PD-L1 immunohistochemistry correlates only moderately with patient survival and response to PD-(L)1 treatment. Heterogeneity of tumor PD-L1 expression might limit the predictive value of small ...biopsies. Here we show that tumor PD-L1 and PD-1 expression can be quantified non-invasively using PET-CT in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. Whole body PD-(L)1 PET-CT reveals significant tumor tracer uptake heterogeneity both between patients, as well as within patients between different tumor lesions.
Abstract Aim Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)-patients with an epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR )-mutation have median progression-free survival (PFS) of 12 months on tyrosine kinase ...inhibitors (TKIs). Resistance is mediated by the EGFR T790M-mutation in the majority of patients. Longitudinal follow-up data are lacking. We retrospectively evaluated EGFR -mutated NSCLC-patients who were rebiopsied after TKI-treatment. A subgroup was sequentially rebiopsied along the course of the disease. Patients and methods Advanced EGFR -mutated NSCLC-patients who had both a pre-TKI biopsy and post-TKI biopsy available were included. Information on treatments and (re)biopsies was collected chronologically. Primary endpoint was the incidence of the T790M-mutation. Results Sixty-six patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. In first post-TKI biopsies, T790M-mutation was detected in 34 patients (52%) of patients. Twenty-seven patients had subsequent post-TKI rebiopsies with mutation analysis available; in 10 patients (37%) the T790M-status in subsequent post-TKI rebiopsies was not consistent with the T790M-status of the first post-TKI biopsy. Progression free survival (PFS) on TKI-treatment was 12.0 months. Objective response rate on TKI-treatment was 81%. Patients developing T790M-mutation at post-TKI biopsy had longer median PFS compared to T790M-negative patients (14.2 versus 11.1 months respectively ( P = 0.034)) and longer overall survival (45.9 months versus 29.8 months respectively ( P = 0.213)). Transformation to SCLC was detected in 1 patient (2%). Conclusion Incidence of T790M-mutation at first post-TKI biopsy in this cohort of EGFR -mutated NSCLC-patients was 52%. Detection of T790M-mutation was not consistent over time; some patients who were T790M-positive at first post-TKI biopsy became T790M-negative in later post-TKI rebiopsies and vice versa. T790M-positive patients showed longer PFS than T790M-negative patients. Whether the low incidence of transformation to SCLC is justifying post-TKI rebiopsy in EGFR -mutated NSCLC-patients with acquired TKI-resistance in regular clinical practice is debatable.
•Real world datasets are needed to assess biomarker performances in daily routine practice.•The stromal CD8+TILs were found to be the strongest predictor for PFS and OS in advanced NSCLC on anti-PD-1 ...monotherapy.•The combination of stromal CD8+TILs, albumin and LDH best predicted OS.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), such as anti-PD-1 agents, have become part of the standard of care treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Predictive biomarkers are needed to identify patients that benefit from anti-PD-1 treatments. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and PD-L1 are major players in the ICI mechanism of action. In this study, we assess the impact of real-world clinicopathological variables, including TILs and PD-L1, on anti-PD-1 efficacy.
We performed a monocenter retrospective study in advanced NSCLC treated with nivolumab or pembrolizumab between January 2015 and February 2019. The impact of baseline clinical and pathological variables was assessed by univariate and multivariate models. TILs, defined as CD8+T-cells, and PD-L1 were scored in tumor and stroma, and correlated with progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).
We included 366 patients of whom 141 were assessed for tumor and stromal TILs. The median follow-up time was 487 days. In the whole cohort, PFS was associated with high tumor PD-L1, high albumin and good performance. OS was associated with low LDH, high albumin, good performance and ‘first-line treatment’. In the TILs subcohort, stromal TILs had the strongest impact on PFS and OS. Stromal TILs were a stronger marker for PFS and OS than tumoral TILs, tumoral PD-L1 or stromal PD-L1. Remaining factors for PFS and OS were albumin and albumin with LDH, respectively.
This real-world study on clinicopathological features shows that stromal CD8 + TILs were the strongest predictor for PFS and OS in patients with advanced NSCLC on anti-PD-1 therapy. Other predictors for PFS and OS included albumin and albumin together with LDH, respectively. This study highlights the pivotal role of the stromal compartment in the mechanisms of action of ICI, and the need for further studies aiming to overcome this stromal firewall.
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.
Thymidylate synthase (TS) has a predictive role in pemetrexed treatment of mesothelioma; however, additional chemoresistance mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we explored the role of the ...reduced-folate carrier (RFC/SLC19A1) and proton-coupled folate transporter (PCFT/SLC46A1) in antifolate resistance in mesothelioma.
