The National Lung Screening Trial showed that lung cancer (LC) screening by three annual rounds of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) reduces LC mortality. We evaluated the benefit of prolonged LDCT ...screening beyond 5years, and its impact on overall and LC specific mortality at 10years.
The Multicentric Italian Lung Detection (MILD) trial prospectively randomized 4099 participants, to a screening arm (n=2376), with further randomization to annual (n=1190) or biennial (n=1186) LDCT for a median period of 6 years, or control arm (n=1723) without intervention. Between 2005 and 2018, 39 293 person-years of follow-up were accumulated. The primary outcomes were 10-year overall and LC specific mortality. Landmark analysis was used to test the long-term effect of LC screening, beyond 5years by exclusion of LCs and deaths that occurred in the first 5years.
The LDCT arm showed a 39% reduced risk of LC mortality at 10years hazard ratio (HR) 0.61; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.39–0.95, compared with control arm, and a 20% reduction of overall mortality (HR 0.80; 95% CI 0.62–1.03). LDCT benefit improved beyond the 5th year of screening, with a 58% reduced risk of LC mortality (HR 0.42; 95% CI 0.22–0.79), and 32% reduction of overall mortality (HR 0.68; 95% CI 0.49–0.94).
The MILD trial provides additional evidence that prolonged screening beyond 5 years can enhance the benefit of early detection and achieve a greater overall and LC mortality reduction compared with NLST trial.
NCT02837809.
Large randomized trials have demonstrated that lung cancer (LC) screening with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) reduces LC mortality in heavy smokers. We previously showed in the MILD screening ...trial that the combination of a prespecified circulating microRNA (miRNA) signature classifier (MSC) and LDCT improves the accuracy of LDCT alone. The primary aim of the prospective BioMILD study was to assess the additional value of the blood MSC assay at the time of baseline LDCT with the goal of personalizing LC screening intervals.
The study enrolled 4119 volunteers from January 2013 to March 2016, with a median follow-up of 5.3 years. Baseline LDCT and miRNAs stratified participants into four groups: CT−/MSC− (n = 2664; 64.7%); CT−/MSC+ (n = 800; 19.4%); CT+/MSC− (n = 446; 10.8%); and CT+/MSC+ (n = 209; 5.1%). As per the protocol, those in the CT−/MSC− and CT−/MSC+ groups were allocated to LDCT repeat at 3-year and 1-year intervals; CT+ participants were allocated for 1-year or earlier intervals on the basis of LDCT features independent of MSC results.
CT+ participants had a 15.8-fold higher 4-year LC incidence than CT− participants (95% confidence interval 10.34-24.05), and MSC+ participants had a 2.0-fold higher 4-year LC incidence than MSC− participants (95% confidence interval 1.40-2.90); there was no evidence that the MSC effect differed between CT+ and CT− participants. LC incidence at 4 years was 0.8% in CT−/MSC−, 1.1% in CT−/MSC+, 10.8% in CT+/MSC−, and 20.1% in CT+/MSC+ participants. LC mortality rates at 5 years in the four risk groups were 0.5 in CT−/MSC−, 1.5 in CT−/MSC+, 4.2 in CT+/MSC−, and 10.1 in CT+/MSC+.
The combined use of LDCT and blood miRNAs at baseline predicts individual LC incidence and mortality, with a major effect of MSC for LDCT-positive individuals. These findings may have important implications in personalizing screening intervals.
•Baseline LDCT and blood microRNAs define individual lung cancer risk profiles.•Targeted LDCT intervals reduce unnecessary repeat LDCT.•A biomarker-based risk test showed a major added value for CT+ participants.
Objectives
To compare the performance metrics of two different strategies of lung cancer screening by low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), namely, annual (LDCT1) or biennial (LDCT2) screen.
Methods
...Recall rate, detection rate, interval cancers, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV, respectively) were compared between LDCT1 and LDCT2 arms of the MILD trial over the first seven (T0-T6; median follow-up 7.3 years) and four rounds (T0-T3; median follow-up 7.3 years), respectively.
