Biomarkers of therapeutic response and prognosis are needed to assist in the sequencing of treatments for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Previously in a Phase 1 discovery ...study, we identified 14 circulating microRNAs that were associated with response to docetaxel chemotherapy or overall survival. We performed a Phase 2 validation study to verify these findings.
Using real-time PCR, the levels of the 14 microRNAs were measured in plasma collected before and after the first cycle of docetaxel from a Phase 2 cohort of 89 patients.
The microRNAs were not associated with docetaxel response in the Phase 2 cohort. Higher baseline levels of six microRNAs, predominantly of the miR-200 family, were confirmed to be associated with shorter overall survival. A microRNA signature comprising these six microRNAs predicted high-risk patients in the Phase 2 cohort with a hazard ratio of 4.12 (95% CI 2.20-7.70, P=0.000001). The signature was an independent predictor in multivariable analysis with clinicopathological factors.
The association of circulating microRNAs with overall survival suggests their involvement in CRPC progression.
Immunotherapy is increasingly defining a role in a wide variety of tumours such that as use becomes more ubiquitous, so too will the complications. A relatively rare complication of immunotherapy use ...is immune-related gastritis. In this case series, we present two cases of immunotherapy-related gastritis from our institution and undertake a comprehensive review and analysis of the literature around this less common adverse event.
ObjectivesLung cancer continues to be the most common cause of cancer-related death and the leading cause of morbidity and burden of disease across Australia. There is an ongoing need to identify and ...reduce unwarranted clinical variation that may contribute to these poor outcomes for patients with lung cancer. An Australian national strategy acknowledges clinical quality outcome data as a critical component of a continuously improving healthcare system but there is a need to ensure clinical quality indicators adequately measure evidence-based contemporary care, including novel and emerging treatments. This study aimed to develop a suite of lung cancer-specific, evidence-based, clinically acceptable quality indicators to measure quality of care and outcomes, and an associated comparative feedback dashboard to provide performance data to clinicians and hospital administrators.DesignA multistage modified Delphi process was undertaken with a Clinical Advisory Group of multidisciplinary lung cancer specialists, with patient representation, to update and prioritise potential indicators of lung cancer care derived from a targeted review of published literature and reports from national and international lung cancer quality registries. Quality indicators were piloted and evaluated with multidisciplinary teams in a retrospective observational cohort study using clinical audit data from the Embedding Research (and Evidence) in Cancer Healthcare Program, a prospective clinical cohort of over 2000 patients with lung cancer diagnosed from May 2016 to October 2021.Setting and participantsSix tertiary specialist cancer centres in metropolitan and regional New South Wales, Australia.ResultsFrom an initial 37 potential quality indicators, a final set of 10 indicators spanning diagnostic, treatment, quality of life and survival domains was agreed.ConclusionsThese indicators build on and update previously available measures of lung cancer care and outcomes in use by national and international lung cancer clinical quality registries which, to our knowledge, have not been recently updated to reflect the changing lung cancer treatment paradigm.
