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RecruitingNCT06651151NeoLIPAUpdated Oct 26, 2024

NeoLIPA: Neoadjuvant LTX-315 in Combination with Pembrolizumab in Resectable Stage III/IV Melanoma

A Phase 2 interventional study of LTX-315 + pembrolizumab in Melanoma Stage IIIB-IV, sponsored by Oslo University Hospital. Recruiting at 1 site in Norway. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-10-26.

Sponsored by Oslo University Hospital · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by May 2026, 5 months ago, but the record still lists the study as recruiting.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
27
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
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Study summary

This clinical trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a new treatment approach for patients with stage III or IV melanoma that has spread to other parts of the body but can still be surgically removed. The study combines two treatments: LTX-315 and pembrolizumab.

Melanoma that has spread to other parts of the body can often be treated with surgery. Despite surgery, there is a high risk of the cancer coming back. Pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, can reduce this risk when given after surgery. Recent studies have shown that giving pembrolizumab before surgery, along with post-surgery treatment, might be more effective than giving it only after surgery. However, many patients still experience cancer recurrence. Combining pembrolizumab with LTX-315, which triggers a different immune response, might improve the treatment\'s effectiveness and reduce the risk of cancer progression before surgery.

This is an open-label Phase II study, meaning both the researchers and participants will know which treatments are being given. The study will be conducted at a single center and will involve about 27 participants. They will receive LTX-315 and pembrolizumab before their planned surgery to see if this combination could be more effective than pembrolizumab alone.

The primary goal is to assess the tumors response to the neoadjuvant (pre-surgery) treatment, specifically looking at the rate of pathological complete response (pCR), where no cancer is detected in the removed tumor tissue.

Read the detailed description

This is a single arm, single center, open-label phase II study to assess the effect of neoadjuvant LTX-315 in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with clinically detectable and resectable stage III-IV melanoma.

Clinically detectable, fully resectable stage III or oligometastatic IV melanoma can be cured with surgery but has a very high risk of local or systemic recurrence. The risk of recurrence can be significantly reduced by adjuvant treatment with a PD-1 inhibitor. Due to the mode of action of PD-1 inhibitors (stimulating tumor reactive T cells), there is reason to believe that their effect is enhanced if given before definitive surgery and removal of tumor reactive T cells in the tumor microenvironment. Indeed, it was recently shown that the effect is greatly improved if three doses of pembrolizumab are administered prior to surgery (neoadjuvant), followed by 15 doses in the adjuvant setting, compared to giving 18 doses adjuvant.

Several studies have shown that pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant treatment correlates with recurrence-free survival (RFS). The pCR rate neoadjuvant pembrolizumab is only modest (20%), and for 8% of the patients, disease progression in the neoadjuvant phase precludes the planned surgery.

LTX-315 is an oncolytic peptide generated from a host defense peptide and has both a direct killing activity and immunomodulatory properties. By inducing cell lysis and immunogenic cell death, LTX-315 can lead to increased T-cell infiltration, broadened repertoire of tumor antigens and increased diversity of T-cell clones, and thus has the potential to enhance the effect of pembrolizumab. Furthermore, the addition of LTX-315 to neoadjuvant pembrolizumab can lower risk of disease progression precluding surgery.

02

Conditions studied

  • Melanoma Stage IIIB-IV

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Keywords

  • Melanoma
  • Neoadjuvant
  • Pembrolizumab
  • Oncolytic peptide
03

In context

Melanoma

3,073 studies on the registry are indexed under Melanoma; 529 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 27 is below the median of 38 across 2,400 interventional studies indexed under Melanoma.

Browse Melanoma studies →

Lead sponsor

Oslo University Hospital is the lead sponsor of 830 studies on the registry; 146 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Participant must be 18 years of age inclusive, at the time of signing the informed consent.
  • Histologically confirmed, clinically detectable stage III-IV(M1a) melanoma, judged fully resectable and eligible for neoadjuvant treatment by consensus at a multidisciplinary tumor board. Patients with melanoma of cutaneous (including acral) or mucosal (including conjunctival) origin are eligible. Clinically detectable is defined as being apparent and measurable by radiological assessments or physical examination.
  • Measurable disease as per RECIST version 1.1 criteria.
  • Judged medically fit to undergo the planned surgery by the surgical team.
  • Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 or 1
  • Have at least one superficial cutaneous, subcutaneous or lymph node lesion available for injection with a maximum mean longest perpendicular diameter (LPD) of 3.0 cm.
  • Willing to undergo an additional tumor biopsy and submit biopsy and surgical specimens
  • Adequate organ function as defined below:

    1. Hemoglobin > 9 g/dL
    2. Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) ≥ 1.0 x 109/L
    3. Platelet count ≥ 80 x 109/L

    e. Serum bilirubin ≤ 1.5 x institutional upper limit of normal (ULN) f. AST and ALT ≤2.5 x ULN g. Albumin >30 g/L h. Serum creatinine ≤1.5 X ULN OR measured creatinine clearance (CL) >30 mL/min

