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NRG-GY017: Atezolizumab before and/or with Chemoradiotherapy in Immune System Activation in Patients with Node Positive Stage IB2, II, IIIB, or IVA Cervical Cancer

Locally advanced cervical cancer remains an area of high therapeutic unmet need, with ~50% of patients developing disease recurrence despite treatment with chemotherapy combined with radiation. Combination of immune checkpoint blockade with chemoradiation has been explored in this setting, but optimal sequencing of these modalities is unknown. To address this question, we developed and conducted the NCI sponsored trial “Anti PD-L1 (Atezolizumab) as an Immune Primer and Concurrently with Extended Field Chemoradiotherapy for Node Positive Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer”, randomizing patients to atezolizumab administration prior to and concurrent with chemoradiation therapy (CRT) vs. concurrent with CRT (NRG-GY017; N=40, ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03738228). Patients were randomized to atezolizumab neoadjuvant and concurrent (Arm A) or concurrent with CRT (Arm B). The study closed to successful accrual of 36 evaluable patients in June 2020. Out of 40 patients consented patients, 4 were never treated. The reasons for that are: 2 were screen failures, 1 withdrew consent, and 1 was not treated due to physician preference. The study incorporated comprehensive collection of pre- and on-treatment tumor biopsies as well as multitime point blood collections. T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing was performed on the tumors as well as pre- and on-treatment peripheral blood, and the data are included with dbGaP submission. Among the 36 eligible and treated patients, there were 30 (17 on Arm A and 13 on Arm B) with pre- and on-treatment peripheral TCR sequencing data. Twenty-five patients (14 in Arm A and 11 in Arm B) had additional tumor TCR sequencing data available, which enabled tracking of tumor-associated TCR clones in peripheral blood. We demonstrate that neoadjuvant atezolizumab administration results in peripheral expansion of higher proportion of tumor-associated TCR clones in Arm A than in Arm B and is associated with favorable 2-year disease-free survival (DFS). No new safety signals were identified. These findings support further evaluation of the neoadjuvant IO and CRT sequencing strategy in locally advanced cervical cancer.