Background. Carcinoid-like pattern in basal cell carcinoma is extremely rare and has only been documented in a textbook. The aim of this study is to reveal the characteristics of the carcinoid-like ...pattern in basal cell carcinoma as well as to establish the concept of the tumor pattern. Methods. Of 355 basal cell carcinoma cases (355 lesions of 308 patients), 11 tumors with histopathological features of carcinoid-like pattern were retrieved. Results. The patients included 5 males and 6 females with a median age of 73 years (range 38-86 years). Of the 11 lesions, 10 were observed on the head. Histopathologically, a carcinoid-like pattern with branching and anastomosing of trabecular structures was observed in 30% to 95% of the tumor area. No differentiation to sebocytes was observed in any of the tumors. The tumors were well-circumscribed, although 3 lesions contained an infiltrative-type component as well. The carcinoid-like pattern areas in all 11 lesions exhibited diffuse BerEP4 immunoexpression but no KIT, synaptophysin, or vimentin expression. Keratin 20-positive Merkel cells were not observed in the tumor areas. Conclusions. Basal cell carcinoma can show a carcinoid-like pattern cell arrangement. Based on the histopathological and immunohistochemical findings from our study, we collectively conclude that the carcinoid-like pattern in basal cell carcinoma does not seem to represent sebaceous mantle differentiation. Carcinoid-like pattern basal cell carcinoma can be distinguished from other tumors by the favorite site of the head, the co-existence of conventional basal cell carcinoma components, lack of sebaceous differentiation, and diffuse BerEP4 immunoexpression.
Although anti-PD-1 antibody monotherapy (PD-1) is commonly used to treat advanced acral melanoma (AM), its efficacy is limited. Further, data on the efficacy of PD-1 plus anti-CTLA-4 antibody ...(PD-1+CTLA-4) for the treatment of AM are limited. Therefore, we compared the efficacy of PD-1+CTLA-4 and PD-1 in the treatment of Japanese patients with advanced AM.
This retrospective study evaluated patients with advanced AM who were treated with PD-1 or PD-1+CTLA-4 as first-line immunotherapy in 24 Japanese institutions between 2014 and 2020. Treatment efficacy focussing on the objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) was compared between the two groups.
In total, 254 patients (palm and sole melanoma PSM, n = 180; nail apparatus melanoma NAM, n = 74) were included. Among the patients with PSM, the ORR (19% vs. 31%; P = 0.44), PFS (5.9 vs. 3.2 months; P = 0.74), and OS (23.1 vs. not reached; P = 0.55) did not differ significantly between the PD-1 and PD-1+CTLA-4 groups. Among the patients with NAM, the ORR (61% vs. 10%; P < 0.001) was significantly higher and PFS was longer (6.4 vs. 3.8 months; P = 0.10) in the PD-1+CTLA-4 group than in the PD-1 group. Cox multivariate analysis demonstrated that PD-1+CTLA-4 is an independent predictor of a favourable PFS in patients with NAM (P = 0.002).
The efficacy of PD-1+CTLA-4 is not superior to that of PD-1 for the treatment of advanced PSM. However, PD-1+CTLA-4 may be more efficacious than PD-1 for the treatment of advanced NAM.
•PD-1+CTLA-4 is clinically more efficacious than PD-1 for treating advanced NAM.•PD-1+CTLA-4 is not superior to PD-1 monotherapy for treating advanced PSM.•Advanced NAM patients may be strong candidates for first-line PD-1+CTLA-4.
Immune‐related adverse events (irAE) were reported to be associated with better outcomes in various cancers treated with the immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab. Considering that their development ...depends on host immune activation, irAE may reflect antitumor response in mucosal melanoma (MM). This single‐center retrospective study including patients with advanced MM receiving nivolumab monotherapy between August 2014 and September 2018 investigated whether the development of irAE was associated with clinical efficacy. The study patients were divided into those with and without irAE, and treatment efficacy and safety were evaluated. The study cohort of 27 patients included 20 (74%), six (22%) and one (4%) patient with primary MM in the head and neck, genitourinary and anorectal regions, respectively. The irAE onset was not significantly associated with the objective response rate in patients while it was significantly associated with the disease control rate. The median progression‐free survival in patients with and without irAE was 301 and 63 days, respectively. The median overall survival (OS) in patients with and without irAE was 723 and 199 days, respectively. According to the timing of irAE onset, the OS was better in seven patients who developed irAE after 180 days than in nine patients who developed irAE within 180 days. Although 16 patients (59%) experienced any grade irAE, including three (11%) with grade 3 or more irAE, there were no treatment‐related deaths. These results indicated that the development of irAE may correlate with improved survival in patients with MM treated with nivolumab monotherapy. Further studies are necessary to confirm these findings.
