Systems assessment of intercalated combination of chemotherapy and EGFR TKIs versus chemotherapy or EGFR TKIs alone in advanced NSCLC patients

Optimal Adjuvant Therapy in Resected Stage IIIA-N2 Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Harboring EGFR Mutations

BACKGROUND

Some non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients are unexpectedly diagnosed with stage IIIA-N2 disease at the time of thoracoscopy or thoracotomy. Because of the limited statistical evidence of induction chemotherapy for these patients, it is necessary to develop more profound treatment strategies.

METHODS

The demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC harboring epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations after radical resection were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were divided into 3 groups based on treatment: EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs, erlotinib or gefitinib), adjuvant chemotherapy (docetaxel plus cisplatin), and combination treatment (chemotherapy plus EGFR-TKIs). The effect of adjuvant therapy on survival rate was assessed using univariate and Cox regression analyses.

RESULTS

Patients receiving EGFR-TKIs alone showed significantly improved disease-free survival (DFS; p = 0.025) when compared to those receiving chemotherapy alone. Compared to chemotherapy alone, the combination of chemotherapy and EGFR-TKIs resulted did not significantly improve DFS (p < 0.001) and overall survival (OS p < 0.001). The combination of EGFR-TKIs with chemotherapy as adjuvant therapy led to improvements in both DFS (p = 0.116) and OS (p = 0.039) compared to patients receiving a EGFR-TKI monotherapy. Toxicities were mild in the 3 treatment groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study demonstrated that adjuvant EGFR-TKI treatment significantly increased the DFS of patients with stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC when compared with cisplatin-based chemotherapy. The use of EGFR-TKIs and chemotherapy is recommended in the setting of combined-modality therapy.

Development and validation of a prognostic index for efficacy evaluation and prognosis of first-line chemotherapy in stage III-IV lung squamous cell carcinoma

Objectives

To establish a pre-therapy prognostic index model (PIM) of the first-line chemotherapy aiming to achieve accurate prediction of time to progression (TTP) and overall survival among the patients diagnosed with locally advanced (stage III) or distant metastasis (stage IV) lung squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC).

Methods

Ninety-six LSCC patients treated with first-line chemotherapy were retrospectively enrolled to build the model. Fourteen epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant LSCC patients treated with first-line EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy were enrolled for validation dataset. From CT images, 56,000 phenotype features were initially computed. PIM was constructed by integrating a CT phenotype signature selected by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator and the significant blood-based biomarkers selected by multivariate Cox regression. PIM was then compared with other four prognostic models constructed by the CT phenotype signature, clinical factors, post-therapy tumor response, and Glasgow Prognostic Score.

Results

The signature includes eight optimal features extracted from co-occurrence, run length, and Gabor features. By using PIM, chemotherapy efficacy of patients categorized in the low-risk, intermediate-risk, and high-risk progression subgroups (median TTP = 7.2 months, 3.4 months, and 1.8 months, respectively) was significantly different (p < 0.0001, log-rank test). Chemotherapy efficacy of the low-risk progression subgroup was comparable with EGFR-TKI therapy (p = 0.835, log-rank test). Prognostic prediction of chemotherapy efficacy by PIM was significantly higher than other models (p < 0.05, z test).

Conclusion

The study demonstrated that the PIM yielded significantly higher performance to identify individual stage III–IV LSCC patients who can potentially benefit most from first-line chemotherapy, and predict the risk of failure from chemotherapy for individual patients.

Key Points

• TTP and OS of first-line chemotherapy in individual stage III–IV LSCC patients could be predicted by pre-therapy blood-based biomarkers and image-based signatures.

• Risk status of pre-therapy indicators affected the efficacy of first-line chemotherapy in stage III–IV LSCC patients.

• Those stage III–IV LSCC patients who were able to achieve similar efficacy to EGFR-TKI therapy through chemotherapy were identified.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s00330-018-5912-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Combination of EGFR-TKIs with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy or EGFR-TKIs alone in advanced NSCLC patients with EGFR mutation

Purpose

Both epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) and chemotherapy are widely applied for the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR mutations, and the combination of EGFR-TKIs and chemotherapy has been used for advanced NSCLC patients; however, little is known about the efficacy of the direct comparison among them.

Patients and methods

The demographic and clinical characteristics of 92 patients harboring advanced NSCLC with EGFR mutation were retrospectively reviewed. We evaluated the effects of EGFR-TKIs, chemotherapy, and EGFR-TKIs plus chemotherapy on advanced NSCLC patients with EGFR mutations, and the efficacy of combination of chemotherapy and EGFR-TKIs vs chemotherapy or EGFR-TKIs alone in advanced NSCLC patients was evaluated.

Results

The statistical results showed that the intercalated combination of EGFR-TKIs plus chemotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS; HR, 1.76; 95% CI 1.03–3.01; P=0.036; median, 20.5 vs 16 months) compared with EGFR-TKI monotherapy, but no difference in overall survival (OS) was observed between these two groups (HR, 1.52; 95% CI 0.81–2.83; P=0.19; median, 36 vs 29 months). However, patients who received the combination of chemotherapy and EGFR-TKIs had longer PFS (HR, 2.78; 95% CI 1.57–4.93; P<0.0001; median, 20.5 vs 12 months) as well as OS (HR, 2.86; 95% CI 1.56–5.27; P=0.001; median, 36 vs 18 months) than those who received chemotherapy alone. Toxicities were mild among the three treatment groups. Rash and diarrhea were common adverse events (AEs) in the EGFR-TKI group, anemia and nausea in the chemotherapy group, and anemia and diarrhea in the combination group.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that the combination of chemotherapy with EGFR-TKIs as first-line treatment has a significant effect on PFS in patients with advanced NSCLC whose tumors harbor activating EGFR mutations. The combination treatment had more toxicity, but was clinically manageable.

Hydroxychloroquine induced lung cancer suppression by enhancing chemo-sensitization and promoting the transition of M2-TAMs to M1-like macrophages

BACKGROUND

Lysosome-associated agents have been implicated as possible chemo-sensitizers and immune regulators for cancer chemotherapy. We investigated the potential roles and mechanisms of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in combination with chemotherapy in lung cancer treatment.

METHODS

The effects of combined treatment on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were investigated using cell viability assays and animal models. The influence of HCQ on lysosomal pH was evaluated by lysosomal sensors and confocal microscopy. The effects of HCQ on the tumour immune microenvironment were analysed by flow cytometry.

RESULTS

HCQ elevates the lysosomal pH of cancer cells to inactivate P-gp while increasing drug release from the lysosome into the nucleus. Furthermore, single HCQ therapy inhibits lung cancer by inducing macrophage-modulated anti-tumour CD8⁺ T cell immunity. Moreover, HCQ could promote the transition of M2 tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) into M1-like macrophages, leading to CD8⁺ T cell infiltration into the tumour microenvironment.

CONCLUSIONS

HCQ exerts anti-NSCLC cells effects by reversing the drug sequestration in lysosomes and enhancing the CD8⁺ T cell immune response. These findings suggest that HCQ could act as a promising chemo-sensitizer and immune regulator for lung cancer chemotherapy in the clinic.