POTENT - Tepotinib in Combination With Pembrolizumab in NSCLC
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2028-02-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
This clinical study is looking at the combination of two experimental drugs called tepotinib
and pembrolizumab. Pembrolizumab, also known as Keytruda, is licenced and available by
prescription to treat a variety of cancers. Tepotinib is currently un-licensed in the UK but
is licensed in other countries for use in non-small cell lung cancer (NCSLC) and is being
investigated for this purpose.
Cancer immunotherapy drugs hold great promise but still do not work for many patients.
Laboratory studies on cancers that do not respond well to immunotherapy reveal that most of
these tumours do not have any immune cells. This suggests that the cancer has successfully
hidden itself and avoided being recognised by the immune system. This study aims to use a
novel approach using a targeted drug, tepotinib, to target the gene involved with NSCLC.
Tepotinib is a type of drug called a kinase inhibitor. Kinase inhibitors are a newer type of
drug being used to try to treat cancers. They act by blocking some of the chemical messengers
that are part of the signalling process within cancer cells that control their growth.
Tepotinib is used in adults to treat NSCLC that can have certain abnormal changes in the
mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor gene (MET) and which has spread and/or cannot be
removed by surgery. The changes in the MET gene can make an abnormal protein which can lead
to uncontrolled cell growth and cancer. By blocking this abnormal protein, tepotinib may slow
or stop the cancer from growing as well as potentially shrinking the cancer. This study will
include patients with and without the MET exon 14 mutations.
In this clinical study, the investigators aim to test our ideas in a small number of people
for the first time, specifically in those patients with cancers which do not respond to
cancer immunotherapy.