  • Female participants are willing to use contraceptive measures as prescribed by the protocol from study visit 1 to 120 days after the last dose of study intervention. Women of childbearing potential must have a negative urine or serum pregnancy test within 72 hours of first study intervention.
  • Capable of giving signed informed consent as described in section 10.1 which includes compliance with the requirements and restrictions listed in the informed consent form (ICF) and in this protocol.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Uveal melanoma. Patients with acral, mucosal or conjunctival melanoma are eligible.
  • History of brain, bone, liver metastases or leptomeningeal metastases.
  • Patients with stage IV disease having ≥4 metastatic sites.
  • A history or current evidence of any condition, therapy, or laboratory abnormality that might confound the results of the trial, interfere with the subject's participation for the full duration of the trial, or is not in the best interest of the subject to participate, in the opinion of the treating Investigator.
  • Active autoimmune disease requiring systemic immunomodulatory treatment. Replacement therapy (e.g. physiologic doses of corticosteroids, insulin, thyroxine) is allowed.
  • Patient has history of, or any evidence of interstitial lung disease (ILD) or non-infectious pneumonitis that required systemic corticosteroids.
  • Prior malignancy that require concurrent therapy.
  • Allergy/hypersensitivity to prophylactic treatments; known hypersensitivity to pembrolizumab or LTX-315 or any of their excipients
  • Previous treatment with anti-cancer immunotherapy, including (but not limited to) CTLA-4 or PD-1 inhibitors. Prior non-immunotherapy adjuvant treatment (e.g.

dabrafenib + trametinib or radiotherapy), and regional therapy such as ECT or ILP is permitted (≥ 12 weeks prior to enrollment).

  • Currently taking immunosuppressive agents or use of systemic corticosteroids (≥10 mg of prednisolone or equivalent) or other systemic immunosuppressive drugs within 28 days prior to study drug administration. Topical and inhaled corticosteroids are allowed.
  • Have received a live vaccine within 30 days prior to first dose of treatment
  • Have received an investigational drug within 4 weeks to day 1, or are scheduled to receive one during the treatment period.
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding.
  • Any reason why, in the opinion of the investigator, the patient should not participate.
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
27 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Experimental

    LTX-315 will be injected directly into the selected tumor once weekly for a maximum of 5 dosing days. Pembrolizumab will be given as 200 mg IV infusion over 30 minutes every 3 weeks for a maximum of 18 doses of which three doses will be given prior to the planned surgery.

    Drug: LTX-315 + pembrolizumab

Interventions

  • DrugLTX-315 + pembrolizumab

    Drug pages: LTX-315 · Pembrolizumab

    LTX-315 as intratumoral injection once weekly for a maximum of 5 dosing days, in combination with pembrolizumab as intravenous infusion, 200 mg every 3 weeks for a maximum of 18 doses

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Complete Pathologic Response Rate

    Rate of pathologic complete response (pCR), defined as complete absence of viable tumor in the treated tumor bed.

    Time frame: 12 weeks after start of treatment

Secondary outcomes

  1. Safety Evaluation

    Frequency, nature and severity of AE according to NCI CTCAE v 5.0: * All AEs * LTX-315 treatment-related AEs * LTX-315 and/or pembrolizumab treatment-related AEs

    Time frame: Continously from first dose of treatment to 90 days after last study drug administration

  2. Objective response rate (ORR)

    Rate of CR or PR as per RECIST version 1.1 prior to surgery

    Time frame: After 12 weeks of treatment

  3. Pathologic Response Rate

    Rate of partial (less than 50% of the treated tumor bed is occupied by viable tumor cell) or complete pathologic response. Rate of Major Pathologic Response (MPR) defined as complete or near-complete (less than 10% of viable tumor in the treated tumor bed) pathologic response

    Time frame: After 12 weeks of treatment

  4. Event free survival (EFS)

    Defined as time from start of treatment to progression of disease that precludes surgery, recurrence (local or distant) or death

    Time frame: From first dose of treatment to two years

  5. Recurrence free survival (RFS)

    Defined as the time from surgery to recurrence or death.

    Time frame: Two years after surgery

  6. Overall Survival (OS)

    Overall Survival

    Time frame: Three years after surgery

  7. Quality of Life (QoL)

    Patient reported outcomes (PRO)

    Time frame: From first dose to end of treatment at approximately 1.5 years

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Oslo University Hospital
    Oslo, Oslo 0491, Norway
    Recruiting
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 26, 2024, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06651151
Collaborators
Lytix Biopharma AS
Responsible party
Henrik Jespersen (Head of Melanoma Oncology, Group Leader Melanoma Research, Oslo University Hospital) — Principal investigator
First posted
Oct 21, 2024
Start date
Nov 1, 2024 (estimated)
Primary completion
May 2026 (estimated)
Completion
May 2031 (estimated)
Last update
Oct 26, 2024

Study contacts

Henrik Jespersen, MD PhD
Contact
hejes@ous-hf.no
0047 22187285

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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Studies of the drugs tested here: LTX-315 · Pembrolizumab

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