A phase I single-agent study of twice-weekly consecutive-day dosing of the proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma or lymphoma.

PURPOSE: Carfilzomib is a next-generation, selective, proteasome inhibitor with clinical activity in relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma. The objectives of this phase I study were to establish the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic profiles of escalating doses of carfilzomib in patients with relapsed or refractory hematologic malignancies.

EXPERIMENTAL

DESIGN

Carfilzomib (doses ranging from 1.2-27 mg/m(2)) was administered i.v. on 2 consecutive days for 3 weeks of a 4-week cycle. Single-agent dose escalation (n = 37) was followed by a dose-expansion phase (n = 11) that comprised 2 cohorts (carfilzomib or carfilzomib + dexamethasone). During dose expansion, carfilzomib was administered starting with 20 mg/m(2) during the first week (days 1, 2) and then escalated to 27 mg/m(2) thereafter.

RESULTS

A maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was not reached during dose escalation. Dosing in the expansion cohort was well tolerated. Adverse events were manageable and primarily of grade I or II. The main hematologic adverse events of ≥ grade III were anemia and thrombocytopenia. Notably, there were no observations of grade III or more peripheral neuropathy. Carfilzomib was cleared rapidly with an elimination half-life of less than 30 minutes but still induced dose-dependent inhibition of the 20S chymotrypsin-like proteasome activity. At doses of 15 to 27 mg/m(2), there was evidence of activity among patients with multiple myeloma and with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

CONCLUSIONS

Escalated dosing of carfilzomib on a schedule of 2 consecutive days for 3 weeks of a 4-week cycle was tolerable and showed promising activity. This dose regimen has been selected for ongoing and future clinical studies, including PX-171-003A1 and the pivotal trial ASPIRE.