Familial malignant melanoma (FMM) is a hereditary tumor that is quite rare in Japan; to date, the germline CDK4 variant has scarcely been reported around the world. Thus, we report on a woman with ...FMM who developed salivary gland cancer, for which a germline pathogenic variant of CDK4 was incidentally identified through comprehensive genomic profiling. She had a history of multiple atypical nevi and a facial melanoma since her 30 s and multiple family histories of melanoma; however, none of her relatives were aware of its heredity. Genetic counseling and skin surveillance were performed. Precision medicine for cancer can discover this rare genetic syndrome and provides us with the opportunity to manage the health of patients and their relatives.
To describe the treatment patterns of nivolumab and ipilimumab in Japan, a retrospective observational study was conducted in melanoma patients who received nivolumab and ipilimumab sequentially. ...Patients who received nivolumab and ipilimumab in combination were excluded from this study. Efficacy was evaluated by the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) in terms of the overall response rate (ORR), progression‐free survival (PFS), and disease control rate (DCR). Overall survival (OS) was also evaluated. Safety was assessed by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE). The treatment for all 68 patients enrolled involved switching from nivolumab to ipilimumab in 61 patients and switching from ipilimumab to nivolumab in seven patients. Switching occurred because of progressive disease in 55 patients and adverse events in eight patients. The median number of ipilimumab doses was three. Ipilimumab treatment achieved an ORR and DCR of 4.9% and 21.3%, respectively, and the median OS from start of ipilimumab was 7.0 months. During the study period, no new safety signals were noted. Independent factors which were indicative of poor prognosis for PFS were high neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and high C‐reactive protein (CRP) levels before ipilimumab treatment. An evaluation over a washout period indicated that no significant relationship existed with efficacy or safety. For the sequential administration of nivolumab and ipilimumab in Japanese melanoma patients, switch from nivolumab to ipilimumab was common, and the major reason for switching was progressive disease. The major prognostic factors for ipilimumab PFS after nivolumab were NLR and CRP before ipilimumab treatment.
Background
The incidence of melanoma among those of an Asian ethnicity is lower than in Caucasians; few large‐scale Asian studies that include follow‐up data have been reported.
Objectives
To ...investigate the clinical characteristics of Japanese patients with melanoma and to evaluate the prognostic factors.
Methods
Detailed patient information was collected from the database of Japanese Melanoma Study Group of the Japanese Skin Cancer Society. The American Joint Committee on Cancer seventh Edition system was used for TNM classification. The Kaplan‐Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model were used to estimate the impact of clinical and histological parameters on disease‐specific survival in patients with invasive melanoma.
Results
In total, 4594 patients were included in this analysis. The most common clinical type was acral lentiginous melanoma (40.4%) followed by superficial spreading melanoma (20.5%), nodular melanoma (10.0%), mucosal melanoma (9.5%), and lentigo maligna melanoma (8.1%). The 5‐year disease‐specific survival for each stage was as follows: IA = 98.0%, IB = 93.9%, IIA = 94.8%, IIB = 82.4%, IIC = 71.8%, IIIA = 75.0%, IIIB = 61.3%, IIIC = 41.7%, and IV = 17.7%. Although multivariate analysis showed that clinical classifications were not associated with survival across all stages, acral type was an independent poor prognostic factor in stage IIIA.
Conclusions
Our study revealed the characteristics of melanoma in the Japanese population. The 5‐year disease‐specific survival of each stage showed a similar trend to that of Caucasians. While clinical classification was not associated with survival in any stages, acral type was associated with poor survival in stage IIIA. Our result might indicate the aggressiveness of acral type in certain populations.
Metastatic and chemoresistant melanoma can be a good target of immunotherapy because it is an intractable cancer with a very poor prognosis. Previously, we tested a dendritic cell (DC)-based phase I ...vaccine, and confirmed that it was safe. In the present study, we performed a phase II trial of a DC vaccine for metastatic melanoma patients with mainly the HLA-A24 genotype, and investigated the efficacy of the vaccine. Twenty-four patients with metastatic melanoma were enrolled into a phase II study of DC-based immunotherapy. The group included 19 HLA-A24-positive (A*2402) patients and 3 HLA-A2-positive (A*0201) patients. The protocol for DC production was similar to that in the phase I trial. Briefly, a cocktail of 5 melanoma-associated synthetic peptides (gp100, tyrosinase, MAGE-A2, MAGE-A3 and MART-1 or MAGE-A1) restricted to HLA-A2 or A24 and KLH were used for DC pulsing. Finally, DCs were injected subcutaneously (s.c.) into the inguinal region in the dose range of 1-5×107 per shot. The DC ratio (lin-HLA-DR+) of the vaccine was 38.1±13.3% and the frequency of CD83+ DCs was 25.7±20.8%. Other parameters regarding DC processing were not different from phase I. Immune response-related parameters including the ELISPOT assay, DTH reaction to peptide or KLH, DC injection numbers were shown to be related to a good prognosis. The ELISPOT reaction was positive in 75% of the patients vaccinated. The increase of anti-melanoma antigen antibody titer before vaccination was also shown to be a prognosis factor, but that post-vaccination was not. Based on immunohistochemical analysis, CD8 and IL-17 were not involved in the prognosis. Adverse effects of more than grade III were not seen. Overall survival analysis revealed a significant survival prolongation effect in DC-given melanoma patients. These results suggest that peptide cocktail-treated DC vaccines may be a safe and effective therapy against metastatic melanoma in terms of prolongation of overall survival time.
