percent of the colorectal cancer patients achieved a complete or partial response, while 29 percent of the pancreatic cancer patients responded. A complete or partial response to therapy means the tumor either disappeared, got smaller, or stayed the same and did not grow.
The results published in the Nov. 18, 2021 journal Nature Cancer confirmed preclinical trials that showed that adding low-dose radiation to a combination of immunotherapies using nivolumab and ipilimumab created a sort of "tumor vaccine" environment that triggered an immune response stimulated by the immunotherapy drugs.
When the researchers analyzed biopsies of the treated patients they also found that those who responded had a particular genetic marker that can be used to further tailor the treatment to those patients most likely to respond.
Funding for the trial came from the Stand Up to Cancer Dream Teams initiative and several National Institutes of Health grants, and several cancer foundations grants.
Sources: Massachusetts General Hospital press release and Nature Cancer
Sources: Massachusetts General Hospital press release and Nature Cancer
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