Nivolumab Maintenance in Newly Diagnosed PCNSL With Persistent CSF Circulating Tumor DNA After Completion of First-Line Chemotherapy

Phase II Maintenance Trial of Nivolumab for Newly Diagnosed PCNSL Patients With Persistent Circulating Tumor DNA in the CSF After Completion of Methotrexate-Based First-Line Induction Chemotherapy

The purpose of this additional part of the study is to test whether the study drug, nivolumab, is a safe treatment that will prevent participants' primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) from growing again (recurrence). Participants will be people with PCNSL who continue to have cell free tumor DNA (cfDNA) in their CSF despite completion of their first treatment (first-line treatment).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma (PCNSL)
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Nivolumab

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 14
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New Jersey
    • Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States, 07920
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Basking Ridge (Limited Protocol Activities)
    • Middletown, New Jersey, United States, 07748
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth (Limited Protocol Activities)
    • Montvale, New Jersey, United States, 07645
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen (Limited Protocol Activities)
  • New York
    • Commack, New York, United States, 11725
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Commack (Limited protocol activities)
    • Harrison, New York, United States, 10604
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester (Limited Protocol Activities)
    • New York, New York, United States, 10065
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (All Protocol Activities)
    • Uniondale, New York, United States, 11553
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Nassau (Limited Protocol Activities)

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Biospecimen and Data Collection:

• Histologically documented PCNSL with the ability to submit up to 20 unstained formalinfixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) slides from the initial tissue diagnosis prior to study registration or histologically confirmed lymphomatous involvement of the CSF and/or eye/vitreous
• Patients must be able to tolerate MRI/CT scans with [18F FDG]
• Patients must be able to tolerate lumbar punctures and/or Ommaya taps

Additional Criteria for Nivolumab Maintenance Arm:

All criteria in the above "Biospecimen and Data Collection" section must be satisfied as well as:

• Persistent cfDNA in the CSF
• Participants must be able to understand and be willing to sign a written informed consent document
• Women and men who are at least 18 years of age on the day of consenting to the study
• KPS ≥60
• Life expectancy of > 3 months (in the opinion of the investigator)

• Participants must have adequate bone marrow and organ function shown by:

  • Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) ≥ 0.75 x 10^9/L
  • Platelets ≥ 75 x 10^9/L and no platelet transfusion within the past 21 days prior to study registration
  • Hemoglobin (Hgb) ≥ 8 g/dL and no red blood cell (RBC) transfusion within the past 21 days prior to study registration
  • International Normalized Ratio (INR) ≤ 1.5 and PTT (aPTT) ≤ 1.5 times the upper limit of normal. Patients on anticoagulants should be managed according to MSK SOPs as outlined in: 'Therapeutic Anticoagulation Guidelines in Adults' regarding management of anticoagulants prior to each CSF collection. Please discuss any complicated patient with the PI for consideration.
  • Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) ≤ 3 times the upper limit of normal
  • Serum bilirubin ≤ 1.5 times the upper limit of normal; or total bilirubin ≤ 3 times the upper limit of normal with direct bilirubin within the normal range in patients with well documented Gilbert Syndrome
  • Serum creatinine ≤ 2 times the upper limit of normal
• Women of reproductive potential must agree to use highly effective methods of birth control during the period of therapy and for 5 months after the last dose of the study drug. Men who are sexually active must agree to use highly effective contraception during the period of therapy and for 7 months after the last dose
• Women of childbearing potential must have a negative plasma pregnancy test upon study entry. See section on Pregnancy and Reproduction

Exclusion Criteria:

Biospecimen and Data Collection:

• Patients with recurrent/refractory PCNSL. Patients with stable disease as their best response to first-line chemotherapy will also come off study.
• Patient with systemic, non-CNS lymphoma metastatic to the CNS
• Patient is known to have human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection
• Patient is known to have a history of active or chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) or hepatitis B virus (HBV) as determined by serologic tests
• Patient's who are planned to undergo consolidation with autologous HSCT

Additional Criteria for Nivolumab Maintenance Arm:

None of the criteria in the above "Biospecimen and Data Collection" section can be present. The following criteria must also not be present:

