Circulating tumor DNA for comprehensive noninvasive monitoring of lymphoma treated with ibrutinib plus nivolumab

To advance the use of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) applications, their broad clinical validity must be tested in different treatment settings, including targeted therapies. Utilizing the prespecified longitudinal systematic collection of plasma samples in the phase 1/2a LYM1002 trial (NCT02329847), we tested the clinical validity of ctDNA for baseline mutation profiling, residual tumor load quantification, and acquisition of resistance mutations in patients with lymphoma treated with ibrutinib plus nivolumab. Inclusion criterion for this ancillary biological study was the availability of blood collected at baseline and cycle 3 day 1. Overall, 172 ctDNA samples from 67 patients were analyzed using LyV4.0 ctDNA CAncer Personalized Profiling by deep Sequencing assay. Among baseline variants in ctDNA, only TP53 mutations (detected in 25.4% of patients) were associated with shorter progression-free survival; clones harboring baseline TP53 mutations did not disappear during treatment. Molecular response, defined as a >2-log reduction in ctDNA levels after 2 cycles of therapy (28 days), was achieved by 28.6% of patients with relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who had ≥1 baseline variant and was associated with best response and improved progression-free survival. Clonal evolution occurred frequently during treatment, and 10.3% new mutations were identified after 2 treatment cycles in nonresponders. PLCG2 was the topmost among genes that acquired new mutations. No patients acquired C481S BTK mutations implicated in resistance to ibrutinib in CLL. Collectively, our results provide the proof of concept that ctDNA is useful for noninvasive monitoring of lymphoma treated with targeted agents in the clinical trial setting.