The SUB-urothelial DUrvalumab InjEction-1 (SUBDUE-1) trial

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Dickon Hayne discusses the safety of sub-urothelial injection of durvalumab and examine the impact on tissue and circulating immune cell populations.

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Institution: University of Western Australia

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Dickon Hayne discusses the safety of sub-urothelial injection of durvalumab and examine the impact on tissue and circulating immune cell populations.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 29, 2024

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This video discusses a study exploring the use of checkpoint inhibitor therapy, specifically durvalumab, for treating bladder cancer, particularly in earlier stages. The aim is to integrate checkpoint inhibitors into the treatment paradigm for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer to potentially avoid the need for cystectomy (bladder removal).

Historically, such therapies have been used effectively for metastatic malignancies, but there is limited research on their application in earlier stages of bladder cancer. Researchers propose a novel method of directly injecting the drug into the bladder to achieve more effective local delivery, addressing challenges with absorption through the bladder lining.

The study focused on safety and feasibility, given that this is a first-in-human trial. Results showed that the administration of the drug was well tolerated, with no significant systemic immune-related side effects observed, which are common in systemic immunotherapy. Immune responses were noted in the bladder tissue, and one patient showed no evidence of carcinoma in situ following treatment, indicating potential effectiveness.

Overall, the findings suggest that direct bladder injection of checkpoint inhibitors like durvalumab is safe and could elicit local immune responses, warranting further studies to refine this approach and explore its use with other checkpoint inhibitors for bladder cancer patients who might benefit from therapy without requiring bladder removal.

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Really, we were trying to look at a way

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to bring checkpoint inhibitor therapy earlier on in the

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bladder cancer, treatment paradigm.

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Um, so these drugs are well known

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to be very effective in treating,

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metastatic malignancy

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and certainly urothelial cancer checkpoint inhibitors

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are well known to be active.

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Um, but there was a desire to bring them earlier on in, in,

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in the treatment process for so

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that they could potentially be used in the future

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with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer

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and hopefully prevent people from requiring cystectomy

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with the removal of the bladder for bladder cancer.

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That's an interesting point because there are very,

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there are virtually no, recorded, studies.

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There's one study which is still, unreported.

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There was just a protocol paper about using potentially

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direct injection of the drug durvalumab into the cervix,

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as a potential treatment for spike cancer, but no results.

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Um, so it really is a, it really is quite a novel approach.

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Um, the thing about the bladder is it's very

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accessible to urologists.

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Um, now you can put drugs into the bladder down a catheter,

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and there are indeed, there are, there have been ongoing,

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there are ongoing studies where they've done exactly that

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with the same drug that we use in our study

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and durvalumab, which is the PD L one inhibitor.

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But the, the, these drugs are antibodies.

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They're very big molecules,

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and the lining of the bladder is designed

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to stop stuff getting out through it.

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Um, so it's a, it's a fairly impenetrable, beast.

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Um, and it may be that it's very difficult to absorb,

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a checkpoint inhibitor through the urothelium.

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We certainly don't know that you can,

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and to my mind, there's no good evidence

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that it is well absorbed, certainly,

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when administered on its own.

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So the, the idea was to circumvent that

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by literally injecting the, the drug past the, the barrier

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of the urothelium into the, into the,

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essentially the lamina propria and the,

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and the detrusor muscle of the bladder itself.

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So literally way of getting, infiltrating the drug directly

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around the bladder and getting it in that way.

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The potential advantage of that being, if I carry on

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the potential advantages of that being,

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with systemic administration, we know

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that these drugs are very toxic.

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They have a lot of immune related side effects.

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Um, and the whole idea of there is a precedent

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for giving systemic checkpoint inhibitor

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therapy for bladder cancer.

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So there's a study using pembrolizumab called Keynote,

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57, where people with who didn't respond

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to the standard treatment

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for bladder ca non loss invasive bladder cancer, BCG,

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were given, systemic, immunotherapy

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with pembrolizumab, with some, degree of,

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success, but,

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but a, a systemic therapy

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with all the associated toxicities of that therapy.

