Immunotherapy in MSI/dMMR Tumors in Perioperative Setting. (IMHOTEP)

This trial is a multicenter, 3-cohort, prospective, Phase II trial conducted in patients with untreated resectable MSI/dMMR carcinomas and aiming to evaluate the safety and the efficacy of ICI (immune checkpoint inhibitor) as neoadjuvant treatment in these patients.

We hypothesize that immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICPi) will benefit to MSI/dMMR tumors from the early stages, whatever their anatomical origin. We assume that this neoadjuvant treatment would improve the response rate, providing even high rate of pathological complete responses and prolong patients survival.

We anticipated colorectal and gastric cancers to be the most frequent recruited and constructed our statistical hypothesis with results in those 2 cancers. However patients with other localized MSI/dMMR tumors could be included.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Localized Resectable Tumor; MSI/dMMR
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: Pembrolizumab

Detailed Description

TREATMENT PLAN:

Pre-operative pembrolizumab will be administered intravenously (IV) over 30 minutes at the dose of 400 mg according to recent summary of product characteristics (SPC). Until four doses will be administered 6 weeks before the planned surgery, as close as possible to inclusion, and whenever possible during standard visit (surgery, anesthesia or other).

Surgery will be performed during the 6th week after the last pembrolizumab injection, as per standard practices.

An adjuvant treatment will be administered upon the Investigator decision, depending on the protocol: the results and tolerance of pre-operative treatment and ability of the patient to receive the treatment regarding his general post-operative condition.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS:

A total of 240 patients will be enrolled in this study

Sample size was thus evaluated by analogy with an A'Hern's single stage phase II design with P0=25%, P1=50% and 85% power.

A sequential Bayesian design will be used to allow continuous monitoring of the primary endpoint and update knowledge gradually.

For each cohort, interim analyses are planned after 6-week follow up of the first 10 patients (i.e. after surgery) and then every 10 patients.

Early stopping will be recommended if there is a high posterior probability (≥90%) given observed data that the rate of pathological response is lower than 50%.

DATA ENTRY, DATA MANAGEMENT AND STUDY MONITORING:

All the data concerning the patients will be recorded in the electronic case report form (eCRF) throughout the study. Serious adverse event (SAE) and Adverse Event of Specific Interest (AESI) reporting will be also paper-based by e-mail and/or Fax.

The sponsor will perform the study monitoring and will help the investigators to conduct the study in compliance with the clinical trial protocol, Good Clinical Practices (GCP) and local law requirements.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 240
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Amiens, France, 80054
    • CHU Amiens Picardie
  • Clermont-Ferrand, France, 63003
    • CHU Clermont-Ferrand
  • Dijon, France, 21079
    • Centre Georges-Francois Leclerc
  • Lille, France, 59037
    • Hôpital Huriez
  • Lyon, France, 69008
    • Centre Leon Berard
  • Marseille, France, 13273
    • Institut Paoli Calmettes
  • Montpellier, France, 34298
    • Institut du Cancer Val d'Aurelle
  • Nice, France, 06189
    • Centre Antoine Lacassagne
  • Paris, France, 75015
    • Hôpital Europeen Georges Pompidou
  • Paris, France, 75014
    • Institut Mutualiste Montsouris
  • Paris, France, 75010
    • APHP Hôpital Saint-Louis
  • Paris, France, 75571
    • APHP - Hôpital Saint-Antoine
  • Paris, France, 75571
    • Groupe Hospitalier Diaconesses Croix Saint-Simon
  • Poitiers, France, 86021
    • CHU Poitiers
  • Rennes, France, 35042
    • Centre Eugène Marquis
  • Saint-Etienne, France, 42270
    • CHU Saint Etienne
  • Strasbourg, France, 67200
    • Institut de cancerologie Strasbourg Europe
  • Strasbourg, France, 67200
    • Centre Paul Strauss

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

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

Description

Inclusion criteria

I1. Age ≥ 18 years on the day of signing informed consent.

