VOTRAGE study: Phase I dose-escalation study of pazopanib in unfit older patients

Drug-drug interactions with proton pump inhibitors in cancer patients: an underrecognized cause of treatment failure

New concepts and drugs have revolutionized medical treatment for cancers. These drugs, which are very expensive and usually well tolerated, have dramatically improved cancer prognosis. We must use them wisely for patients to fully benefit. Gastric acid antisecretory drugs and particularly proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) revolutionized the treatment of gastroduodenal ulcers and severe gastroesophageal reflux, but are frequently overused for symptomatic treatment of epigastric pain or heartburn. Long-term acid suppression may alter the efficacy of many anticancer drugs, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), by either decreasing gastric acid secretion and thus drug absorption, or by modifying the gut microbiome that modulates the response to ICIs. Oncologists thus need to pay particular attention to the concomitant use of PPIs and anticancer drugs. These interactions translate into major clinical impacts, with demonstrated loss of efficacy for some TKIs (erlotinib, gefitinib, pazopanib), and conflicting results with many other oral drugs, including capecitabine and CDK 4/6 inhibitors. Furthermore, the profound changes in the gut microbiome due to using PPIs have shown that the benefit of using ICIs may be suppressed in patients treated with PPIs. As the use of PPIs is not essential, we must apply the precautionary principle. The first sentence of a recent Comment in Nature was "Every day, millions of people are taking medications that will not help them". We fear that every day millions of cancer patients are taking medications that harm them. While this may well be only association and not causation, there is enough to make us pause until we reach a clear answer. All these data should encourage medical oncologists to refrain from prescribing PPIs, explaining to patients the risks of interaction in order to prevent inappropriate prescription by another physician.

The impact of proton-pump inhibitors administered with tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are the backbone of the systemic treatment for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). TKIs such as pazopanib and cabozantinib can interact with other drugs concomitantly administered, particularly with proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), possibly impacting the effectiveness of the anticancer treatment and patients outcome. Few data are available about this interaction. We conducted a multicenter retrospective observational data collection of patients with mRCC treated with pazopanib or cabozantinib between January 2012 and December 2020 in nine Italian centers. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. The aim was to describe the impact of baseline concomitant PPIs on the outcome of patients to pazopanib and cabozantinib in terms of response, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), toxicity, and treatment compliance. The use of PPI in our study population (301 patients) significantly influenced the effectiveness of TKIs with worse PFS (16.3 vs. 9.9 months; P < 0.001) and OS (30.6 vs. 18.4 months; P = 0.013) in patients taking PPI at TKI initiation. This detrimental effect was maintained both in the pazopanib and cabozantinib groups. The use of PPI influenced the toxicity and TKI treatment compliance with a reduction of dose or schedule modifications, and treatment interruptions in the population taking PPIs. Our study demonstrates that the use of PPIs can significantly influence the outcome and compliance of patients with mRCC to TKI treatment, suggesting the importance of a more careful selection of patients who need a gastroprotective therapy, avoiding indiscriminate use of PPIs.

Advanced oesophago-gastric adenocarcinoma in older patients in the era of immunotherapy. A review of the literature

Gastric (G) and gastro-esophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinomas are of the most common and deadly cancers worldwide and affect mainly patients over 70 years at diagnosis. Older age has been associated in gastric cancers with distal tumour location, well-differentiated adenocarcinoma and microsatellite instability and is not identified itself as an independent prognostic factor. As immune checkpoint inhibitors recently changed the landmark of advanced G and GEJ adenocarcinomas treatment, we decided to perform a literature review to define the evidence-level of clinical data in older patients. This work underlined the lasting low -inclusion rate of older patients and -implementation rate of frailty screening tools in clinical trials in G/GEJ carcinomas. In the first-line metastatic setting, two prospective randomized phase III studies have specifically assessed the efficacy of chemotherapy in older patients with HER2-negative gastric cancers, demonstrating the feasibility of reduced dose oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy regimen in this population. Only few data are available in HER2-positive tumors, or in the second-line setting. Furthermore, no specific trial with immune checkpoint inhibitors was performed in older frail patients whereas their benefit/adverse events ratio make them attractive candidates in this patient's population. We conclude that older fit patients can be treated in the same way as younger ones and included in clinical trials. Improving the outcome of older frail patients should be the oncology community next focus by implementing targeted interventions before initiating cancer therapy and designing specific clinical trials. Frailty screening tools and geriatric data collection have to be implemented in routine-practice and clinical trials.