Clinical trials

The primary treatment option for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) adenocarcinoma (ADC) with activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation is EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). After a certain period of treatment with EGFR TKI, acquired resistance emerges most frequently with a secondary mutation, p.T790M (36-50%), followed by MET amplification (10-19%). Interestingly, up to 3-5% of patients experience histological transformation into small cell lung cancer (SCLC). As an underlying mechanism, ADC with a predisposed clonally inactivated Rb and p53 mutation and APOBEC mutation signature is known to be associated with SCLC transformation. The transformed SCLC harbors similar morphological and immunohistochemical (IHC) characteristics as those observed in de novo SCLC, including high expression of chromogranin and synaptophysin. However, little is known about the clinical outcomes of transformed SCLC, with limited studies arguing that their outcomes are similar to those of de novo SCLC, where the median overall survival is approximately 9 to 10 months after the transformation. As the first line treatment of SCLC, atezolizumab or durvalumab with four cycles of conventional chemotherapy followed by maintenance therapy demonstrated prolonged overall survival (OS) and placed as the standard treatment option. However, median progression-free survival (PFS) of both study was only 5.2 months and 5.1 months, despite the objective response rate showing 60.2% and 79%. This finding suggest further development of maintenance treatment strategy to prolonged longer duration of response to the treatment. In addition to the conventional treatment, Tarlatamab (AMG757), bispecific t-cell engager (BiTE), designed to engage DLL3 on SCLC and CD3 on T-cell has been tested in SCLC. DLL3 is expressed in more than 80% of patients with SCLC, regardless of disease stage and researched for the potential target protein for the antibody based treatment in SCLC. By targeting DLL3 using Tarlatamab, engagement of tumor antigen and CD3 lead to cytotoxic synapse formation, triggering the release of proinflammatory cytokines, perforin, and granzymes from activated T-cells, potentially resulting apoptosis. The first clinical outcome of Tarlatamab was reported from the DeLLphi-300 study, phase 1 dose exploration study, showing confirmed partial response in 23% of the heavily treated SCLC and 37% of the patients showed decrease in tumor burden. Median duration of response was 13.0 months (95% confidential interval CI: 6.2 - 14.9 months), median PFS of 3.7 months and median OS was 13.2 months. In the treatment naïve SCLC, DeLLphi-303 study, phase 1b study combining tarlatamab + PD-L1 inhibitor + carboplatin and etoposide, is ongoing to evaluate the clinical efficacy in the front line setting which include only histologically confirmed extensive disease SCLC population (NCT05361395). Based on previous clinical and pre-clinical outcomes, showing similar disease characteristics between transformed SCLC from the adenocarcinoma who treated with EGFR TKI with de novo SCLC, this study is designed to evaluate the clinical efficacy of tarlatamab with currently standard treatment in transformed SCLC.

This study aims to investigate the efficacy and safety of fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients whose disease has progressed after immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, and to establish the foundation for personalized FMT through gut microbiome analysis. Recovering immune responses in patients who have failed prior immunotherapy remains an unmet clinical need. This study aims to provide evidence to address this issue. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a means that can rapidly and efficiently change the intestinal microbiota and has the potential to affect the systemic immune environment. Therefore, this study intends to contribute to the development of future treatment strategies by evaluating whether FMT can restore the immune response and clinical efficacy in patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor-resistant NSCLC.

This study is designed to identify the predictive biomarker for immunotherapy using patient samples (tumor tissue, blood, fecal material) who treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor.