Personalized Targeted Radioimmunotherapy with Anti-CD45 Iodine (131I) Apamistamab [Iomab-B] in Patients with Active Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia Results in Successful Donor Hematopoietic Cells Engraftment with the Timing of Engraftment Not Related to the Radiation Dose Delivered

Background: Patients ≥55 years of age with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may benefit from an allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), which is often the only potentially curative therapy available. However, complete remission (CR) is usually a pre-requisite for most centers to perform HCT, as CR predicts an optimal outcome. Many older patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) AML are not transplanted as they do not achieve the required CR. In addition, due to their advanced age, they are unable to tolerate the myeloablative conditioning required for eradication of disease, while the more tolerable reduced intensity conditioning often exhibits high rates of relapse. The SIERRA trial is a prospective, randomized, phase 3 trial for older patients with R/R AML to address this unmet need. We hypothesized that a targeted delivery of radiation to the marrow, achieved with a limit of 24 Gray (Gy) radiation dose to the liver, via an infusion of a therapeutic dose of Iomab-B enables successful engraftment despite active disease in the marrow.

Methods: Eligible patients were ≥55 years with active R/R AML (≥5% blasts), adequate organ function, and related/unrelated 8/8 HLA-matched donors. Patients were randomized (1:1) to the Iomab-B or Conventional Care (CC) arm. Patients randomized to Iomab-B received an outpatient dosimetric dose of Iomab-B followed by nuclear medicine imaging to determine the personalized therapeutic dose that would deliver radiation to the marrow while limiting the delivery of radiation to the liver to 24 Gy. HCT is performed 12-14 days following the infusion of a therapeutic dose of Iomab-B, and a non-myeloablative conditioning backbone of fludarabine (30 mg/m² x 3) and low-dose Total Body Irradiation (TBI 2 Gy x 1 dose). Patients on the CC arm received investigator’s choice of salvage therapy, including newly approved targeted agents, and could proceed to physician’s choice of conditioning and HCT if they achieved CR. If CC patients did not achieve CR, the study allowed them to cross-over and receive Iomab-B-based conditioning followed by allogeneic HCT.

Results: Preliminary data were available from 106 patients (Table 1). 53 patients (median age 64) were randomized to Iomab-B and received allogeneic transplant. All Iomab-B patients engrafted, despite a pre-therapy median of 26% marrow blasts. After randomization, 83% (44/53) CC patients failed salvage therapy, including 45% (24/53) who received targeted agents. 26 of 44 (60%) CC patients, with a median 33% marrow blasts, crossed over and received Iomab-B followed by allogeneic HCT. Patient age, donor type (MRD, MUD), bone marrow cellularity, blast percentage, type of donor, stem cell dose, administered Iomab-B activity (mCi), and absorbed radiation dose to the marrow (Gy), were analyzed for time to engraftment among each group. Median time to neutrophil and platelet engraftment were 14 days (range 9-22) and 17 days (range 4-39) respectively, with 91% of evaluable patients achieving full donor chimerism (>95% by day 100, Table 1). Neither the radiation dose delivered to the marrow (median 14.7 Gy; range, 4.6-32 Gy; Table 1) nor the total administered activity (median 632 mCi; range, 354-1027 mCi) showed correlation with the time to either neutrophil (p value=0.525) or platelet engraftment (p value=0.952). Regression analyses, considering all of the variables individually, did not indicate a statistically significant correlation (p > 0.1) between days to engraftment and radiation dose delivered to the marrow. These results were consistent for the Iomab-B cross-over group as well. Furthermore, the marrow absorbed dose did not show a significant correlation with % chimerism at day 28 in patients on the Iomab-B arm or in cross-over patients.

Conclusion: Dosimetry to determine a patient-specific therapeutic dose of Iomab-B of 24 Gy to the liver provided absorbed marrow radiation doses that allowed for reliable engraftment after allogeneic HCT in older patients with R/R AML, despite a heavy leukemia burden with median bone marrow blasts of 26% prior to HCT (Iomab-B arm). There was no relationship between total administered activity or radiation dose delivered to the marrow with the speed of engraftment. The SIERRA trial is currently enrolling patients (www.sierratrial.com or clinicaltrials.gov NCT02665065).