Carcinomas of unknown primary treated with molecularly guided therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors: A subset from the I-PREDICT N-of-1 Precision Oncology study.

3135 Background: Carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) is a heterogenous group of aggressive malignancies lacking a detectable primary site and collectively comprises 3–5% of cancer diagnoses. Current treatments rely upon empiric chemotherapeutic regimens with high toxicity, limited efficacy, and historic median overall survival times of 3-11 months. There is emerging evidence to support a precision medicine approach using molecularly guided therapies and tumor-agnostic biomarkers. Methods: We performed a subset analysis of patients previously enrolled in the I-PREDICT (NCT02534675) study who had a CUP that was treated with a combination of targeted therapies and biomarker-driven immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), based upon comprehensive genomic profiling and recommendations by a Molecular Tumor Board. Results: Among the 210 evaluable patients, 10 (4.8%) had a CUP from which 9 were molecularly matched to one or more targeted therapies and an ICI based on biomarkers for both types of agents. Baseline characteristics include median age of 67 years (range: 59 – 82), with the majority of patients being male (5/9, 56%), non-Hispanic white (7/9, 78%) and treatment naïve (8/9, 89%). Histological subtypes of CUP included poorly differentiated or unspecified (5/9), adenocarcinoma (3/9) and squamous cell carcinoma (1/9). Administered targeted therapies included bevacizumab (4/9), trametinib (4/9), palbociclib (1/9), crizotinib (1/9), everolimus (1/9), and lenvatinib (1/9), while ICI included nivolumab (6/9), pembrolizumab (2/9) and atezolizumab (1/9). ICI were matched based on positive PD-L1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) (6/9), TMB ≥10 mutations/megabase (4/9), SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling gene alterations (3/9), PD-L1 amplification (1/9), mismatch repair gene alterations (1/9) and microsatellite instability-high (1/9). Most patients were matched to >1 ICI biomarker (5/9). Most patients received treatment doublets (6/9, 67%) while the remaining received triplet regimens (3/9, 33%). The best overall response rate was 44% based on RECIST 1.1. This included partial response (4/9), stable disease (3/9), progressive disease (1/9) and not restaged (1/9). Median progression free survival (PFS) was 10.4 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.2 - not estimable [NE]) and median overall survival was 16.9 months (95% CI 6.9 - NE). One patient in particular achieved 36-months of PFS on trametinib + nivolumab as matched to NF1 R440* and PD-L1 IHC 5%. Grade ≥3 treatment related serious adverse events occurred in only one patient. Conclusions: As compared to historic chemotherapy treated cohorts, these results support the safety and efficacy of administering molecularly guided combination therapies including a targeted agent plus an ICI in CUP patients. Larger prospective trials of biomarker-matched N-of-1 combinations in CUP are warranted. Clinical trial information: NCT02534675 .

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Journal
Journal of Clinical Oncology
Published
2026-05-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2026.44.16_suppl.3135
Primary Topic
Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
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article
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article

Carcinomas of unknown primary treated with molecularly guided therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors: A subset from the I-PREDICT N-of-1 Precision Oncology study.

Daisuke Nishizaki, Ryosuke Okamura, Yuji Uehara, Hitendra Patel et al.
Journal of Clinical Oncology
Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
article

Carcinomas of unknown primary treated with molecularly guided therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors: A subset from the I-PREDICT N-of-1 Precision Oncology study.

Daisuke Nishizaki, Ryosuke Okamura, Yuji Uehara, Hitendra Patel, Mina Nikanjam, Razelle Kurzrock, S. Kato, Hirotaka Miyashita, David Piccioni, Ramez N. Eskander, Scott M. Lippman, J. Jack Lee, Jason K. Sicklick, Paul T. Fanta, Michael Hahn, Eric Roth, Jeffrey S. Ross, Rana R. McKay
article en

Abstract

3135 Background: Carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) is a heterogenous group of aggressive malignancies lacking a detectable primary site and collectively comprises 3–5% of cancer diagnoses. Current treatments rely upon empiric chemotherapeutic regimens with high toxicity, limited efficacy, and historic median overall survival times of 3-11 months. There is emerging evidence to support a precision medicine approach using molecularly guided therapies and tumor-agnostic biomarkers. Methods: We performed a subset analysis of patients previously enrolled in the I-PREDICT (NCT02534675) study who had a CUP that was treated with a combination of targeted therapies and biomarker-driven immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), based upon comprehensive genomic profiling and recommendations by a Molecular Tumor Board. Results: Among the 210 evaluable patients, 10 (4.8%) had a CUP from which 9 were molecularly matched to one or more targeted therapies and an ICI based on biomarkers for both types of agents. Baseline characteristics include median age of 67 years (range: 59 – 82), with the majority of patients being male (5/9, 56%), non-Hispanic white (7/9, 78%) and treatment naïve (8/9, 89%). Histological subtypes of CUP included poorly differentiated or unspecified (5/9), adenocarcinoma (3/9) and squamous cell carcinoma (1/9). Administered targeted therapies included bevacizumab (4/9), trametinib (4/9), palbociclib (1/9), crizotinib (1/9), everolimus (1/9), and lenvatinib (1/9), while ICI included nivolumab (6/9), pembrolizumab (2/9) and atezolizumab (1/9). ICI were matched based on positive PD-L1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) (6/9), TMB ≥10 mutations/megabase (4/9), SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling gene alterations (3/9), PD-L1 amplification (1/9), mismatch repair gene alterations (1/9) and microsatellite instability-high (1/9). Most patients were matched to >1 ICI biomarker (5/9). Most patients received treatment doublets (6/9, 67%) while the remaining received triplet regimens (3/9, 33%). The best overall response rate was 44% based on RECIST 1.1. This included partial response (4/9), stable disease (3/9), progressive disease (1/9) and not restaged (1/9). Median progression free survival (PFS) was 10.4 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 4.2 - not estimable [NE]) and median overall survival was 16.9 months (95% CI 6.9 - NE). One patient in particular achieved 36-months of PFS on trametinib + nivolumab as matched to NF1 R440* and PD-L1 IHC 5%. Grade ≥3 treatment related serious adverse events occurred in only one patient. Conclusions: As compared to historic chemotherapy treated cohorts, these results support the safety and efficacy of administering molecularly guided combination therapies including a targeted agent plus an ICI in CUP patients. Larger prospective trials of biomarker-matched N-of-1 combinations in CUP are warranted. Clinical trial information: NCT02534675 .

Journal of Clinical OncologyVol. 44(16_suppl)
Froedtert Hospital (US), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (US), SUNY Upstate Medical University (US), Kyoto University (JP), UC San Diego Health System (US), University of California San Diego (US), Tokyo National Hospital (JP), Moores Cancer Center
Good health and well-being
Openalex Percentile: Top 10%
Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
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