Treatment of myeloma has benefited from the introduction of more effective and better tolerated agents, improvements in supportive care, better understanding of disease biology, revision of ...diagnostic criteria, and new sensitive and specific tools for disease prognostication and management. Assessment of minimal residual disease (MRD) in response to therapy is one of these tools, as longer progression-free survival (PFS) is seen consistently among patients who have achieved MRD negativity. Current therapies lead to unprecedented frequency and depth of response, and next-generation flow and sequencing methods to measure MRD in bone marrow are in use and being developed with sensitivities in the range of 10
to 10
cells. These technologies may be combined with functional imaging to detect MRD outside of bone marrow. Moreover, immune profiling methods are being developed to better understand the immune environment in myeloma and response to immunomodulatory agents while methods for molecular profiling of myeloma cells and circulating DNA in blood are also emerging. With the continued development and standardization of these methodologies, MRD has high potential for use in gaining new drug approvals in myeloma. The FDA has outlined two pathways by which MRD could be qualified as a surrogate endpoint for clinical studies directed at obtaining accelerated approval for new myeloma drugs. Most importantly, better understanding of MRD should also contribute to better treatment monitoring. Potentially, MRD status could be used as a prognostic factor for making treatment decisions and for informing timing of therapeutic interventions.
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Background
Quantitative methods of Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography (FDG‐PET) interpretation, including the percent change in FDG uptake from baseline (ΔSUV), are under investigation ...in lymphoma to overcome challenges associated with visual scoring systems (VSS) such as the Deauville 5‐point scale (5‐PS).
Methods
In CALGB 50303, patients with DLBCL received frontline R‐CHOP or DA‐EPOCH‐R, and although there were no significant associations between interim PET responses assessed centrally after cycle 2 (iPET) using 5‐PS with progression‐free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS), there were significant associations between central determinations of iPET ∆SUV with PFS/OS. In this patient cohort, we retrospectively compared local vs central iPET readings and evaluated associations between local imaging data and survival outcomes.
Results
Agreement between local and central review was moderate (kappa = 0.53) for VSS and high (kappa = 0.81) for ∆SUV categories (<66% vs. ≥66%). ∆SUV ≥66% at iPET was significantly associated with PFS (p = 0.03) and OS (p = 0.002), but VSS was not. Associations with PFS/OS when applying local review vs central review were comparable.
Conclusions
These data suggest that local PET interpretation for response determination may be acceptable in clinical trials. Our findings also highlight limitations of VSS and call for incorporation of more objective measures of response assessment in clinical trials.
In this retrospective analysis of CALGB 50303 study, Torka et al. found that associations with PFS and OS when applying local review versus central review of interim PET (iPET) were comparable? SUV = 66% at iPET was associated with PFS and OS, but visual scoring systems (VSS) were not, highlighting the limitations of VSS.
Introduction
Diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Up to one third of patients relapse or fail to achieve complete remission, with poor ...prognosis. and low response rates to salvage treatments. Early identification of patients unlikely to be cured with R-CHOP might improve their chance of cure and quality of life. Interim 18FFDG PET (I-PET) measures the pattern of response during treatment, which might add important prognostic value. These measures could be used for I-PET guided treatment for both patients with a good response and patients with a poor response. At this moment it is unclear what the influence of timing and PET positivity criteria is on the prognostic value of I-PET. Therefore, the aim of this individual patient data (IPD) meta-analysis was to determine the optimal timing and optimal PET positivity criteria for I-PET to predict response in DLBCL patients.