PCFT,RFC andTS RNA and PCFT protein levels were determined by quantitative RT-PCR of frozen tissues and immunohistochemistry of tissue-microarrays, respectively, in two cohorts of pemetrexed-treated patients. Data were analyzed byt-test, Fisher’s/log-rank test and Cox proportional models. The contribution of PCFT expression andPCFT-promoter methylation to pemetrexed activity were evaluated in mesothelioma cells and spheroids, through 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine-mediated demethylation and siRNA-knockdown.
Pemetrexed-treated patients with lowPCFT had significantly lower rates of disease control, and shorter overall survival (OS), in both the test (N=73, 11.3 versus 20.1months,P=0.01) and validation (N=51, 12.6 versus 30.3months,P=0.02) cohorts. Multivariate analysis confirmedPCFT-independent prognostic role. Low-PCFT protein levels were also associated with shorter OS. Patients with both low-PCFT and high-TS levels had the worst prognosis (OS, 5.5months), whereas associations were neither found forRFC nor in pemetrexed-untreated patients.PCFT silencing reduced pemetrexed sensitivity, whereas 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine overcame resistance.
These findings identify for the first time PCFT as a novel mesothelioma prognostic biomarker, prompting prospective trials for its validation. Moreover, preclinical data suggest that targetingPCFT-promoter methylation might eradicate pemetrexed-resistant cells characterized by low-PCFT expression.
•PD-L1 ≥ 1% is expressed in 16% of stage IV LCNEC, 5% has expression ≥50%.•PD-L1 staining in LCNEC is comparable to values in SCLC, but lower than in NSCLC.•No difference in PD-L1 expression is found ...in RB1 mutated and RB1 wildtype subgroups.•Expression of PD-L1 (tumor cells) and CD8 (tumor infiltrating cells) is associated.•Overall survival is prolonged in patients with PD-L1+ and CD8+ LCNEC.
Pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is a rare tumor with high mutational burden. Two subtypes of LCNEC are recognized, the co-mutated TP53 and RB1 group and the TP53 and STK11/KEAP1 group. We investigated PD-L1 and CD8 expression in a well characterized stage IV LCNEC cohort and compared expression in the two subtypes.
Immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis for PD-L1 and CD8 was performed on pathological reviewed pretreatment tumor samples for 148 stage IV LCNEC. Data about targeted next generation sequencing (TNGS) (TP53, RB1, STK11, KEAP1) and IHC for RB1 were available for most tumors. IHC staining for PD-L1 (DAKO 28-8) was performed and scored positive if tumors showed ≥1% membranous staining. CD8 was scored for intra-tumor T-cells and stromal cells.
PD-L1 IHC expression data could be generated in 98/148 confirmed LCNEC samples along with RB1 IHC (n = 97) of which 77 passed quality control for TNGS. PD-L1 expression was positive in 16/98 cases (16%); 5 (5%) with ≥50%. PD-L1 expression was equal in RB1 mutated and RB1 wildtype tumors. None of STK11 mutated tumors (n = 7) expressed PD-L1. PD-L1 expression was correlated with superior overall survival (OS), hazard ratio 0.55 ((95% Confidence Interval 0.31-0.96), p = 0.038). Intra-tumor CD8 was associated with PD-L1 expression (p = 0.021) and stromal and intra-tumor CD8 were correlated with improved OS (p = 0.037 and p = 0.026 respectively).
PD-L1 expression was positive in 16% of stage IV LCNEC tumors. This was independent of molecular subtype but associated with CD8 expression. In LCNEC patients with PD-L1 and/or CD8 expression superior OS was observed.
Data on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with non-classic epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations are scarce, especially in non-Asian populations. The purpose of this study was ...to evaluate prevalence, clinical characteristics and outcome on EGFR-TKI treatment according to type of EGFR mutation in a Dutch cohort of NSCLC patients.
We retrospectively evaluated a cohort of 240 EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients. Data on demographics, clinical and tumour-related features, EGFR-TKI treatment and clinical outcome were collected and compared between patients with classic EGFR mutations, EGFR exon 20 insertions and other uncommon EGFR mutations.
