Monotherapy or combination?
In the question-and-answer session following Dr. Arend’s presentation, comoderator Joyce Liu, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said that “even in the DKK1-high tumors, the activity of DKN-01 as a monotherapy is a little bit limited.”
She asked whether the future of targeting inhibitors in the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway will be limited to biomarker-specific populations or if agents such as DKN-01 should be used in combinations.
“I do think that we need a lot more data to determine,” Dr. Arend replied. “I think that there may be a subset of patients, especially those that don’t tolerate the [lenvatinib/pembrolizumab] combo who may have an upregulation of beta-catenin or a Wnt mutation who could benefit from monotherapy.”
Dr. Arend added that data from her lab and others suggest that DKN-01 in combination with other agents holds promise for improving outcomes in biomarker-selected populations.
The current study is funded by Leap Therapeutics. Dr. Arend disclosed advisory board activity for the company and others. Dr. Liu reported personal fees from several companies, not including Leap Therapeutics.