We aimed to evaluate the activity of selinexor, an oral selective inhibitor of nuclear export, in patients with recurrent or metastatic salivary gland tumors (SGT).

GEMS‐001 is an open‐label Phase 2 study for patients with recurrent or metastatic SGT with two parts. In Part 1 of the protocol, patients had tumor samples profiled with targeted next generation sequencing as well as immunohistochemistry for androgen receptor, HER‐2 and ALK. For Part 2, patients with no targeted therapies available were eligible to receive selinexor 60 mg given twice weekly every 28 days. The primary endpoint was objective response rate. Secondary endpoints included progression‐free survival (PFS) and prevalence of druggable alterations across SGT.

One hundred patients were enrolled in GEMS‐001 and underwent genomic and immunohistochemistry profiling. A total of 21 patients who lacked available matched therapies were treated with selinexor. SGT subtypes (WHO classification) included adenoid cystic carcinoma (n = 10), salivary duct carcinoma (n = 3), acinic cell carcinoma (n = 2), myoepithelial carcinoma (n = 2), carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma (n = 2) and other (n = 2). Of 18 evaluable patients, stable disease (SD) was observed in 17 patients (94%) (SD ≥6 months in 7 patients (39%)). However, no objective responses were observed. The median PFS was 4.9 months (95% confidence interval, 3.4–10). The most common treatment‐related Grade 1–2 adverse events were nausea [17 patients (81%)], fatigue [16 patients (76%)], and dysgeusia [12 patients (57%)]. Most common treatment‐related Grade 3–4 adverse events were hyponatremia [3 patients (14%)], neutrophil count decrease [3 patients (14%)] and cataracts [2 patients (10%)]. No treatment‐related deaths were observed.

Although tumor reduction was observed across participants, single agent selinexor anti‐tumor activity was limited.