- Yeo, Heather;
- Lowenfeld, Lea;
- Khan, Uqba;
- Nguyen, Alana;
- Siolas, Despina;
- Swed, Brandon;
- Hyun, Jini;
- Khan, Sahrish;
- Wood, Madeleine;
- Samstein, Benjamin;
- Rocca, Juan;
- Ocean, Allyson;
- Popa, Elizabeta;
- Hunt, Daniel;
- Uppal, Nikhil;
- Garrett, Kelly;
- Pigazzi, Alessio;
- Zhou, Xi;
- Shah, Manish;
- Hissong, Erika;
- Kasi, Pashtoon;
- Hidalgo, Manuel;
- Jafari, Mehraneh
In patients with locally advanced cancer without distant metastases, the neoadjuvant setting presents a platform to evaluate new drugs. For mismatch repair proficient/microsatellite stable (pMMR/MSS) colon and rectal cancer, immunotherapy has shown limited efficacy. Herein, we report exceptional responses observed with neoadjuvant botensilimab (BOT), an Fc-enhanced next-generation anti-CTLA-4 antibody, alongside balstilimab (BAL; an anti-PD-1 antibody) in two patients with pMMR/MSS colon and rectal cancer. The histological pattern of rapid immune response observed (inside-out (serosa-to-mucosa) tumor regression) has not been described previously in this setting. Spatial biology analyses (RareCyte Inc.) reveal mechanisms of actions of BOT, a novel innate-adaptive immune activator. These observations have downstream implications for clinical trial designs using neoadjuvant immunotherapy and potentially sparing patients chemotherapy.