Abstract
Background
Most metastatic melanoma patients treated with Programed cell Death (PD)-1 blockers fail to achieve a durable response. The gut microbiota profoundly affects host immunity, and fecal microbiota transplantations (FMT) have been shown to enhance anti-PD-1 effectiveness in murine models. We report initial safety and efficacy results from the first patients treated in a Phase I study of FMT and re-induction anti-PD-1 therapy in anti-PD-1 refractory metastatic melanoma.
Methods
FMT donors were two metastatic melanoma patients who achieved a durable complete response to treatment. FMT recipients were metastatic melanoma patients who failed at least one anti-PD-1 line of treatment. FMT was conducted by both colonoscopic and oral administration, followed by anti-PD-1 re-treatment. Each recipient underwent pre- and post-treatment stool sampling, tissue biopsy of both gut and tumor, and total body imaging.
Results
Five patients with treatment-resistant metastatic melanoma were recruited. No FMT-related or immunotherapy-related adverse events were observed. To assess engraftment of the new microbiota, recipients were paired with their respective donors and stool 16S rDNA gene sequence analysis was performed. Sequencing results demonstrated post-FMT compositional dissimilarity (Unweighted UniFrac, P = 0.04, FDR q = 0.22) between the two recipient–donor groups. Specific taxonomic dynamics included post-FMT increased abundance of Paraprevotellaceae, previously associated in descriptive studies with responsiveness to treatment, and significant reductions in abundance of β-proteobacteria, previously associated with reduced response to treatment. Immunohistochemical stains of biopsies demonstrated an increased post-FMT infiltration of antigen presenting cells (CD68+) in the gut (paired T-test, P = 0.008) and in the tumor (P = 0.0076). Post-treatment intra-tumoral CD8+ T-cell infiltration was also increased. Three patients had a partial or complete response to treatment post-FMT.
Conclusion
FMT in metastatic melanoma patients seems to be safe and may alter recipient gut microbiota to resemble that of a responder donor. This alteration may result in intra-tumoral T-cell activity, and conferred clinical and radiological benefit in several recipients previously unresponsive to treatment.
Disclosures
All Authors: No reported Disclosures.
Session: 33. Transplant ID
Thursday, October 3, 2019: 11:15 AM