Owing to advances in radiotherapy, the physical properties of radiation can be optimized to enable individualized treatment; however, optimization is rarely based on biological properties and, ...therefore, treatments are generally planned with the assumption that all tumours respond similarly to radiation. Radiation affects multiple cellular pathways, including DNA damage, hypoxia, proliferation, stem cell phenotype and immune response. In this Review, we summarize the effect of these pathways on tumour responses to radiotherapy and the current state of research on genomic classifiers designed to exploit these variations to inform treatment decisions. We also discuss whether advances in genomics have generated evidence that could be practice changing and whether advances in genomics are now ready to be used to guide the delivery of radiotherapy alone or in combination.
Tumor hypoxia is associated with a poor prognosis, hypoxia modification improves outcome, and hypoxic status predicts benefit from treatment. Yet, there is no universal measure of clinical hypoxia. ...The aim of this study was to investigate whether a 26-gene hypoxia signature predicted benefit from hypoxia-modifying treatment in both cancer types.
Samples were available from 157 T2-T4 laryngeal cancer and 185 T1-T4a bladder cancer patients enrolled on the accelerated radiotherapy with carbogen and nicotinamide (ARCON) and bladder carbogen nicotinamide (BCON) phase III randomized trials of radiotherapy alone or with carbogen and nicotinamide (CON) respectively. Customized TaqMan low density arrays (TLDA) were used to assess expression of the 26-gene signature using quantitative real-time PCR. The median expression of the 26 genes was used to derive a hypoxia score (HS). Patients were categorized as TLDA-HS low (≤median) or TLDA-HS high (>median). The primary outcome measures were regional control (RC; ARCON) and overall survival (BCON).
Laryngeal tumors categorized as TLDA-HS high showed greater benefit from ARCON than TLDA-HS low tumors. Five-year RC was 81% (radiotherapy alone) versus 100% (CON) for TLDA-HS high (P=0.009). For TLDA-HS low, 5-year RC was 91% (radiotherapy alone) versus 90% (CON; P=0.90). TLDA-HS did not predict benefit from CON in bladder cancer.
The 26-gene hypoxia signature predicts benefit from hypoxia-modifying treatment in laryngeal cancer. These findings will be evaluated in a prospective clinical trial.
Oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is an important factor in treatment resistance and poor survival. Hypoxia is an attractive therapeutic target, particularly in the ...context of radiotherapy, which is delivered to more than half of NSCLC patients. However, NSCLC hypoxia-targeted therapy trials have not yet translated into patient benefit. Recently, early termination of promising evofosfamide and tarloxotinib bromide studies due to futility highlighted the need for a paradigm shift in our approach to avoid disappointments in future trials. Radiotherapy dose painting strategies based on hypoxia imaging require careful refinement prior to clinical investigation. This review will summarize the role of hypoxia, highlight the potential of hypoxia as a therapeutic target, and outline past and ongoing hypoxia-targeted therapy trials in NSCLC. Evidence supporting radiotherapy dose painting based on hypoxia imaging will be critically appraised. Carefully selected hypoxia biomarkers suitable for integration within future NSCLC hypoxia-targeted therapy trials will be examined. Research gaps will be identified to guide future investigation. Although this review will focus on NSCLC hypoxia, more general discussions (eg, obstacles of hypoxia biomarker research and developing a framework for future hypoxia trials) are applicable to other tumor sites.
There is a need to identify patients with early stage breast cancer for whom radiotherapy and its associated toxicities might be avoided. Tutzauer et al. hypothesised that a hypoxia biomarker might ...be used but found that adjuvant radiotherapy following surgery reduces risk of recurrence irrespective of hypoxia status.
Hypoxia modification improves overall survival in muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients who undergo radiotherapy. There is evidence that hypoxic tumors benefit most from hypoxia modification. The ...study aimed to identify or derive a hypoxia gene signature that predicts benefit from hypoxia-modifying treatment in bladder cancer.
Published hypoxia signatures were tested and a new one derived by analyzing bladder cancer transcriptomic data from public databases. Tumor samples were available from the BCON phase III randomized trial of radiotherapy alone or with carbogen and nicotinamide (CON). Gene expression data were generated for 151 tumors using Affymetrix Human 1.0 Exon ST arrays and used for independent validation.