Background Doublet chemotherapy in combination with a biologic agent has been a standard of care in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer for over a decade. The evidence for a "lighter" ...treatment approach is limited to mono-chemotherapy plus bevacizumab in the RAS unselected population. Anti-EGFR antibodies have activity as monotherapy or in combination with chemotherapy in RAS wildtype metastatic colorectal cancer; however their role in first-line treatment in combination with 5-fluorouracil monotherapy or when given alone has not been well studied. MONARCC aims to investigate this approach in an elderly population. Methods/design MONARCC is a prospective, open-label, multicentre, non-comparative randomised phase II trial. Eligible patients aged greater than or equai to70 with unresectable metastatic, untreated, RAS/BRAF wildtype metastatic colorectal cancer will be randomised 1:1 to receive panitumumab alone or panitumumab plus infusional 5-fluorouracil. RAS and BRAF analyses will be performed in local laboratories. Comprehensive Health Assessment and Limited Health Assessments will be performed at baseline and at 16 weeks, respectively, to assess frailty. The Patient Symptom Questionnaire and Overall Treatment Utility are to be undertaken at different timepoints to assess the impact of treatment-related toxicities and quality of life. Treatment will be delivered every 2 weeks until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity (as determined by treating clinician or patient), delay of treatment of more than 6 weeks, or withdrawal of consent. The primary end point is 6-month progression-free survival in both arms. Secondary end points include overall survival, time to treatment failure, objective tumour response rate as defined by RECIST v1.1 and safety (adverse events). Tertiary and correlative endpoints include the feasibility and utility of a comprehensive geriatric assessment, quality of life and biological substudies. Discussion MONARCC investigates the activity and tolerability of first-line panitumumab-based treatments with a view to expand on current treatment options while maximising progression-free and overall survival and quality of life in molecularly selected elderly patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Trial registration Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12618000233224, prospectively registered 14 February 2018. Keywords: Metastatic colorectal cancer, Elderly, Older adults, RAS, BRAF, Panitumumab, Cetuximab, Clinical trial
Both changes in circulating lipids represented by a validated poor prognostic 3-lipid signature (3LS) and somatic tumour genetic aberrations are individually associated with worse clinical outcomes ...in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). A key question is how the lipid environment and the cancer genome are interrelated in order to exploit this therapeutically. We assessed the association between the poor prognostic 3-lipid signature (3LS), somatic genetic aberrations and clinical outcomes in mCRPC.
We performed plasma lipidomic analysis and cell-free DNA (cfDNA) sequencing on 106 men with mCRPC commencing docetaxel, cabazitaxel, abiraterone or enzalutamide (discovery cohort) and 94 men with mCRPC commencing docetaxel (validation cohort). Differences in lipid levels between men ± somatic genetic aberrations were assessed with t-tests. Associations between the 3LS and genetic aberrations with overall survival (OS) were examined using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazard models.
The 3LS was associated with shorter OS in the discovery (hazard ratio HR 2.15, 95% confidence interval CI 1.4-3.3, p < 0.001) and validation cohorts (HR 2.32, 95% CI 1.59-3.38, p < 0.001). Elevated plasma sphingolipids were associated with AR, TP53, RB1 and PI3K aberrations (p < 0.05). Men with both the 3LS and aberrations in AR, TP53, RB1 or PI3K had shorter OS than men with neither in both cohorts (p ≤ 0.001). The presence of 3LS and/or genetic aberration was independently associated with shorter OS for men with AR, TP53, RB1 and PI3K aberrations (p < 0.02). Furthermore, aggressive-variant prostate cancer (AVPC), defined as 2 or more aberrations in TP53, RB1 and/or PTEN, was associated with elevated sphingolipids. The combination of AVPC and 3LS predicted for a median survival of ~12 months. The relatively small sample size of the cohorts limits clinical applicability and warrants future studies.
Elevated circulating sphingolipids were associated with AR, TP53, RB1, PI3K and AVPC aberrations in mCRPC, and the combination of lipid and genetic abnormalities conferred a worse prognosis. These findings suggest that certain genotypes in mCRPC may benefit from metabolic therapies.
Circulating lipids or cytokines are associated with prognosis in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). This study aimed to understand the interactions between lipid metabolism and ...immune response in mCRPC by investigating the relationship between the plasma lipidome and cytokines. Plasma samples from two independent cohorts of men with mCRPC (n = 146, 139) having life-prolonging treatments were subjected to lipidomic and cytokine profiling (290, 763 lipids; 40 cytokines). Higher baseline levels of sphingolipids, including ceramides, were consistently associated with shorter overall survival in both cohorts, whereas the associations of cytokines with overall survival were inconsistent. Increasing levels of IL6, IL8, CXCL16, MPIF1, and YKL40 correlated with increasing levels of ceramide in both cohorts. Men with a poor prognostic 3-lipid signature at baseline had a shorter time to radiographic progression (poorer treatment response) if their lipid profile at progression was similar to that at baseline, or their cytokine profile at progression differed to that at baseline. In conclusion, baseline levels of circulating lipids were more consistent as prognostic biomarkers than cytokines. The correlation between circulating ceramides and cytokines suggests the regulation of immune responses by ceramides. The association of treatment response with the change in lipid profiles warrants further research into metabolic interventions.
