Curcumin in the treatment of oral submucous fibrosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

The objective was to evaluate the efficacy of curcumin in improving mouth opening (MO), burning sensation (BS), and tongue protrusion (TP) symptoms in patients with oral submucous fibrosis (OSF). An electronic search up to November 2022 was conducted in the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, EBSCO, ProQuest, and Cochrane Library databases to identify studies using curcumin in the treatment of OSF with comparison to control groups (drugs previously proven to be effective for OSF treatment) or placebo. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were considered. RevMan 5.3 software was used for the meta-analysis. Thirteen RCTs met the eligibility criteria and were included in the analysis. The results showed no significant improvement in MO (in millimetres) for curcumin when compared to control at 1 month (P = 0.91), 2 months (P = 0.54), 3 months (P = 0.56), or 6 months (P = 0.17) of treatment. There was no significant difference in BS (assessed using a visual analogue scale) between curcumin and control after 1 month (P = 0.05), 2 months (P = 0.64), 3 months (P = 0.13), or 6 months (P = 0.56) of treatment. Compared with the control groups, treatment with curcumin for 1 month (P = 0.32), 2 months (P = 0.07), and 3 months (P = 0.14) did not significantly improve the TP (in millimetres) of patients. The administration of curcumin, whether topically applied or taken orally, did not confer statistically significant improvements in MO, BS, or TP in comparison to the control treatments, among patients with OSF. The results of this meta-analysis showed that compared to placebo, the application of curcumin for 6 months markedly alleviated BS (P < 0.001). Curcumin treatment in OSF reaches a clinically effective range, but more bioavailability-centred outcomes should be reported. Robust multicentre RCTs are warranted to elucidate the efficacy of curcumin in improving specific outcomes like MO, BS, and TP in patients with this condition. Defining the therapeutic role of this natural compound may provide an effective botanical alternative for managing OSF.

Sophora tonkinensis: response and adaptation of physiological characteristics, functional traits, and secondary metabolites to drought stress

The medicinal plant Sophora tonkinensis is a characteristic Chinese shrub of karst areas. The arid climate in karst areas produces high-quality S. tonkinensis; however, the mechanisms of drought tolerance are not clear, which restricts sustainable plantings of S. tonkinensis. This study involved a 20-day drought stress experiment with potted S. tonkinensis and threee soil water regimes: control (CK), mild drought (MDT), and severe drought (SDT). Plant morphology, biomass, physiological indicators, alkaloid content, and other changes under drought stress were monitored. The content of soluble sugars and proteins, and activity of antioxidant enzymes in leaves and roots were higher under drought than CK, indicating that S. tonkinensis is tolerant to osmotic stress in early drought stages. Content of matrine and oxymatrine increased gradually with increasing drought duration in the short term. The epidermis of S. tonkinensis leaves have characteristics of desert plants, including upper epidermal waxy layer, lower epidermal villi, and relatively sunken stomata, suggesting that S. tonkinensis has strong drought tolerance. In conclusion, drought stress changed the cell structure of S. tonkinensis, induced antioxidant enzyme activity and increased its resistance to drought.

Willingness to receive and recommend hypothetical mpox vaccination and associated factors in Chinese adults: a community-based survey in Shenzhen, China

OBJECTIVES

China may face new threats to public health due to the increased risk of imported mpox (monkeypox) cases. However, research gaps exist in the acceptance of mpox vaccination and potential associated factors in the Chinese population.

STUDY DESIGN

We conducted a cross-sectional study targeting community residents in Shenzhen, China, from August 5 to September 7 2022.

METHODS

A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information about demographic and health characteristics, mpox-related perceptions, and attitudes towards mpox vaccination. Multivariable logistic regression models were applied to detect the factors associated with willingness to receive and recommend mpox vaccination.