Methods
Individual patient data from 1977 de novo DLBCL patients were obtained from the PETRA database (www.petralymphoma.org). These patients had been enrolled in 9 clinical studies and treated with R-CHOP14, R-CHOP21 or DA-EPOCH-R. All patients had an I-PET following one to four cycles of therapy. Progression free survival (PFS) was the primary endpoint. We used the Deauville score (DS) as a visual assessment of the I-PET with two different cut-offs for PET-positivity: DS 4-5 positive and DS 5 positive. Relative reductions (Δ) of Standardized Uptake Values (SUV) were used for semi-quantitative scoring of I-PET. A cut-off of 66% reduction was used for I-PET scans after 1,2 or 3 cycles and a cut-off of 70% was used for I-PET after 4 cycles. DS were available for 1828 patients and ΔSUV data for 1632 patients. Multilevel Cox proportional hazards models were used to study the effects of timing and PET positivity criteria on 2-year PFS, with I-PET after 2 cycles as reference.
Results
After correction for Ann Arbor stage and age, there were no significant differences in PFS between the 9 studies. I-PET1 was not able to significantly discriminate between responders and non-responders. I-PET2 and I-PET4 were able to significantly discriminate responders and non-responders, with higher hazard ratios (HR) for I-PET4. HR were 1.65 and 2.36 for DS4-5 positive, 3.69 and 5.28 for DS5 positive and 2.36 and 3.67 for ΔSUV criteria for I-PET2 and I-PET4 respectively. I-PET3 was able to significantly discriminate responders and non-responders only for DS5 positive criteria (HR: 7.92) (Table 1). However, there were few patients with I-PET1 and I-PET3 scans. Regarding I-PET negative patients, there were no significant differences in PFS using any of the response criteria at the 4 timepoints assessed. Regarding I-PET positive patients, there was a significantly lower PFS at I-PET4 than at I-PET2 , using the DS4-5 positive criteria (p = 0.009, HR = 1.52 (95% BI 1.11 - 2.09)) and ΔSUV criteria (p = 0.05, HR = 1.68 (95%BI 1.00-2.82)) but no other significant differences using other criteria or timepoints (Table 2).
Conclusions
I-PET is able to significantly discriminate between responding and non-responding patients after 2, 3 or 4 cycles of chemotherapy. The optimal timing to identify responders is after 2 cycles, as there is no significant increase in survival at later times, regardless of PET criteria. As the PFS of I-PET4 positive patients is significantly lower than that of I-PET2 patients, I-PET4 might be the optimal timing to identify non-responders. We suggest to perform an I-PET4 scan to identify poor-responding patients. The worst prognostic subgroup is best identified using the DS 5 positive or ΔSUV criteria. Based on these data, I-PET could be used to design response adapted trials for patients with good and poor responses respectively.
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Barrington:Roche: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Research Funding; Amgen: Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Takeda: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Dührsen:Alexion: Honoraria; Roche: Honoraria, Research Funding; AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria; Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria; Teva: Honoraria; CPT: Consultancy, Honoraria; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Research Funding. Hüttmann:University Hospital Essen: Employment; Takeda: Honoraria; Gilead: Honoraria. Zucca:Janssen: Research Funding; AstraZenaca: Research Funding; Kite, A Gilead Company: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Celltrion Helathcare: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Merck: Research Funding; Roche: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Travel Grant, Research Funding; Abbvie: Other: Travel Grant. Higley:FNIH: Research Funding; CCS associates: Employment; NCIS/Leidos: Research Funding. Hutchings:Genmab: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Travel Expenses, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Travel Expenses, Research Funding; Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Travel Expenses, Research Funding. Lugtenburg:Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Genmab: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen Cilag: Honoraria; Servier: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; BMS: Consultancy; Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Zijlstra:Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Gilead: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Honoraria.