Intrinsic resistance to androgen receptor signalling inhibitors (ARSI) occurs in 20–30% of men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Ceramide metabolism may have a role in ...ARSI resistance. Our study's aim is to investigate the association of the ceramide-sphingosine-1-phosphate (ceramide-S1P) signalling axis with ARSI resistance in mCRPC.
Lipidomic analysis (∼700 lipids) was performed on plasma collected from 132 men with mCRPC, before commencing enzalutamide or abiraterone. AR gene aberrations in 77 of these men were identified by deep sequencing of circulating tumour DNA. Associations between circulating lipids, radiological progression-free survival (rPFS) and overall survival (OS) were examined by Cox regression. Inhibition of ceramide-S1P signalling with sphingosine kinase (SPHK) inhibitors (PF-543 and ABC294640) on enzalutamide efficacy was investigated with in vitro assays, and transcriptomic and lipidomic analyses of prostate cancer (PC) cell lines (LNCaP, C42B, 22Rv1).
Men with elevated circulating ceramide levels had shorter rPFS (HR=2·3, 95% CI=1·5–3·6, p = 0·0004) and shorter OS (HR=2·3, 95% CI=1·4–36, p = 0·0005). The combined presence of an AR aberration with elevated ceramide levels conferred a worse prognosis than the presence of only one or none of these characteristics (median rPFS time = 3·9 vs 8·3 vs 17·7 months; median OS time = 8·9 vs 19·8 vs 34·4 months). SPHK inhibitors enhanced enzalutamide efficacy in PC cell lines. Transcriptomic and lipidomic analyses indicated that enzalutamide combined with SPHK inhibition enhanced PC cell death by SREBP-induced lipotoxicity.
Ceramide-S1P signalling promotes ARSI resistance, which can be reversed with SPHK inhibitors.
None.
Nivolumab is a fully humanized monoclonal antibody to PD-1, which has shown improved overall and progression-free survival. Across studies of nivolumab, grade 3 or 4 rash has been noted in <1% of ...patients. We present a case report of patient with metastatic melanoma treated with nivolumab through expanded access program, who developed toxic epidermal necrolysis. Ours is the first case report, reporting grade 4 skin toxicity associated with nivolumab. A 64-year-old female presented with widespread maculopapular skin rash with bullae and areas of skin detachment after receiving 2 doses of nivolumab for ipilimumab refractory metastatic melanoma (BRAF wild-type). She was initially treated with prednisone, which was soon changed to methyprednisone followed by immunoglobulin with minimal response to the rash. After discussion with Dermatology, she was given cyclosporine and high-dose prednisone with gradual but significant improvement in her rash. Her skin biopsy showed interface dermatitis with a lymphocytic infiltrate in the dermoepidermal junction and apoptotic keratinocytes with focal areas of complete necrosis of the epidermis with minimal infiltrate.
There is a strong unmet need to improve systemic therapy in mesothelioma. Chemotherapy with cisplatin and pemetrexed improves survival in malignant pleural mesothelioma, and immune checkpoint ...inhibitors are an emerging treatment in this disease. We aimed to evaluate the activity of durvalumab, an anti-PD-L1 antibody, given during and after first-line chemotherapy with cisplatin and pemetrexed in patients with advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma.
DREAM was a multicentre, single-arm, open-label, phase 2 trial done in nine hospitals in Australia. Eligible patients were aged 18 years or older and had histologically confirmed malignant pleural mesothelioma considered unsuitable for cancer-directed surgery, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1, and measurable disease as per the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.0 (mRECIST) for mesothelioma that was previously untreated with systemic therapy. All histological subtypes were eligible. The first six participants were treated for two cycles in a safety run-in. All participants received cisplatin 75 mg/m2, pemetrexed 500 mg/m2, and durvalumab 1125 mg intravenously on day 1 of a 3-weekly schedule for a maximum of six cycles. Change from cisplatin to carboplatin with an area under the curve of 5 was permitted. Durvalumab was continued for a maximum of 12 months. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival at 6 months, measured according to mRECIST for malignant pleural mesothelioma and analysed in the intention-to-treat population. Safety analyses included all participants who receive at least one dose of any study drug. This study is registered with the Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12616001170415.
