Abstract 1776: Exploring anetumab ravtansine in a preclinical model of thymic carcinoma

Abstract Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are a group of rare tumors (0.13 per 100,000 persons), comprised of thymomas and thymic carcinoma, arising from the epithelial cells of the thymus. The biology of these tumors is not well understood, and there are no approved targeted therapies against TETs. One promising drug target is mesothelin (MSLN), which is a surface glycoprotein that is cleaved to produce two proteins: mature MSLN (mMSLN) and megakaryocyte potentiating factor (MPF). In normal physiology, expression of MSLN is limited to mesothelial cells lining the pleura, pericardium, and peritoneum. Its expression is also present in various cancers, including thymic carcinoma, where it is expressed in 79% of cases. In this study, we investigate the ability of the MSLN targeting, fully human monoclonal antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) anetumab ravtansine (ARav) to inhibit growth of thymic carcinoma in in-vitro and in-vivo models. We utilized immunoblotting and RT-qPCR to characterize MSLN expression in human thymoma and thymic carcinoma derived cell lines. Binding of anetumab, the antibody moiety in ARav, to thymoma and thymic carcinoma cell lines was assessed by flow cytometry. In-vitro, ARav's effect on cell proliferation was tested against MP57 cells (thymic carcinoma), stably transfected with MSLN, utilizing CellTiter-Glo. ARav's activity in-vivo as a monotherapy, and as a combination therapy with cisplatin, was tested against MSLN expressing T1889 xenograft tumors in athymic nude mice and compared to vehicle, isotype control ADC, and standard-of-care (SoC) cisplatin. Using the anetumab antibody, thymoma (T1682) and thymic carcinoma (T1889) cell lines were shown to express MSLN on the cell surface. In-vitro, ARav was effective at inhibiting growth of MP57 cells stably transfected with mMSLN. In-vivo, 15 mg/kg ARav inhibited T1889 xenograft tumor growth more efficaciously than vehicle, the isotype control ADC (all given every 2 weeks), and 4 mg/kg cisplatin (given every week). Combining ARav at a dose of 7.5 mg/kg with 4 mg/kg cisplatin yielded an additive effect on inhibiting tumor growth. MSLN is expressed in thymoma and thymic carcinoma derived cell lines. Anetumab ravtansine inhibits growth of MSLN positive thymic carcinoma in our preclinical model; when combined with SoC cisplatin, ARav confers enhanced tumor growth inhibition. Citation Format: Vincent Chen, Anette Sommer, Christoph Schatz, Sabine Zitzmann-Kolbe, In-Kyu Kim, Giuseppe Giaccone. Exploring anetumab ravtansine in a preclinical model of thymic carcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 1776.