Exposure-Response of Quizartinib Efficacy in Patients with Relapsed/Refractory AML

Introduction: Quizartinib is a once-daily, oral, highly potent and selective FLT3 inhibitor that has shown clinical activity in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with FLT3 internal tandem duplications in the phase 3 QuANTUM-R trial (Cortes et al, Lancet Oncol 2019; NCT02039726). In this analysis, exposure-response relationships of select efficacy endpoints of quizartinib were evaluated.

Methods: Analysis was conducted for the following 2 studies separately: phase 2 study APS2689-CL-2004 and phase 3 QuANTUM-R study. Phase 2 study APS2689-CL-2004 enrolled 76 patients who were randomized to receive quizartinib 30 or 60 mg once daily (26.5 and 53.0 mg free base, respectively). Dose escalation was allowed and no dose reduction for strong cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A) inhibitors was made in this study. In QuANTUM-R, 245 patients were randomized to receive quizartinib. The quizartinib dosing regimen was 30 mg/day and then escalated to 60 mg/day after 2 weeks if QTcF was ≤ 450 ms. Patients receiving a concurrent strong CYP3A inhibitor initiated quizartinib at 20 mg/day, with an increase to 30 mg/day, because concomitant use of a strong CYP3A inhibitor approximately doubles quizartinib exposure. Efficacy endpoints included in the analysis were rate of composite complete remission (CRc; complete remission (CR) + complete remission with incomplete platelet recovery + complete remission with incomplete hematologic recovery), duration of CRc, and overall survival (OS). Exposure measures in individual patients, such as average daily area under the curve (AUC), maximum concentration, and trough concentration, were obtained from a population pharmacokinetic analysis of quizartinib plasma concentration data (Kang et al, EHA 2019) and then used for correlating with the efficacy endpoints. Logistic regression analysis was used for CRc rate, and time-to-event analysis was performed for the duration of CRc and OS. The effect of quizartinib exposure on the percentage of subjects achieving bone marrow (aspirate) blasts of < 5% in QuANTUM-R was also assessed.

Results: Patients were divided into 4 quartile groups according to average daily quizartinib AUC for the investigation of exposure-response relationships for OS and the duration of CRc. The lowest exposure quartile group showed shorter OS than the higher 3 quartile groups. The overall median OS from the intent-to-treat (ITT) population was 6.2 months in the phase 3 study; the median OS in the lowest exposure quartile group (Q1) was 4.5 months, whereas the median OS in the highest exposure quartile group (Q4) was 9.6 months (Fig. 1). Analysis of OS for the phase 2b study APS2689-CL-2004 demonstrated a similar trend, in which the lower AUC quartile demonstrated decreased OS. The overall OS from the ITT population was 5.2 months in the phase 2 study, and the median OS in Q1 and Q4 was 4.6 and 6.9 months, respectively (Fig. 2). Consistent with analyses for OS, the duration of CRc showed a trend of shorter duration of response in the lower AUC quartiles in both studies. Additionally, the lower AUC quartile appeared to result in a smaller proportion of subjects who achieved blast reduction of < 5% (ie, 33.3% in Q1 vs 45.6% to 52.6% in Q2 to Q4). However, no apparent trend of exposure-response relationship was shown for CRc (P > .05 from logistic regression analysis).

Conclusions: Exposure-response analysis suggests a consistent trend for reduced clinical benefit at lower quizartinib AUC quartiles across various efficacy endpoints (but not CRc) in both the phase 2 and phase 3 studies. Current analysis supports the recommended dosing regimen of 30-mg starting dose with escalation to 60 mg as the target clinical dose.

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