A 24-gene signature was derived, which was prognostic in four of six independent surgical cohorts (
= 679; meta HR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.73-3.12;
< 0.0001). The signature was also prognostic in BCON patients receiving radiotherapy alone (
= 75; HR for local relapse-free survival, 2.37; 95% CI, 1.26-4.47;
= 0.0076). The signature predicted benefit from CON (
= 76; HR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.26-0.86;
= 0.015). Prognostic significance (
= 0.017) and predictive significance (
= 0.058) remained after adjusting for clinicopathologic variables. A test for interaction between hypoxia status and treatment arms was significant (
= 0.0094).
A 24-gene hypoxia signature has strong and independent prognostic and predictive value for muscle-invasive bladder cancer patients. The signature can aid identification of patients likely to benefit from the addition of carbogen and nicotinamide to radiotherapy.
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Affymetrix U133plus2 GeneChips were used to profile 59 head and neck squamous cell cancers. A hypoxia metagene was obtained by analysis of genes whose in vivo expression clustered with the expression ...of 10 well-known hypoxia-regulated genes (e.g., CA9, GLUT1, and VEGF). To minimize random aggregation, strongly correlated up-regulated genes appearing in >50% of clusters defined a signature comprising 99 genes, of which 27% were previously known to be hypoxia associated. The median RNA expression of the 99 genes in the signature was an independent prognostic factor for recurrence-free survival in a publicly available head and neck cancer data set, outdoing the original intrinsic classifier. In a published breast cancer series, the hypoxia signature was a significant prognostic factor for overall survival independent of clinicopathologic risk factors and a trained profile. The work highlights the validity and potential of using data from analysis of in vitro stress pathways for deriving a biological metagene/gene signature in vivo.
Summary Background Several studies have reported associations between radiation toxicity and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate genes. Few associations have been tested in ...independent validation studies. This prospective study aimed to validate reported associations between genotype and radiation toxicity in a large independent dataset. Methods 92 (of 98 attempted) SNPs in 46 genes were successfully genotyped in 1613 patients: 976 received adjuvant breast radiotherapy in the Cambridge breast IMRT trial (ISRCTN21474421, n=942) or in a prospective study of breast toxicity at the Christie Hospital, Manchester, UK (n=34). A further 637 received radical prostate radiotherapy in the MRC RT01 multicentre trial (ISRCTN47772397, n=224) or in the Conventional or Hypofractionated High Dose Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer (CHHiP) trial (ISRCTN97182923, n=413). Late toxicity was assessed 2 years after radiotherapy with a validated photographic technique (patients with breast cancer only), clinical assessment, and patient questionnaires. Association tests of genotype with overall radiation toxicity score and individual endpoints were undertaken in univariate and multivariable analyses. At a type I error rate adjusted for multiple testing, this study had 99% power to detect a SNP, with minor allele frequency of 0·35, associated with a per allele odds ratio of 2·2. Findings None of the previously reported associations were confirmed by this study, after adjustment for multiple comparisons. The p value distribution of the SNPs tested against overall toxicity score was not different from that expected by chance. Interpretation We did not replicate previously reported late toxicity associations, suggesting that we can essentially exclude the hypothesis that published SNPs individually exert a clinically relevant effect. Continued recruitment of patients into studies within the Radiogenomics Consortium is essential so that sufficiently powered studies can be done and methodological challenges addressed. Funding Cancer Research UK, The Royal College of Radiologists, Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust, Breast Cancer Campaign, Cambridge National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre, Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, East Midlands Innovation, the National Cancer Institute, Joseph Mitchell Trust, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Institute of Cancer Research NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer.
There is increasing evidence supporting the role of genetic variants in the development of radiation-induced toxicity. However, previous candidate gene association studies failed to elucidate the ...common genetic variation underlying this phenotype, which could emerge years after the completion of treatment. We performed a genome-wide association study on a Spanish cohort of 741 individuals with prostate cancer treated with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). The replication cohorts consisted of 633 cases from the UK and 368 cases from North America. One locus comprising TANC1 (lowest unadjusted P value for overall late toxicity=6.85×10(-9), odds ratio (OR)=6.61, 95% confidence interval (CI)=2.23-19.63) was replicated in the second stage (lowest unadjusted P value for overall late toxicity=2.08×10(-4), OR=6.17, 95% CI=2.25-16.95; Pcombined=4.16×10(-10)). The inclusion of the third cohort gave unadjusted Pcombined=4.64×10(-11). These results, together with the role of TANC1 in regenerating damaged muscle, suggest that the TANC1 locus influences the development of late radiation-induced damage.
Highlights • Different pathways are involved in normal-tissue reaction after radiotherapy • Combining different ‘omics’ techniques may identify critical pathways • Functional assays may identify ...patient subgroups with different mechanisms • A systems biology approach promises synergy from ‘omics’ and functional assays