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Um, and obviously if you can just give the drug to the area

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where it's gonna be most effective

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and reduce the side effects, not to mention costs

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of the drug, et cetera, that would be advantageous.

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So that was the, that was the idea behind the study.

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I think that really you're trying to de I mean, the problem

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with, checkpoint inhibitors is

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that the actual dose required

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for an effect is, is very unclear.

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And indeed a lot of the industry studies

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with systemic checkpoint inhibitors, it's,

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it's highly likely that far more

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of these drug is being given

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Than, than perhaps, is actually required to,

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to stimulate the immune response,

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the desirable immune response in the bladder.

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Um, if you take the sort of volume of the bladder compared

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to the volume of a person, it's probably less than 5%

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of the, of the, of the volume of tissue

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that's in a human body.

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Um, so we worked, around that, supposition

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that if we got the dose up to 10% of the systemic dose,

03:24.345 --> 03:25.885
giving it directly into the bladder,

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then we would be more than exceeding the likely amount

03:29.085 --> 03:30.805
of drug that you would administer to the bladder

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with systemic administration.

03:32.065 --> 03:35.765
So that's how we designed our, our dose escalation schedule.

03:36.465 --> 03:38.205
Um, because it was a,

03:38.235 --> 03:42.165
because it was a first in world, sort of first in human,

03:42.465 --> 03:44.365
trial,

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we really were just looking mainly at s

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safety and feasibility.

03:48.385 --> 03:51.005
Um, and of course, though these doses,

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these drugs are very safe in high dose systemically,

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but we didn't know for certain that it would be all right

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to give them injected directly into the bladder.

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Um, and for that reason, we chose a population of patients

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who were, who were volunteers.

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They were very carefully counseled into the fact

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that they were, they were,

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volunteering, to this study.

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Um, and we really chose patients who were scheduled

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to have the bladder remove a bladder cancer in any case,

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so that if there were to un unrealized toxicities

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or issues, then those, patients wouldn't be left,

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suffering for very long.

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Well, I think the first thing was that we got up

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to our target dose, without any,

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systemic immune related adverse effects.

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So by that I mean there was no, dermatitis,

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no bowel related, you know, colitis

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or hepatitis, all the other various inflammatory conditions

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that are well recognized side effects of, immunotherapy.

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Now, this is a, we have

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to remember it's an 11 patient study, so that doesn't mean

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that somebody couldn't have a systemic immune response in

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the future, where we got safely up to the target dose,

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which is a very large dose, we believe, for the bladder.

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Um, so that was the, the, that was the first point.

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Um, it was very well tolerated, by the patients.

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We did give the drug,

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to patients under general anesthetic,

05:06.075 --> 05:08.645
because again, it was a first in human study,

05:08.865 --> 05:11.045
but there's no real reason why these drugs couldn't be

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administered down a flexible cystoscope

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under local anesthetic.

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And the other main finding was

05:15.325 --> 05:18.045
that we did see immune related effects in the bladder.

05:18.185 --> 05:20.885
So we looked at various immune cell populations in the

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bladder and saw how they changed before and

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after the administration of the durvalumab.

05:25.705 --> 05:28.165
Um, so this was only a single dose of the drug

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that was given, and we'd taken biopsies from the bladder

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immediately before the drug was given into the bladder,

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and then at least, at least two weeks later,

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sometimes longer, when the patient came back

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for their scheduled surgery to remove the whole bladder,

05:41.585 --> 05:43.285
we took more biopsies again, first,

05:43.705 --> 05:45.285
and of course we also had the whole bladder

05:45.305 --> 05:46.805
to look at under the microscope

05:46.905 --> 05:48.165
so we could look at these various

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populations of immune cells.

05:49.905 --> 05:51.285
And they did change,

05:51.285 --> 05:53.085
following the durvalumab administration.