Results
1152 LDCT1 and 1151 LDCT2 participants underwent a total of 6893 and 4715 LDCT scans, respectively. The overall recall rate was higher in LDCT2 arm (6.97 %) than in LDCT1 arm (5.81 %) (
p
= 0.01), which was counterbalanced by the overall lower number of LDCT scans. No difference was observed for the overall detection rate (0.56 % in both arms). The two LDCT arms had similar specificity (99.2 % in both arms), sensitivity (73.5 %, in LDCT2 vs. 68.5 % in LDCT1,
p
= 0.62), PPV (42.4 %, in LDCT2, vs. 40.6 %, in LDCT1,
p
= 0.83) and NPV (99.8 %, in LDCT2 vs. 99.7 %, in LDCT1,
p
= 0.71).
Conclusion
Biennial screen may save about one third of LDCT scans with similar performance indicators as compared to annual screening
.
Key Points
•
Biennial LDCT screening may be as efficient as the annual screening.
•
Annual and biennial LDCT screening have similar frequency of interval lung cancers.
•
Biennial screening may save about one third of LDCT scans.
The Multicentric Italian Lung Detection (MILD) trial demonstrated that prolonged low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening could achieve a 39% reduction in lung cancer (LC) mortality. We have ...here evaluated the long-term results of annual vs. biennial LDCT and the impact of screening intensity on overall and LC-specific mortality at 10 years.
Between 2005 and 2018, the MILD trial prospectively randomised the 2376 screening arm participants to annual (n = 1190) or biennial (n = 1186) LDCT, for a median screening period of 6.2 years and 23,083 person-years of follow-up. The primary outcomes were 10-year overall and LC-specific mortality, and the secondary end-points were the frequency of advanced-stage and interval LCs.
The biennial LDCT arm showed a similar overall mortality (hazard ratio HR 0.80, 95% confidence interval CI 0.57–1.12) and LC-specific mortality at 10 years (HR 1.10, 95% CI 0.59–2.05), as compared with the annual LDCT arm. Biennial screening saved 44% of follow-up LDCTs in subjects with negative baseline LDCT, and 38% of LDCTs in all participants, with no increase in the occurrence of stage II-IV or interval LCs.
The MILD trial provides original evidence that prolonged screening beyond five years with biennial LDCT can achieve an LC mortality reduction comparable to annual LDCT, in subjects with a negative baseline examination.
•MILD trial randomized Annual vs Biennial screening.•Biennial screening is safe in subjects with a negative baseline LDCT.•Biennial screening avoided 38% of LDCTs.•Screening intervals can be based on individual risk profile.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality rate worldwide, mainly because of the presence of metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis. Early detection of lung cancer improves prognosis, ...and towards this end, large screening trials in high-risk individuals have been conducted since the past century. Despite all efforts, the need for novel (complementary) lung cancer diagnostic and screening methods still exists. In this review, we focus on the assessment of lung cancer-related biomarkers in sputum in the past decennium. Besides cytology, mutation and microRNA analysis, special attention has been paid to DNA promoter hypermethylation, of which all available literature is summarised without time restriction. A model is proposed to aid in the distinction between diagnostic and risk markers. Research on the use of sputum for non-invasive detection of early-stage lung cancer has brought new insights and advanced molecular techniques. The sputum shows a promising potential for routine diagnostic and possibly screening purposes.
Abstract Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a global health concern, and the incidence of early onset (EO) CRC, has an upward trend. This study delves into the genomic landscape of EO-CRC, specifically ...focusing on pediatric (PED) and young adult (YA) patients, comparing them with adult (AD) CRC. In this retrospective monocentric investigation, we performed targeted next-generation sequencing to compare the mutational profile of 38 EO-CRCs patients (eight PED and 30 YA) to those of a ‘control group’ consisting of 56 AD-CRCs. Our findings reveal distinct molecular profiles in EO-CRC, notably in the WNT and PI3K-AKT pathways. In pediatrics, we observed a significantly higher frequency of RNF43 mutations, whereas APC mutations were more prevalent in adult cases. These observations suggest age-related differences in the activation of the WNT pathway. Pathway and copy number variation analysis reveal that AD-CRC and YA-CRC have more similarities than the pediatric patients. PED shows a peculiar profile with CDK6 amplification and the enrichment of lysine degradation pathway. These findings may open doors for personalized therapies, such as PI3K-AKT pathway inhibitors or CDK6 inhibitors for pediatric patients. Additionally, the distinct molecular signatures of EO-CRC underscore the need for age-specific treatment strategies and precision medicine. This study emphasizes the importance of comprehensive molecular investigations in EO-CRCs, which can potentially improve diagnostic accuracy, prognosis, and therapeutic decisions for these patients. Collaboration between the pediatric and adult oncology community is fundamental to improve oncological outcomes for this rare and challenging pediatric tumor.