I2. Histologically proven localized non-metastatic tumor included in one of the 4 cohorts:

• Colon or rectal Cancer (cT3/T4 N0 M0 ou cT N+ M0) OR
• Oesogastric (gastric, gastro-oesophageal or oesophageal) cancer (cT2 to cT4 N M0) OR
• Other tumor types (cT2 to cT4 N M0): small bowel adenocarcinoma (duodenum, jejunum, ileum).

I3. MSI/dMMR established by immunohistochemistry (IHC) [MMR protein expression] and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (or Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)) [both techniques are required] and validated by coordinator's team.

MMR and/or MSI tumors will be assessed using IHC with four antibodies (anti-MLH1, anti-MSH2, anti-MSH6 and anti-PMS2) and PCR (pentaplex panel is recommended: BAT-25, BAT-26, NR-21, NR-24, and NR-27) prior to screening. Loss of MLH1 and PMS2 / or MSH2 and MSH6 / or MSH6 alone / or PMS2 alone protein staining by IHC indicates dMMR, and tumor with ≥ 2 unstable markers analyzed on PCR proves MSI/dMMR, NGS will be accepted instead of PCR analysis.

I4. Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance Status (PS) 0 to 1 within 7 days prior to the inclusion.

I5. Adequate bone-marrow, hepatic, and renal functions, within 10 days prior to the start of study treatment with:

• Hemoglobin ≥ 9 g/dl or ≥ 5.6 mmol/l, neutrophils ≥ 1.0 x 109/l, platelets ≥ 100 x 109/l,
• Creatinine ≤ 1.5 x ULN or calculated creatinine clearance ≥ 30 ml/min/1.73m² using either MDRD or CKD-EPI formula,
• AST and ALT ≤ 3 x ULN, total bilirubin ≤ 1.5 ULN (or direct bilirubin ≤ ULN for patients with total bilirubin >1.5 × ULN),
• International normalized ratio (INR) OR prothrombin time (PT) ≤1.5 × ULN unless participant is receiving anticoagulant therapy as long as PT or activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) is within therapeutic range of intended use of anticoagulants.

I6. Covered by a medical/health insurance.

I7. Willingness and ability to comply with scheduled visits, treatment plans, laboratory tests, and other study procedures.

I8. Patients of childbearing potential accepting to use effective contraceptive measures or abstain from heterosexual activity, for the course of the study through 4 months after the last dose of pembrolizumab MK-3475 adjuvant treatment or 6 months after adjuvant chemotherapy or being surgically sterile. Refer to Appendix 1 for approved methods of contraception.

I9. Signed and dated IRB/IE approved informed consent form.

Non-inclusion criteria

E1. MSS/pMMR tumors.

E2. Metastatic disease (stage IV).

E3. HIV positive with CD4 count under 400 cells/mm3

E4.Concurrent active Hepatitis B (defined as Hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg] positive and/or detectable HBV DNA) or Hepatitis C virus (defined as anti-HCV Ab positive and detectable HCV RNA) infection).

E5. Active systemic 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 (eg. thyroxine, insulin) is not considered a form of systemic treatment and is allowed.

E6. Interstitial lung disease.

E7. Prior (non-infectious) pneumonitis requiring systemic corticosteroid therapy or current pneumonitis.

E8. History of severe hypersensitivity to another monoclonal antibody.

E9. Receiving immunosuppressive therapy or having received corticosteroids (in dosing exceeding 10 mg daily of prednisone equivalent) within the last 2 months before inclusion.

E10. Active infections.

E11. Radiotherapy within the 2 weeks before inclusion. Patients must have recovered from all radiation related toxicities, not require corticosteroids, and not have had radiation pneumonitis. A 1-week washout is permitted for palliative radiation (≤ 2 weeks of radiotherapy) to non-CNS disease. - Not applicable

E12. Live vaccine within 30 days prior to the first dose of study drug. Examples of live vaccines include, but are not limited to, the following: measles, mumps, rubella, varicella/zoster (chicken pox), yellow fever, rabies, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), and typhoid vaccine. Seasonal influenza vaccines for injection are generally killed virus vaccines and are allowed; however, intranasal influenza vaccines (eg, FluMist®) are live attenuated vaccines and are not allowed.

