For patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), ripretinib provided clinical benefit with a favorable safety profile, according to results of a multicenter, retrospective study of Chinese patients presented at the 2023 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Previously, the switch-control tyrosine-kinase inhibitor (TKI) ripretinib demonstrated good therapeutic efficacy and safety in clinical trials and has been approved for patients with advanced GISTs who have previously received ≥3 TKIs.

This study included 21 patients with advanced GISTs who had received ripretinib in the ZheJiang province of China. The median number of prior lines of therapy was 3 and the most common primary tumor site was small intestines. Most patients (62%) had an ECOG performance status of ≥2. The primary outcome of this study was progression-free survival (PFS), with secondary outcomes including objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), duration of therapy (DOT), safety, and overall survival (OS).

The median PFS was 7.1 months, with an ORR of 9.52% and a DCR of 85.71%. The median DOT was 7.3 months. Among patients who were on their fourth- or later-line of therapy, the median PFS was 9.2 months, with an ORR of 7.14% and an DCR of 100%. There was an association between less time from the latest TKI treatment and ripretinib therapy and a longer median PFS and OS (P = .021 and P = .009, respectively).

In a univariate analysis, patients with KIT exon 9 mutation had a shorter PFS than than those patients without (hazard ratio [HR], 3.692; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.109 to 12.294; P = .033). For patients with KIT exon 17/18 mutation, PFS was improved (HR, 0.097; 95% CI, 0.011 to 0.871; P = .037).

There was a favorable safety profile with ripretinib. There were 5 patients who experienced grade 3 treatment-emergent adverse events. No grade 4 or 5 treatment-emergent adverse events were observed.

In this real-world, multicenter, retrospective study, ripretinib was found to provide clinical benefit for patients with GISTs with a favorable safety profile. The study authors also suggest immediately switching from the latest TKI to ripretinib after progression will prolong survival of patients.

Source:

Yang W, Qian H, Yang L, et al. The efficacy and safety of ripretinib in Chinese patients with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors: A multicenter, retrospective study. Presented at ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium; January 19-21, 2023; San Francisco, California. Abstract 800