RESULTS

A total of 2293 community residents were included in the analyses (average age: 34.03, female: 72.6%). Among the participants, 76.9% were aware of mpox, 62.1% were aware of the global mpox outbreak, but only 53.6% had a high knowledge level of mpox. Males had a higher proportion of high knowledge (56.9% vs 52.3%, P＜0.05) and a lower proportion of high worry (30.2% vs 45.4%, P＜0.05) than females. Approximately 69.1% of the participants were willing to vaccinate against mpox, and 69.6% were willing to recommend mpox vaccination to people around them, in which no gender difference was found. The obstacle reported most among people hesitant to receive vaccination was concerning the safety and side-effects, whereas it changed to be concerning the suitability due to individual health differences among people hesitant to recommend mpox vaccines. Factors associated with the willingness to receive and recommend mpox vaccination included having a history of influenza vaccination, having a history of COVID-19 vaccination, being aware of the global mpox outbreak, having a high knowledge level of mpox, and having a high level of mpox-related worry.

CONCLUSIONS

This study identified a moderate willingness to receive and recommend mpox vaccination among Chinese adults. Without gender differences, willingness to receive and recommend mpox vaccination was significantly associated with mpox-related perceptions, such as awareness, knowledge, and worry. Authoritative and up-to-date information is needed to help the general population improve public confidence in mpox vaccines in China.

Radiation-Induced Nasopharyngeal Necrosis in Locally-Recurrent Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients after Re-Radiotherapy

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S)

Re-radiotherapy (re-RT) is the main treatment for locally recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (lrNPC) patients, and commonly led to radiation-induced nasopharyngeal (NP) necrosis, which was lethal but rare study has focused on it. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cause and impact of radiation-induced NP necrosis in lrNPC patients who received re-RT.

MATERIALS/METHODS

Totally 252 lrNPC patients who received re-RT between January 2013 and December 2020 were retrospectively collected. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) no NP necrosis before re-RT; (2) complete medical records, including treatment, clinical and dosimetric information; (3) conventional fractionated radiotherapy. All patients received intensity-modulated radiotherapy ± chemotherapy. Radiation-induced NP necrosis was diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging and/or electronic nasopharyngoscopy. Dosimetric factors of the planning target volume of primary tumor (PTVp) were extracted from the dose-volume histogram (DVH), which was rescaled to an equivalent dose of 2 Gy per fraction (EQD 2 Gy) using a linear quadratic model. Logistic regression was used to identify the independent prognostic factors for generating the nomogram.

RESULTS

With a median follow-up of 44.63 months (inter-quartile range [IQR], 27.70 - 69.20 months), 47.6% of patients (120/252) occurred radiation-induced NP necrosis, which mostly happened within 1 year post re-RT (median [IQR], 5.83 [3.37 - 11.57] months). The 3-year overall survival was 83.0% vs 39.7% (P<0.001) in lrNPC patients with or without radiation-induced NP necrosis. Except for the fractionated dose, other dosimetric factors of PTVp were not significantly different between two groups, including D98 (dose to 98% of PTVp), D50, D2 and homogeneity index (Table 1). Furthermore, multivariate analysis showed that continuous variable age (HR [95% CI]: 1.04 [1.02 - 1.07], P = 0.003) and tumor volume (HR [95% CI]: 1.02 [1.01 - 1.03], P<0.001), and fractionated dose > 2.22 Gy (HR [95% CI]: 2.36 [1.32 - 4.21], P = 0.004) were independent factors in predicting radiation-induced NP necrosis, which yielded a C-index of 0.742 (95% CI, 0.682 - 0.803) for OS in the nomogram.

CONCLUSION

The incidence of radiation-induced NP necrosis was high in lrNPC patients who received re-RT. Patients with older age, larger tumor volume or receiving fractionated dose over 2.22 Gy were more easily to suffer NP necrosis, which need to explore novel treatment strategies to improve patients' survivals.

