First-in-Human Trial for Tebentafusp In Advanced Melanoma Shows Promising Safety Profile
The first-in-human trial for tebentafusp findings are in, and they show promise for managing a patients side effects to it.
Findings from the first-in-human trial evaluating tebentafusp (IMCgp100), a TCR—CD3 bispecific, in patients with advanced melanoma show tebentafusp not only working but showing a favorable safety profile, according to Alexander N. Shoushtari, MD.
Shoushtari, an assistant attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, had the chance to present on the findings of tebentafusp at the 2019 International Congress of the Society for Melanoma Research. He also sat down with OncLive®, a sister publication to Oncology Nursing News®, to discuss the safety profile of tebentafusp in the clinic.
TRANSCRIPTION
Safety was the number one priority for the study. We do know that the proteins expressed, not just on tumor cells, but on regular melanocytes. Those are the benign pigments in cells all over your skin, and at the beginning of treatment, there seems to be a trafficking of a lot of immune cells and resulting blood flow to the skin. So, rash is a pretty common side effect. And enough, sort of shunting of blood can happen to the skin that you can actually get a low blood pressure.
That is something that mandates close monitoring for 24 hours after the first three doses of the drug. Eventually, from the first-in-human study, it was found that you can actually start at a lower dose and escalate the dose in each patient up to, in this study, 50 micrograms once weekly being the maximum dose.