E13. Known history of active TB (Bacillus Tuberculosis).

E14. Known psychiatric or substance abuse disorders that would interfere with cooperation with the requirements of the study.

E15. Pregnant or breastfeeding woman or patient expecting to conceive or father children within the projected duration of the study, starting with the screening visit through 4 months after the last dose of study treatment.

E16. Patient requiring tutorship or curatorship.

E17. Ongoing anti-cancer treatment for another cancer (to be discussed with the coordinator in case of hormone therapy).

E18. Prior history of other malignancies (except for HNPCC or Lynch syndrome-related cancers) unless the subjects has been free of the disease for at least 2 years.

E19. Patient hospitalized at the moment of inclusion and treatment initiation (palliative care unit, retirement home … are considered as hospitals).

E20. Recent hemorrhage (in the month before inclusion).

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Cohort Colorectal cancer (CRC); Pembrolizumab prior to surgery	Drug: Pembrolizumab; Administered intravenous (IV); Other Names: MK3475 - Keytruda®
Experimental: Cohort Oesogastric cancer; Pembrolizumab prior to surgery	Drug: Pembrolizumab; Administered intravenous (IV); Other Names: MK3475 - Keytruda®
Experimental: Cohort Other cancer; Pembrolizumab prior to surgery	Drug: Pembrolizumab; Administered intravenous (IV); Other Names: MK3475 - Keytruda®

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Rate of complete pathological response (pCR) after surgery	A complete pathological response will be defined as 0% viable tumor cells.	6 weeks after first injection

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Rate of surgical complications (post-operative morbidity)	The rate of surgical complications (post-operative morbidity) will be assessed according to modified Clavien Dindo scoring	1 Month after sugery
Safety of the perioperative treatment	Safety profile, determined using the National Cancer Institute - Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Event (NCI-CTC AE) grading scale version 5. Adverse events will be described by their intensity and severity	60 Months (over the whole study)
Rate of patients with the R0 resection	Percentage of patients with the R0 resection	60 Months
Major pathological response rate	Percentage of patients with major pathological response (≤ 10% residual viable tumor)	60 Months
Recurrence-free survival (RFS)	RFS defined as the time from the date of first study treatment administration to the date of first documented recurrence	60 Months
Overall response rate (ORR) at 4, 10, 16 and 21 weeks after the pembrolizumab initiation	Percentage of patients with objective response at week 4, 10, 16 and 21 (complete or partial response) after neoadjuvant pembrolizumab, according to RECIST v1.1.	4, 10, 16, 21 weeks after first study treatment injection
Rate of second cancer in the Lynch syndrom spectrum	Percentage of patients with second cancer	60 Months
The overall survival (OS)	OS, defined from the date of first study treatment administration to the date of death due to any cause.	From 60 months
Progression-free survival (PFS) after recurrence	PFS, defined from the date of first documented recurrence to the date of documented progression.	60 months
Quality of life (QoL)	QoL, assessed using the EORTC QLQ-C30	Baseline,cycle 2 and 4 before surgery and 5 months after the surgery
The prognostic value of lung immune prognostic index (LIPI)		60 months
the progression free survival for patient without surgery	PFS, defined from the date of first documented recurrence to the date of documented progression.	60 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Centre Leon Berard

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 18, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): October 5, 2023
• Study Completion (Estimated): October 1, 2029

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 11, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 11, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): March 12, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): January 7, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 6, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Immunotherapy; Pembrolizumab; Oncology; Phase II; Neoadjuvant treatment; MSI/dMMR status
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Digestive System Diseases; Neoplasms; Neoplasms by Site; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms; Digestive System Neoplasms; Gastrointestinal Diseases; Stomach Diseases; Neoplasms; Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors; Antineoplastic Agents; Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action; pembrolizumab
• Other Study ID Numbers: IMHOTEP (ET20-093)

Drug and device information, study documents

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