Efficacy and safety of selpercatinib in Chinese patients with advanced RET-altered thyroid cancers: results from the phase II LIBRETTO-321 study

BACKGROUND: Selpercatinib, a highly selective and potent REarranged during Transfection (RET) kinase inhibitor, is effective in advanced RET-altered thyroid cancer (TC). However, the efficacy and safety in Chinese patients are unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In the open-label, multi-center phase II LIBRETTO-321 (NCT04280081) study, Chinese patients with advanced solid tumors harboring RET alterations received selpercatinib 160 mg twice daily. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR; RECIST v1.1) by independent review committee (IRC). Secondary endpoints included duration of response (DoR) and safety. Efficacy was assessed in the primary analysis set [PAS; treated patients with RET fusion-positive TC or RET-mutant medullary TC (MTC) confirmed by central laboratory] and all enrolled patients with MTC. RESULTS: Of 77 enrolled patients, 29 had RET-mutant MTC and one had RET fusion-positive TC. In the PAS (n = 26), the ORR by IRC was 57.7% [95% confidence interval (CI), 36.9–76.6]. Median DoR was not reached and 93.3% of responses were ongoing at a median follow-up of 8.7 months. In all enrolled MTC patients (n = 29), the ORR by IRC was 58.6% (95% CI, 38.9–76.5). One RET fusion-positive TC patient treated for 23.4 weeks achieved a partial response at week 8 that was ongoing at cutoff. In the safety population (n = 77), 59.7% experienced grade ⩾3 treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs). TEAEs led to dose reductions in 32.5% (n = 25) and discontinuations in 5.2% [n = 4; 3.9% (n = 3) considered treatment related] of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Selpercatinib showed robust antitumor activity and was well tolerated in Chinese patients with advanced RET-altered TC, consistent with global data from LIBRETTO-001 (NCT04280081). CLINICALTRIALS.GOV IDENTIFIER: NCT04280081 (first posted Feb 21, 2020)