Lung cancer represents the leading cause of cancer-related death in developed countries. Despite the advances in diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, the 5-year survival rate remains low. The ...research for novel therapies directed to biological targets has modified the therapeutic approach, but the frequent engagement of resistance mechanisms and the substantial costs, limit the ability to reduce lung cancer mortality. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs with known regulatory functions in cancer initiation and progression. In this study we found that mir-660 expression is downregulated in lung tumors compared with adjacent normal tissues and in plasma samples of lung cancer patients with poor prognosis, suggesting a potential functional role of this miRNA in lung tumorigenesis. Transient and stable overexpression of mir-660 using miRNA mimics reduced migration, invasion, and proliferation properties and increased apoptosis in p53 wild-type lung cancer cells (NCI-H460, LT73, and A549). Furthermore, stable overexpression using lentiviral vectors in NCI-H460 and A549 cells inhibited tumor xenograft growth in immunodeficient mice (95 and 50% reduction compared with control, respectively), whereas the effects of mir-660 overexpression were absent in H1299, a lung cancer cell line lacking p53 locus, both in in vitro and in vivo assays. We identified and validated mouse double minute 2 (MDM2) gene, a key regulator of the expression and function of p53, as a new direct target of mir-660. In addition, mir-660 expression reduced both mRNA and protein expression of MDM2 in all cell lines and stabilized p53 protein levels resulting in an upregulation of p21(WAF1/CIP1) in p53 wild-type cells. Our finding supports that mir-660 acts as a tumor suppressor miRNA and we suggest the replacement of mir-660 as a new therapeutic approach for p53 wild-type lung cancer treatment.
Recognition of rare molecular subgroups is a challenge for precision oncology and may lead to tissue-agnostic approval of targeted agents. Here we aimed to comprehensively characterize the clinical, ...pathological and molecular landscape of RET rearranged metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).
In this case series, we compared clinical, pathological and molecular characteristics of 24 RET rearranged mCRC patients with those of a control group of 291 patients with RET negative tumors. RET rearranged and RET negative mCRCs were retrieved by systematic literature review and by taking advantage of three screening sources: (i) Ignyta’s phase 1/1b study on RXDX-105 (NCT01877811), (ii) cohorts screened at two Italian and one South Korean Institutions and (iii) Foundation Medicine Inc. database. Next-generation sequencing data were analyzed for RET rearranged cases.
RET fusions were more frequent in older patients (median age of 66 versus 60 years, P = 0.052), with ECOG PS 1–2 (90% versus 50%, P = 0.02), right-sided (55% versus 32%, P = 0.013), previously unresected primary tumors (58% versus 21%, P < 0.001), RAS and BRAF wild-type (100% versus 40%, P < 0.001) and MSI-high (48% versus 7%, P < 0.001). Notably, 11 (26%) out of 43 patients with right-sided, RAS and BRAF wild-type tumors harbored a RET rearrangement. At a median follow-up of 45.8 months, patients with RET fusion-positive tumors showed a significantly worse OS when compared with RET-negative ones (median OS 14.0 versus 38.0 months, HR: 4.59; 95% CI, 3.64–32.66; P < 0.001). In the multivariable model, RET rearrangements were still associated with shorter OS (HR: 2.97; 95% CI, 1.25–7.07; P = 0.014), while primary tumor location, RAS and BRAF mutations and MSI status were not.
Though very rare, RET rearrangements define a new subtype of mCRC that shows poor prognosis with conventional treatments and is therefore worth of a specific management.
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