Penpulimab, an anti-PD-1 antibody, for heavily pretreated metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a single-arm phase II study

Abstract Penpulimab is an anti-programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) IgG1 antibody with no Fc gamma receptor (FcγR) binding activity, and thus theoretically reduced immune-related adverse events (irAEs) while maintaining efficacy. This single-arm, phase II trial conducted across 20 tertiary care centers in China enrolled adult patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) who had failed two or more lines of previous systemic chemotherapy. Patients received 200-mg penpulimab intravenously every 2 weeks (4 weeks per cycle) until disease progression or intolerable toxicities. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST (version 1.1), as assessed by an independent radiological review committee. The secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). One hundred thirty patients were enrolled and 125 were efficacy evaluable. At the data cutoff date (September 28, 2022), 1 patient achieved complete response and 34 patients attained partial response. The ORR was 28.0% (95% CI 20.3–36.7%). The response was durable, with 66.8% still in response at 9 months. Thirty-three patients (26.4%) were still on treatment. The median PFS and OS were 3.6 months (95% CI = 1.9–7.3 months) and 22.8 months (95% CI = 17.1 months to not reached), respectively. Ten (7.6%) patients experienced grade 3 or higher irAEs. Penpulimab has promising anti-tumor activities and acceptable toxicities in heavily pretreated metastatic NPC patients, supporting further clinical development as third-line treatment of metastatic NPC.