Between Dec 28, 2016, and Sept 27, 2017, 55 participants were enrolled. 54 patients were eligible and were followed up for a median of 28·2 months (IQR 26·5–30·2). 31 (57%; 95% CI 44–70) of 54 patients were alive and progression-free at 6 months. The most common grade 3–4 adverse events were neutropenia (seven 13% patients), nausea (six 11%), and anaemia (four 7%). A total of 60 serious adverse events occurred in 29 participants, five of which were considered possibly related to durvalumab. Five patients died during the study treatment; none of these five deaths were attributed to study treatment.
The combination of durvalumab, cisplatin, and pemetrexed has promising activity and an acceptable safety profile that warrants further investigation in a randomised phase 3 trial.
AstraZeneca.
The interim analysis of the ENZAMET trial of testosterone suppression plus either enzalutamide or standard nonsteroidal antiandrogen therapy showed an early overall survival benefit with ...enzalutamide. Here, we report the planned primary overall survival analysis, with the aim of defining the benefit of enzalutamide treatment in different prognostic subgroups (synchronous and metachronous high-volume or low-volume disease) and in those who received concurrent docetaxel.
ENZAMET is an international, open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial conducted at 83 sites (including clinics, hospitals, and university centres) in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA. Eligible participants were males aged 18 years or older with metastatic, hormone-sensitive prostate adenocarcinoma evident on CT or bone scanning with 99mTc and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score of 0–2. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1), using a centralised web-based system and stratified by volume of disease, planned use of concurrent docetaxel and bone antiresorptive therapy, comorbidities, and study site, to receive testosterone suppression plus oral enzalutamide (160 mg once per day) or a weaker standard oral non-steroidal antiandrogen (bicalutamide, nilutamide, or flutamide; control group) until clinical disease progression or prohibitive toxicity. Testosterone suppression was allowed up to 12 weeks before randomisation and for up to 24 months as adjuvant therapy. Concurrent docetaxel (75 mg/m2 intravenously) was allowed for up to six cycles once every 3 weeks, at the discretion of participants and physicians. The primary endpoint was overall survival in the intention-to-treat population. This planned analysis was triggered by reaching 470 deaths. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02446405, ANZCTR, ACTRN12614000110684, and EudraCT, 2014-003190-42.
Between March 31, 2014, and March 24, 2017, 1125 participants were randomly assigned to receive non-steroidal antiandrogen (n=562; control group) or enzalutamide (n=563). The median age was 69 years (IQR 63–74). This analysis was triggered on Jan 19, 2022, and an updated survival status identified a total of 476 (42%) deaths. After a median follow-up of 68 months (IQR 67–69), the median overall survival was not reached (hazard ratio 0·70 95% CI 0·58–0·84; p<0·0001), with 5-year overall survival of 57% (0·53–0·61) in the control group and 67% (0·63–0·70) in the enzalutamide group. Overall survival benefits with enzalutamide were consistent across predefined prognostic subgroups and planned use of concurrent docetaxel. The most common grade 3–4 adverse events were febrile neutropenia associated with docetaxel use (33 6% of 558 in the control group vs 37 6% of 563 in the enzalutamide group), fatigue (four 1% vs 33 6%), and hypertension (31 6% vs 59 10%). The incidence of grade 1–3 memory impairment was 25 (4%) versus 75 (13%). No deaths were attributed to study treatment.
The addition of enzalutamide to standard of care showed sustained improvement in overall survival for patients with metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer and should be considered as a treatment option for eligible patients.
Astellas Pharma.
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