Chemoprevention is the use of agents to slow progression of, reverse, or inhibit carcinogenesis thereby lowering the risk of developing invasive or clinically significant disease. With its long ...latency, high incidence and significant morbidity and mortality, prostate cancer is a relevant target for chemoprevention. Developing rational chemopreventive strategies for prostate cancer requires well-characterized agents, suitable cohorts, and reliable intermediate biomarkers of cancer. Chemopreventive agent requirements are experimental or epidemiologic data showing efficacy, safety on chronic administration, and a mechanistic rationale for activity. Current promising agents include antiandrogens and antiestrogens; steroid aromatase inhibitors; retinoids and their modulators; 5α-reductase inhibitors; vitamins D, E, and analogs; selenium compounds; carotenoids; soy isoflavones; dehydroepiandrostenedione and analogs; 2-difluoromethylornithine; lipoxygenase inhibitors; apoptosis inducers; and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Identifying biomarkers and validating them as surrogate endpoints for cancer incidence are critical for prostate chemoprevention trials. Potentially useful biomarkers for prostate chemoprevention are associated with histologic, proliferative, differentiation-related, biochemical, and genetic/regulatory features of prostatic disease. In that the prostate is not easily visualized, critical issues also include adequacy and consistency of tissue sampling. Various drugs for the chemoprevention of prostate cancer are now under evaluation in phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials. Cohort selection should be based on various patient characteristics (stage of the disease, previous cancers or premalignant lesions, or high risk factors) and should be conducted within the context of standard treatment.
Background: Minimal residual disease (MRD) in B lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) as measured by flow cytometry is well-established as an important prognostic factor; Its presence is used to adjust ...treatment in most therapeutic protocols in children , while the lack of a standardized assay has hampered the introduction of flow cytometric MRD in adult ALL trials. On the other hand, measuring MRD has become part of the standard of care even for patients not on clinical trials. Although flow cytometric analysis of MRD in B-ALL has been well standardized in clinical trials of the Children's Oncology Group (COG) in North America (Borowitz et al Blood 2015;126:964), there are no data on performance characteristics of this assay within routine clinical labs.
Methods: As part of an ongoing effort to standardize and decentralize ALL MRD measurement, list-mode data from post-induction marrows were distributed from one COG reference lab to 7 different clinical flow cytometry labs self-identified as having experience with ALL MRD. All labs were provided with the COG protocol used for MRD analysis along with a template illustrating recommended gating strategies, and formulas for calculating MRD burden. List-mode files of pre-treatment B-ALL samples analyzed with the standard COG B-ALL MRD antibody panel were distributed for comparison. In the first rounds, list-mode files from 15 samples were distributed to the 7 labs. Samples included those with and without MRD as assayed in the reference lab. Samples were selected to include normal B-cell precursors (hematogones) or MRD that had undergone phenotypic change with therapy. Some samples had artifacts that could potentially mimic small MRD populations. To improve performance, educational sessions were implemented, and 10 more list-mode file samples were distributed in a second round of challenges.
Results: There was considerable dispersion of MRD results among the 7 labs that analyzed the list-mode files (Fig 1A). Although high levels of MRD were uniformly recognized, several labs misclassified normal B-cell precursors and/or mischaracterized small artifacts as MRD. Moreover, among samples correctly identified as positive, quantitative differences in MRD levels from those reported by the reference lab were seen. Among 95 total challenges, the overall discordance rate was 24%. This included 11 false positives, 7 false negatives, and an additional 5 quantitatively discordant cases among positives (defined as outside +/- 0.5 log of the reference lab value). In the second round, positive and negative samples, as well as those with normal precursors were included, though these samples contained fewer artifacts than those of the first round. Performance improved considerably (Fig 1B); out of 70 challenges, there were 5 false positives and 1 false negative (8.6% discordance), and no cases were quantitatively discordant. Four of the 6 deviations occurred in a single lab. Three samples with hematogones were still misclassified as MRD.
Conclusions: Despite the provision of a standardized analysis protocol, even experienced laboratories have difficulty with B-ALL MRD analysis by flow cytometry. Some of these difficulties can be overcome with education, but even with education recognition of hematogones still remains a challenge for some labs. Extrapolating these results to other laboratories with less experience indicates the need for caution in migrating MRD testing from centralized reference laboratories, and suggests that implementation of MRD testing as part of routine clinical management of B-ALL patients in a manner similar to that of routine flow cytometric classification of leukemia may require additional training and resources.
