Expert Discusses Safety of Toripalimab in Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

The safety profile of toripalimab-tpzi (Loqtorzi) in patients with metastatic or locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) appear to be comparable with prior reports of other PD-1 inhibitors, said Barbara Burtness, MD.

In a conversation with CancerNetwork^® following the FDA approval of toripalimab in advanced/metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma,¹ Burtness, a professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine and chief translational research officer and associate cancer center director for translational research at the Yale Cancer Center, discussed the toxicity associated with the agent as observed in the phase 3 JUPITER-02 trial (NCT03581786).

According to findings published in JAMA, 11.6% of patients who received toripalimab and 4.9% of those who were treated with placebo discontinued treatment due to any adverse effects (AEs).² Additionally, immune-related AEs affected 54.1% and 21.7% of patients in each respective arm, and grade 3 or higher immune-related AEs occurred in 9.6% vs 1.4%. Investigators reported that rates of grade 3 or higher AEs and fatal AEs were comparable between the toripalimab and placebo arms.

Burtness also stated that the vascular toxicity associated with other agents like pembrolizumab (Keytruda) did not occur with toripalimab among those with metastatic or locally advanced NPC in the JUPITER-02 trial.

Transcript:

[Toripalimab] appears to be very similar to other PD-1 inhibitors. If you look at the incidence of grade 3/4 adverse effects in the JUPITER-02 trial, it’s actually driven by the gemcitabine and cisplatin, which are more toxic. But if you look at adverse effects that lead to discontinuation of toripalimab vs placebo added on top of the chemotherapy, that was [11.6%] for toripalimab and 4.9% for placebo.

Toripalimab does not really seem to have the vascular toxicity that, for example, pembrolizumab [Keytruda] does, which was the other drug that was being explored in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

References

1. Coherus and Junshi Biosciences announce FDA approval of LOQTORZI™ (toripalimab-tpzi) in all lines of treatment for recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). News release. Coherus Biosciences. October 27, 2023. Accessed January 17, 2024. http://tinyurl.com/4e8635a9
2. Mai HQ, Chen QY, Chen D, et al. Toripalimab plus chemotherapy for recurrent or metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma: the JUPITER-02 randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2023;330(20):1961-1970. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.20181