Phase II Study of Docetaxel and Trametinib in Patients with KRAS Mutation Positive Recurrent Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC; SWOG S1507, NCT-02642042)

PURPOSE

Efficacy of MEK inhibitors in KRAS+ NSCLC may differ based on specific KRAS mutations and comutations. Our hypothesis was that docetaxel and trametinib would improve activity in KRAS+ NSCLC and specifically in KRAS G12C NSCLC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

S1507 is a single-arm phase II study assessing the response rate (RR) with docetaxel plus trametinib in recurrent KRAS+ NSCLC and secondarily in the G12C subset. The accrual goal was 45 eligible patients, with at least 25 with G12C mutation. The design was two-stage design to rule out a 17% RR, within the overall population at the one-sided 3% level and within the G12C subset at the 5% level.

RESULTS

Between July 18, 2016, and March 15, 2018, 60 patients were enrolled with 53 eligible and 18 eligible in the G12C cohort. The RR was 34% [95% confidence interval (CI), 22-48] overall and 28% (95% CI, 10-53) in G12C. Median PFS and OS were 4.1 and 3.3 months and 10.9 and 8.8 months, overall and in the subset, respectively. Common toxicities were fatigue, diarrhea, nausea, rash, anemia, mucositis, and neutropenia. Among 26 patients with known status for TP53 (10+ve) and STK11 (5+ve), OS (HR, 2.85; 95% CI, 1.16-7.01), and RR (0% vs. 56%, P = 0.004) were worse in patients with TP53 mutated versus wild-type cancers.

CONCLUSIONS

RRs were significantly improved in the overall population. Contrary to preclinical studies, the combination showed no improvement in efficacy in G12C patients. Comutations may influence therapeutic efficacy of KRAS directed therapies and are worthy of further evaluation. See related commentary by Cantor and Aggarwal, p. 3563.

DWI-Based Radiomics Predicts the Functional Outcome of Endovascular Treatment in Acute Basilar Artery Occlusion

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Endovascular treatment is a reference treatment for acute basilar artery occlusion (ABAO). However, no established and specific methods are available for the preoperative screening of patients with ABAO suitable for endovascular treatment. This study explores the potential value of DWI-based radiomics in predicting the functional outcomes of endovascular treatment in ABAO.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Patients with ABAO treated with endovascular treatment from the BASILAR registry (91 patients in the training cohort) and the hospitals in the Northwest of China (31 patients for the external testing cohort) were included in this study. The Mann-Whitney U test, random forests algorithm, and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator were used to reduce the feature dimension. A machine learning model was developed on the basis of the training cohort to predict the prognosis of endovascular treatment. The performance of the model was evaluated on the independent external testing cohort.

RESULTS

A subset of radiomics features (n = 6) was used to predict the functional outcomes in patients with ABAO. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the radiomics model were 0.870 and 0.781 in the training cohort and testing cohort, respectively. The accuracy of the radiomics model was 77.4%, with a sensitivity of 78.9%, specificity of 75%, positive predictive value of 83.3%, and negative predictive value of 69.2% in the testing cohort.

CONCLUSIONS

DWI-based radiomics can predict the prognosis of endovascular treatment in patients with ABAO, hence allowing a potentially better selection of patients who are most likely to benefit from this treatment.

Abstract GS1-04: Patient-reported cognitive impairment in women participating in the RxPONDER trial (SWOG S1007) by menopausal status

Introduction: Breast cancer treatment is associated with cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI). However, the differential effect of endocrine therapy (ET) vs chemotherapy followed by endocrine therapy (CET), including the impact of menopausal status, on CRCI is not well understood.