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Wood:Pfizer: Honoraria, Other: Laboratory Services Agreement; Juno: Other: Laboratory Services Agreement; Amgen: Honoraria, Other: Laboratory Services Agreement; Seattle Genetics: Honoraria, Other: Laboratory Services Agreement. Lozanski:Stemline Therapeutics Inc.: Research Funding; Beckman Coulter: Research Funding; Boehringer Ingelheim: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding. Mukundan:CCS Associates: Employment. Higley:CCS Associates: Employment. Sigman:CCS Associates: Equity Ownership. Borowitz:BD Biosciences: Research Funding; Medimmune: Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Research Funding; HTG Molecular: Consultancy.
The concept of intraepithelial neoplasm (IEN) as a near-obligate precursor of cancers has generated opportunities to examine drug or device intervention strategies that may reverse or retard the ...sometimes lengthy process of carcinogenesis. Chemopreventive agents with high therapeutic indices, well-monitored for efficacy and safety, are greatly needed, as is development of less invasive or minimally disruptive visualization and assessment methods to safely screen nominally healthy but at-risk patients, often for extended periods of time and at repeated intervals. Imaging devices, alone or in combination with anticancer drugs, may also provide novel interventions to treat or prevent precancer.
The incidence, clinical presentation, pathophysiology, and possible treatment of two rare but clinically meaningful complications of tissue augmentation with Zyderm and Zyplast Collagen Implant are ...described. Abscesses as a manifestation of hypersensitivity to bovine collagen occur rarely (4 in 10,000 cases) and may persist for days to weeks. Periods of remission and exacerbation may occur from 1 month to more than 24 months. Localized tissue necrosis also occurs rarely (9 in 10,000 cases) after implantation and is probably the result of local vascular interruption and not hypersensitivity. The incidence varies greatly between the anatomic sites of implantation; more than half the reported cases involve the glabella. Evidence strongly suggests that the increased vulnerability of the glabellar region is due to its unique vascular distribution.
An IAEA handbook presenting transfer parameter values for wildlife has recently been produced. Concentration ratios (CRwo-media) between the whole organism (fresh weight) and either soil (dry weight) ...or water were collated for a range of wildlife groups (classified taxonomically and by feeding strategy) in terrestrial, freshwater, marine and brackish generic ecosystems. The data have been compiled in an on line database, which will continue to be updated in the future providing the basis for subsequent revision of the Wildlife TRS values. An overview of the compilation and analysis, and discussion of the extent and limitations of the data is presented. Example comparisons of the CRwo-media values are given for polonium across all wildlife groups and ecosystems and for molluscs for all radionuclides. The CRwo-media values have also been compared with those currently used in the ERICA Tool which represented the most complete published database for wildlife transfer values prior to this work. The use of CRwo-media values is a pragmatic approach to predicting radionuclide activity concentrations in wildlife and is similar to that used for screening assessments for the human food chain. The CRwo-media values are most suitable for a screening application where there are several conservative assumptions built into the models which will, to varying extents, compensate for the variable data quality and quantity, and associated uncertainty.
The proceedings of a workshop focusing on a project to evaluate the use of fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) as a tool to measure treatment response in non-Hodgkin lymphoma ...(NHL) are described. Sponsored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute, and attended by representatives of the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and scientists and clinical researchers from academia and the pharmaceutical and medical imaging industries, the workshop reviewed the etiology and current standards of care for NHL and proposed the development of a clinical trial to validate FDG-PET imaging techniques as a predictive biomarker for cancer therapy response. As organized under the auspices of the Oncology Biomarker Qualification Initiative, the three federal health agencies and their private sector and nonprofit/advocacy group partners believe that FDG-PET not only demonstrates the potential to be used for the diagnosis and staging of many cancers but in particular can provide an early indication of therapeutic response that is well correlated with clinical outcomes for chemotherapy for this common form of lymphoma. The development of standardized criteria for FDG-PET imaging and establishment of procedures for transmission, storage, quality assurance, and analysis of PET images afforded by this demonstration project could streamline clinical trials of new treatments for more intractable forms of lymphoma and other cancers and, hence, accelerate new drug approvals.
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