Summary
Despite recent advanced with immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as avelumab which has changed the treatment landscape for people with metastatic Merkel Cell Carcinoma (mMCC), many mMCC patients who had an intial response to treatment may experience acquired resistance within 1 year. Therefore, new treatment combinations are needed to improve patient outcomes.
MCC is an exquisitely radiosensitive tumour and there is emerging data supporting the role of radiation in inducing immunogenic cell death, and therefore potentially improving the anti-tumour efficacy when combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) is used in first-line treatment for neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), by delivering radiation to somatostatin receptor (SSTR) expressing tumour cells. Most NETs, including MCC, express SSTR. Therefore, MCC tumours are ideal candidates for PRRT, and immune checkpoint inhibitor combination approaches with PRRT are highly attractive.
The GoTHAM trial is intended as a signal-seeking and biomarker study.
It will evaluate treatment with:
- 177Lu-DOTA-octreotate (LuTate) +avelumab immunotherapy (Arm A)
- External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) + avelumab immunotherapy (Arm B) (note this arm is now closed to recruitment).
The primary objective is to evaluate the anti-tumour activity as reflected by progression free survival rate at 12 months.