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Background: Anti-PD-1 antibody monotherapy (PD1) has been commonly used for patients with advanced acral melanoma (AM). However, recent studies have demonstrated the limited ...clinical efficacy of PD1 in AM compared to non-acral cutaneous melanoma, particularly in nail apparatus melanoma. Although advanced AM patients are strong candidates for first-line anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 combination therapy (PD1+CTLA4), data on the clinical efficacy of PD1+CTLA4 in AM are lacking. Thus, we aimed to compare the clinical efficacies of PD1+CTLA4 and PD1 in Japanese advanced AM patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of advanced AM patients treated with PD1+CTLA4 or PD1 as first-line immunotherapy at 23 Japanese institutions. Clinical response was assessed using the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) criteria. Survival was estimated using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Toxicity was assessed according to CTCAE 4.0. Results: A total of 192 patients (median age, 72 years) with advanced AM (palm and sole melanoma, 135; nail apparatus melanoma, 57) were included in the study. PD1+CTLA4 and PD1 were used as first-line immunotherapy in 39 and 153 patients, respectively. The baseline demographics and characteristics were similar between the PD1+CTLA4 and PD1 groups, except for age (median age 67.3 vs. 73.2; P = 0.005). The objective response rate (ORR) in PD1+CTLA4 was significantly higher than that of the PD1 group (38.5% vs. 16.3%; P = 0.047). The median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in the PD1+CTLA4 group tended to be longer than those of the PD1 group, but the differences were not significant (median PFS 7.3 months vs. 4.5 months; P = 0.19, median OS 43.6 months vs. 18.2 months; P = 0.19). In the subgroup analysis of the palm and sole melanoma cohorts, no significant differences in ORR, PFS, and OS were observed between the PD1+CTLA4 and PD1 groups (ORR 31% vs. 20.8%; P = 0.67, median PFS 5.3 months vs. 5.9 months; P = 0.87, median OS not reached vs. 22.3 months; P = 0.66). Meanwhile, the nail apparatus melanoma cohort in the PD1+CTLA4 group exhibited significantly higher ORR, and longer PFS and OS than the PD1 group (ORR 60% vs 6.1%; P < 0.001; median PFS 19.6 months vs 3.8 months; P = 0.008, median OS 43.6 months vs 13.5 months; P = 0.049). Due to immune-related adverse events in all cohorts, the treatment cessation rate was higher in the PD1+CTLA4 group than the PD1 group (59% vs. 11.8%). Conclusions: PD1+CTLA4 was clinically more efficacious than PD 1 in advanced AM patients. Notably, advanced nail apparatus melanoma patients were strong candidates for first-line PD1+CTLA4.
Background
Although pre-emptive therapy with oral tetracycline, moisturizer, sunscreen, and topical corticosteroid is useful for preventing acneiform eruption (AfE) due to epidermal growth factor ...receptor (EGFR) inhibitors, no studies have examined the efficacy of topical corticosteroids themselves, or investigated the optimal potency of corticosteroid for treating facial AfE (FAfE).
Patients and methods
Screened patients with
RAS
wild-type colorectal cancer started pre-emptive therapy with oral minocycline and moisturizer on initiation of cetuximab or panitumumab therapy. Patients who developed grade 1 or 2 FAfE were randomly allocated to two groups: a ranking-down (RD) group that started with a very strong corticosteroid and serially ranked down every 2 weeks unless FAfE exacerbated; and a ranking-up (RU) group that started with a weak corticosteroid and serially ranked up at exacerbation. FAfE grade, patient quality of life, and adverse events (AEs) with topical corticosteroid were evaluated every 2 weeks. The primary endpoint was the total number of times grade 2 or higher FAfE was identified in the central review of the 8-week treatment period.
Results
No significant differences in total numbers of grade 2 or higher FAfE or in AEs caused by topical corticosteroids were observed between groups during the 8 weeks. Incidence of grade 2 or higher FAfE tended to be lower in the RD group during the first 2 weeks.
Conclusion
Considering the long-term care of FAfE, the RU regimen appears suitable and should be considered the standard treatment for FAfE due to EGFR inhibitor therapy.
Trial registration
UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000024113).
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