05:53.505 --> 05:54.765
The, the other, I mean,

05:54.765 --> 05:56.765
potentially exciting issue with, with

05:56.865 --> 05:57.925
One particular patient

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who had something called carcinoma in situ you

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of the bladder, which was proven on the biopsies

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before the durvalumab administration.

06:04.505 --> 06:07.205
Uh, there was no carcinoma of situ in the bladder at all,

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subsequently after they'd been given the drug.

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Now it's obviously one patient in a, in a, in a small study,

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so we can't read too much into that,

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but it's certainly an encouraging start in conclusion, it's,

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it's safe,

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and there are immune related,

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consequences of doing this.

06:23.355 --> 06:25.675
So it seems to be active in, in, in the sense

06:25.675 --> 06:29.835
of it's an immune, it's a, it's a immune stimulating drug,

06:29.835 --> 06:30.955
which has an immune effect when

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injected directly into the bladder.

06:32.775 --> 06:34.835
Um, and that we didn't see any systemic

06:34.975 --> 06:36.275
immune related side effects.

06:36.275 --> 06:38.035
So those are really our main conclusions.

06:38.535 --> 06:40.035
Uh, clearly now we'd be interested

06:40.035 --> 06:42.155
to do further studies both with durvalumab

06:42.155 --> 06:44.315
or potentially with other checkpoint inhibitors such

06:44.315 --> 06:46.275
as pembrolizumab or others,

06:46.275 --> 06:48.795
where we are giving repeated, injections,

06:48.795 --> 06:50.155
into the bladder, similarly to

06:50.155 --> 06:51.635
how you would give the immune therapy

06:52.715 --> 06:55.235
repeatedly into a vein, when treating patients.

06:55.535 --> 06:58.395
Um, and actually, look at the longer term of it as,

06:58.415 --> 06:59.635
as a treatment for patients

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who already have established bladder cancer,

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but aren't necessarily going to require cystectomy.

"Exploring Early Intervention with Checkpoint Inhibitors in Bladder Cancer Treatment"

00:00:00 - Really, we were trying to look at a way to bring checkpoint inhibitor therapy earlier on in the bladder cancer, treatment paradigm. so these drugs are well known to be very effective in treating, metastatic malignancy and certainly urothelial cancer checkpoint inhibitors are well known to be active. but there was a desire to bring them earlier on in, in, in the treatment process for so that they could potentially be used in the future with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer and hopefully prevent people from requiring cystectomy with the removal of the bladder for bladder cancer. That's an interesting point because there are very, there are virtually no, recorded, studies. There's one study which is still, unreported. There was just a protocol paper about using potentially
00:00:47 - as a potential treatment for spike cancer, but no results. so it really is a, it really is quite a novel approach. the thing about the bladder is it's very accessible to urologists. now you can put drugs into the bladder down a catheter, and there are indeed, there are, there have been ongoing, there are ongoing studies where they've done exactly that with the same drug that we use in our study and durvalumab, which is the PD L one inhibitor. But the, the, these drugs are antibodies. They're very big molecules, and the lining of the bladder is designed to stop stuff getting out through it. so it's a, it's a fairly impenetrable, beast. and it may be that it's very difficult to absorb, a checkpoint inhibitor through the urothelium.
00:01:26 - and to my mind, there's no good evidence that it is well absorbed, certainly, when administered on its own. So the, the idea was to circumvent that by literally injecting the, the drug past the, the barrier of the urothelium into the, into the, essentially the lamina propria and the, and the detrusor muscle of the bladder itself. So literally way of getting, infiltrating the drug directly around the bladder and getting it in that way. The potential advantage of that being, if I carry on the potential advantages of that being, with systemic administration, we know that these drugs are very toxic. They have a lot of immune related side effects. and the whole idea of there is a precedent for giving systemic checkpoint inhibitor therapy for bladder cancer.
00:02:09 - 57, where people with who didn't respond to the standard treatment for bladder ca non loss invasive bladder cancer, BCG, were given, systemic, immunotherapy with pembrolizumab, with some, degree of, success, but, but a, a systemic therapy with all the associated toxicities of that therapy. and obviously if you can just give the drug to the area where it's gonna be most effective and reduce the side effects, not to mention costs of the drug, et cetera, that would be advantageous. So that was the, that was the idea behind the study. I think that really you're trying to de I mean, the problem with, checkpoint inhibitors is
00:02:49 - for an effect is, is very unclear. And indeed a lot of the industry studies with systemic checkpoint inhibitors, it's, it's highly likely that far more of these drug is being given Than, than perhaps, is actually required to, to stimulate the immune response, the desirable immune response in the bladder. if you take the sort of volume of the bladder compared to the volume of a person, it's probably less than 5% of the, of the, of the volume of tissue that's in a human body. so we worked, around that, supposition that if we got the dose up to 10% of the systemic dose, giving it directly into the bladder, then we would be more than exceeding the likely amount
00:03:30 - with systemic administration. So that's how we designed our, our dose escalation schedule. because it was a, because it was a first in world, sort of first in human, trial, we really were just looking mainly at s safety and feasibility. and of course, though these doses, these drugs are very safe in high dose systemically, but we didn't know for certain that it would be all right to give them injected directly into the bladder. and for that reason, we chose a population of patients who were, who were volunteers. They were very carefully counseled into the fact that they were, they were, volunteering, to this study.