Methods: Participants (pts) with hormone receptor positive, HER2 negative breast cancer with 1-3 positive lymph nodes and an Oncotype DX recurrence score of 0-25 enrolled in the RxPONDER trial were randomly assigned to ET alone versus CET. Until the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) accrual goal was reached, English speaking pts in the US were invited to complete HRQoL questionnaires including the 8-item PROMIS Perceived Cognitive Function Concerns (PCF) Short Form questionnaire shortly after randomization (baseline), as well as 6, 12, and 36 months after baseline. Analysis of measures of anxiety and fatigue is presented separately. Standardized T scores (mean 50; SD 10) for PCF were computed with higher scores indicating less cognitive impairment. The primary endpoint of this exploratory analysis was to compare mean PCF T scores by treatment arm and menopausal status. Separately by menopausal status, a generalized estimating equations (GEE) model was fit to the three timepoints adjusting for baseline to estimate the difference between treatment arms and whether there was a time trend over the three follow-up measures.

Results: The HRQoL accrual exceeded the goal of 500 patients, with 74% of pts participating voluntarily until the QOL invitation was removed from the protocol (Dec 1, 2012). A total of 139 pre and 429 postmenopausal pts completed the questionnaires at baseline. T scores were similar between ET and CET arms at baseline [Table 1]. In the ET arm, T scores decreased from baseline to 6 and 12 months but recovered to baseline at 36 months. In the CET arm, T scores decreased from baseline to 6 months and 12 months but did not return to baseline at 36 months. The mean score difference between CET and ET over time was -3.02 (p=0.01) and -2.36 (p=0.003) for pre and postmenopausal pts, respectively. Adjusting for baseline, there was no significant time trend over the three follow-up periods for either premenopausal (p=0.12) or postmenopausal (p=0.49) pts. Dropoff occurred over time with 79%, 76%, 60% of pts at baseline participating at 6, 12, and 36 months. Complete endocrine treatment adherence data are not yet available at each timepoint.

Conclusion: Chemoendocrine therapy has a greater negative effect on patient-reported CRCI compared to ET alone in both pre- and post-menopausal pts and it is sustained over 36 months. Interventions to prevent or treat CRCI are needed to improve the long-term quality of life of patients treated with CET.

Table 1. Comparisons of mean Cognitive Function score by treatment arm and menopausal status.

Citation Format: Irene Kang, Jamie K. Forschmiedt, Michelle M. Loch, William E. Barlow, Danika L. Lew, Julie R. Gralow, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Kathy S. Albain, Daniel F. Hayes, Nancy U. Lin, Edith A. Perez, Lori J. Goldstein, Priya Rastogi, Anne F. Schott, Steven Shak, Priyanka Sharma, Jieling Miao, Debu Tripathy, Lajos Pusztai, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, Kevin Kalinsky, N. Lynn Henry. Patient-reported cognitive impairment in women participating in the RxPONDER trial (SWOG S1007) by menopausal status [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr GS1-04.

Abstract GS1-07: Results from a phase III randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating adjuvant endocrine therapy +/- 1 year of everolimus in patients with high-risk hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer: SWOG S1207