• Patient has undergone prior allogenic stem cell transplant
• Patient's who are planned to undergo consolidation with autologous HSCT
• Any chemotherapy, external beam radiation therapy, or anticancer antibodies within 14 days of the first dose of study drug
• Patient is allergic to components of the study drug
• Patient is concurrently using other approved or investigational antineoplastic agents
• Previous or current treatment with an anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1, anti-PD-L1, or anti-PDL2 agent
• Patient has an active concurrent malignancy requiring active therapy
• Patient is requiring escalating or chronic supraphysiologic doses of corticosteroids (> 8 mg dexamethasone daily) for control of disease at the time of registration
• Patient is using systemic immunosuppressant therapy including: cyclosporine A, tacrolimus, sirolimus, and other such medications, or chronic administration of > 5 mg/day of prednisone or the equivalent. Participants must be off immunosuppressant therapy for at least 28 days prior to the first dose of the study drug
• Active autoimmune disease that has required systemic treatment in the past 2 years (i.e. with use of disease modifying agents, corticosteroids or immunosuppressive drugs). Replacement therapy (e.g., thyroxine, insulin, or physiologic corticosteroid replacement therapy for adrenal or pituitary insufficiency, etc.) is not considered a form of systemic treatment
• Known history of, or any evidence of active, non-infectious pneumonitis
• Patient has significant abnormalities on screening electrocardiogram (EKG) and active and significant cardiovascular disease such as uncontrolled or symptomatic arrhythmias, uncontrolled congestive heart failure, uncontrolled hypertension, valvular disease, pericarditis, or myocardial infarction within 6 months of screening
• Peptic ulcer, abdominal fistula, gastrointestinal perforation, or intra-abdominal abscess within past 6 months
• Patient is known to have an uncontrolled active systemic infection
• Patient has a life-threatening illness, medical condition, or organ system dysfunction that, in the opinion of the investigator, could compromise the subject's safety or put the study outcomes at undue risk
• Women who are pregnant or nursing (lactating), where pregnancy is defined as a state of a female after conception until the termination of gestation, confirmed by a positive plasma hCG laboratory test of > 5 mIU/mL (See section on Pregnancy and Reproduction)
• The patient is unwell or unable to participate in all required study evaluations and procedures
• Participants who have received a live / attenuated vaccine within 30 days of first treatment.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Nivolumab Maintenance; All patients will undergo cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood collection as well as MRI imaging as standard of care prior to (- 21 days) first-line treatment initiation, during first-line therapy (before initiation of the 5th methotrexate dose (+/- 7 days)), at completion of first-line chemotherapy therapy (+/- 7 days) as well as 60, 180, and 360 days after enrollment into maintenance or observation (+/- 7 days). Those patients with persistent cfDNA in the CSF after completion of first-line chemotherapy and either complete or partial response on imaging will be enrolled into the nivolumab maintenance treatment arm. All other patients (no persistent cfDNA in the CSF and either complete or partial response on imaging) are followed with observation. Patients who do not respond to first-line therapy are not eligible for nivolumab maintenance and will no longer be followed in the biospecimen and clinical data collection cohort.

Drug: Nivolumab; Nivolumab will be given every 4 weeks at 480mg flat dose intravenously for one year (total of 13 nivolumab doses).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Frequencies of toxicities	Frequencies of toxicities will be summarized based on the Common Toxicity Criteria (CTCAE) version 5.0. Adverse events.	within 60 days of therapy
cfDNA conversion rate in CSF	Conversion rate is defined as the proportion of patients receiving maintenance nivolumab who have undetectable cfDNA at one-year from the start of nivolumab maintenance.	12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Collaborators: Bristol-Myers Squibb
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Christian Grommes, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 22, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 22, 2026
• Study Completion (Actual): January 22, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 22, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 22, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): May 26, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 27, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 23, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Nivolumab; Persistent Circulating Tumor DNA; Methotrexate-Based First-Line Induction Chemotherapy; 19-383
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins; Proteins; Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; Antibodies, Monoclonal; Antibodies; Immunoglobulins; Immunoproteins; Blood Proteins; Serum Globulins; Globulins; Nivolumab
• Other Study ID Numbers: 19-383

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center supports the international committee of medical journal editors (ICMJE) and the ethical obligation of responsible sharing of data from clinical trials. The protocol summary, a statistical summary, and informed consent form will be made available on clinicaltrials.gov when required as a condition of Federal awards, other agreements supporting the research and/or as otherwise required. Requests for deidentified individual participant data can be made beginning 12 months after publication and for up to 36 months post publication. Deidentified individual participant data reported in the manuscript will be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement and may only be used for approved proposals. Requests may be made to: crdatashare@mskcc.org.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: Yes
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No