"Exploring the Safety and Immune Effects of Local Durvalumab Injection in Bladder Cancer Treatment"

00:04:12 - to have the bladder remove a bladder cancer in any case, so that if there were to un unrealized toxicities or issues, then those, patients wouldn't be left, suffering for very long. Well, I think the first thing was that we got up to our target dose, without any, systemic immune related adverse effects. So by that I mean there was no, dermatitis, no bowel related, you know, colitis or hepatitis, all the other various inflammatory conditions that are well recognized side effects of, immunotherapy. Now, this is a, we have to remember it's an 11 patient study, so that doesn't mean that somebody couldn't have a systemic immune response in
00:04:52 - which is a very large dose, we believe, for the bladder. so that was the, the, that was the first point. it was very well tolerated, by the patients. We did give the drug, to patients under general anesthetic, because again, it was a first in human study, but there's no real reason why these drugs couldn't be administered down a flexible cystoscope under local anesthetic. And the other main finding was that we did see immune related effects in the bladder. So we looked at various immune cell populations in the bladder and saw how they changed before and after the administration of the durvalumab. so this was only a single dose of the drug that was given, and we'd taken biopsies from the bladder
00:05:34 - and then at least, at least two weeks later, sometimes longer, when the patient came back for their scheduled surgery to remove the whole bladder, we took more biopsies again, first, and of course we also had the whole bladder to look at under the microscope so we could look at these various populations of immune cells. And they did change, following the durvalumab administration. The, the other, I mean, potentially exciting issue with, with One particular patient who had something called carcinoma in situ you of the bladder, which was proven on the biopsies before the durvalumab administration. there was no carcinoma of situ in the bladder at all, subsequently after they'd been given the drug. Now it's obviously one patient in a, in a, in a small study,
00:06:14 - but it's certainly an encouraging start in conclusion, it's, it's safe, and there are immune related, consequences of doing this. So it seems to be active in, in, in the sense of it's an immune, it's a, it's a immune stimulating drug, which has an immune effect when injected directly into the bladder. and that we didn't see any systemic immune related side effects. So those are really our main conclusions. clearly now we'd be interested to do further studies both with durvalumab or potentially with other checkpoint inhibitors such as pembrolizumab or others, where we are giving repeated, injections, into the bladder, similarly to how you would give the immune therapy
00:07:01 - and actually, look at the longer term of it as, as a treatment for patients who already have established bladder cancer, but aren't necessarily going to require cystectomy.

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The SUB-urothelial DUrvalumab InjEction-1 (SUBDUE-1) trial

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