Classic EGFR mutations were detected in 186 patients (77.5%) and non-classic EGFR mutations in 54 patients (22.5%); 23 patients with an exon 20 insertion (9.6%) and 31 patients with an uncommon EGFR mutation (12.9%). Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) on EGFR-TKI treatment were 2.9 and 9.7 months, respectively, for patients with an EGFR exon 20 insertion, and 6.4 and 20.2 months, respectively, for patients with an uncommon EGFR mutation. Patients with a double uncommon EGFR mutation that included G719X/L861Q/S768I had longer PFS and OS on EGFR-TKI treatment compared with patients with a single G719X/L861Q/S768I EGFR mutation (both P=0.02).
In our Dutch cohort, prevalence and genotype distribution of non-classic EGFR mutations were in accordance with previously reported data. The PFS and OS on EGFR-TKI treatment in patients with an uncommon EGFR mutation were shorter compared with patients with classic EGFR mutations, but varied among different uncommon EGFR mutations.
Lung cancer has the highest mortality of all cancers. The aim of this study was to examine DNA hypermethylation in sputum and validate its diagnostic accuracy for lung cancer.
DNA hypermethylation of ...RASSF1A, APC, cytoglobin, 3OST2, PRDM14, FAM19A4 and PHACTR3 was analysed in sputum samples from symptomatic lung cancer patients and controls (learning set: 73 cases, 86 controls; validation set: 159 cases, 154 controls) by quantitative methylation-specific PCR. Three statistical models were used: (i) cutoff based on Youden's J index, (ii) cutoff based on fixed specificity per marker of 96% and (iii) risk classification of post-test probabilities.
In the learning set, approach (i) showed that RASSF1A was best able to distinguish cases from controls (sensitivity 42.5%, specificity 96.5%). RASSF1A, 3OST2 and PRDM14 combined demonstrated a sensitivity of 82.2% with a specificity of 66.3%. Approach (ii) yielded a combination rule of RASSF1A, 3OST2 and PHACTR3 (sensitivity 67.1%, specificity 89.5%). The risk model (approach iii) distributed the cases over all risk categories. All methods displayed similar and consistent results in the validation set.
Our findings underscore the impact of DNA methylation markers in symptomatic lung cancer diagnosis. RASSF1A is validated as diagnostic marker in lung cancer.
•DLL3 is expressed in 74% of stage IV LCNEC patients•The majority (80%) has cytoplasmic/membranous expression•DLL3 is expressed in both SCLC- and NSCLC-like LCNEC subtype•6/6 STK11mt, 10/11 KEAP1mt ...and 9/9 TP53wt tumors were DLL3 positive•DLL3 expression is associated with expression of ASCL1 and neuroendocrine markers
For stage IV pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC), the only therapeutic option is palliative chemotherapy. DLL3 is a new therapeutic target, which seems to be often expressed in SCLC and LCNEC. It has recently been reported that DLL3 mRNA expression is particularly upregulated in the LCNEC subgroup with STK11/KEAP1 and TP53 co-mutations, in contrast to lower expression levels in RB1 and TP53 co-mutated LCNEC. Our aim was to investigate DLL3 protein expression in stage IV LCNEC and correlate data with mutational profiles (i.e.STK11/KEAP1/RB1), immunostaining results (pRb, NE markers) and clinical characteristics.
Immunohistochemical analysis for DLL3 (SC16.65) and ASCL1 (SC72.201) was performed on 94 and 51 FFPE tissue sections, respectively, of pathologically reviewed stage IV LCNEC. DLL3 and ASCL1 were scored positive if ≥1% of the tumor cells showed cytoplasmic/membranous or dotlike (DLL3) or nuclear (ASCL1) immunostaining. Data were correlated with available sequencing (TP53, RB1, STK11, KEAP1), immunostaining (pRb, NE markers) and clinical data.
DLL3 was expressed in 70/94 (74%) LCNEC, 56 (80%) of which showed cytoplasmic/membranous staining. Median H-score was 55 (interquartile range 0–160). DLL3 staining was not different in pRb immunohistochemistry negative and positive patients (DLL3+ in 53/70 (76%) vs. 14/21 (67%), p = 0.409) or RB1 mutated and wildtype patients (DLL3+ in 27/34 (79%) vs. 23/33 (70%), p = 0.361). Nevertheless, 6/6 (100%) STK11 mutated, 10/11 (91%) KEAP1 mutated and 9/9 (100%) TP53 wildtype tumors were DLL3+ . Furthermore, DLL3 expression was associated with expression of ASCL1 and at least 2 out of 3 neuroendocrine markers.
The high percentage (74%) of DLL3 expression in stage IV LCNEC denotes the potential of DLL3 targeted therapy in this patient group.
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