BACKGROUND: Abnormalities of the PI3kinase/AKT/mTOR signaling network are common in breast cancer (BC) and are associated with endocrine resistance. Everolimus, an mTOR-inhibitor increased PFS when combined with endocrine therapy (ET) in the metastatic setting and is thought to revert endocrine resistance. S1207 is a phase III randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluating the role of everolimus in combination with ET in the adjuvant setting among patients with high-risk hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative BC (NCT01674140). METHODS: Eligible patients were &gt;18 years of age with histologically confirmed invasive hormone receptor-positive and HER2-negative high-risk BC. Four risk groups were defined as: 1) &gt; 2cm node-negative disease (or pN1mi), and either an Oncotype DX® Recurrence Score (RS) &gt; 25 or MammaPrint® high-risk category (MP high); 2) 1-3 positive nodes and either RS &gt;25, MP high or a pathological grade 3 tumor; 3) &gt;4 positive lymph nodes. Patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were eligible if: 4) after surgery had &gt;1 lymph node involvement. Patients were randomized 1:1 to physician’s choice adjuvant ET in combination with one year of everolimus (10 mg PO daily) or ET plus placebo stratified by risk group. The primary endpoint was invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) evaluated by a stratified log-rank test. Secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS) and safety. The hazard ratio (HR) for treatment efficacy was estimated using Cox regression with stratification by risk groups. Subset analyses included preplanned evaluation within risk group and exploratory analyses of menopausal status and age. RESULTS: 1,939 patients were randomized between September 2013 and May 2019, of them 1,792 were eligible and included in the analysis (896 per arm). Primary reason for ineligibility was timing after chemotherapy/radiation or not high risk. Median age was 54 years (22-85) and 32% were premenopausal. With a median follow-up of 50.5 months, there were 389 IDFS events as of May 2022 (data cutoff). 5-year IDFS was 74.8% among patients treated with everolimus and 73.9% among patients treated with placebo, HR=0.93 (95% CI 0.76-1.14). However, the proportional hazards assumption was violated (p=0.02) suggesting differential treatment effect over time. The HR during the one year of treatment was 0.72 (95% CI 0.47-1.10) while after one year it was 1.00 (95% CI 0.80-1.26). The 5-year OS was 87.6% in the everolimus arm and 85.5% in the placebo arm, HR=0.98 (95% CI 0.75-1.28). Analysis by risk group did not show higher everolimus benefit as risk increased. No difference in IDFS or OS was seen among postmenopausal patients (IDFS HR=1.08 [95% CI 0.85-1.36], OS HR=1.19 [95% CI 0.87-1.61]). Among premenopausal patients, everolimus was associated with improved IDFS (HR=0.63 [95% CI 0.43-0.93]) and OS (HR=0.48 [95% CI 0.26-0.88]). Treatment completion of randomized therapy was lower in the everolimus arm compared to placebo (47.9% v 72.7%). Grade 3 and 4 toxicities were noted in 6.5% and 0.5% of patients in the placebo arm and in 31.2% and 3.7% in the everolimus arm respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Addition of one year of adjuvant everolimus to standard adjuvant ET did not improve IDFS or OS and was associated with low completion rate and increased AEs. Among premenopausal patients there was a benefit in IDFS and OS that is hypothesis generating. Future translational studies will evaluate potential predictors of everolimus benefit and drug toxicity.

Citation Format: Marianna Chavez, Jieling Miao, Lajos Pusztai, Matthew P. Goetz, Priya Rastogi, Patricia A. Ganz, Eleftherios (Terry) Mamounas, Soonmyung Paik, Hanna Bandos, Wajeeha Razaq, Anne O’Dea, Virginia Kaklamani, Andrea L.M. Silber, Lisa E. Flaum, Eleni Andreopolu, Joseph Baar, Albert G. Wendt, Jennifer F. Carney, Priyanka Sharma, Julie R. Gralow, Danika L. Lew, William E. Barlow, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi. Results from a phase III randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating adjuvant endocrine therapy +/- 1 year of everolimus in patients with high-risk hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer: SWOG S1207 [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr GS1-07.

Abstract GS1-01: Race and clinical outcomes in the RxPONDER Trial (SWOG S1007)

Introduction: Racial disparities in breast cancer (BC) outcomes continues to be a major health care challenge. The 21-gene recurrence score (RS) is an important tool to guide treatment (tx) decisions among women with early-stage BC. We report an analysis of clinical characteristics, survival outcomes and race in association with RS in participants (pts) in the RxPONDER trial.

Methods: We analyzed clinical outcomes with respect to race and ethnicity. Unreported race excluded 18.7% of the pts, with most due to privacy rules. The primary outcome was invasive disease-free survival (IDFS). Distant relapse-free survival (DRFS) was also evaluated. Analyses adjusted for assigned tx arm, RS, and grade were performed. There were too few events to include Native American/Pacific Islander (NAPI) women in the survival analyses.

Results: A total of 4,048 trial women with Hormone Receptor positive, HER2 negative (HR+/HER2-) BC, 1-3 involved axillary lymph nodes (LNs), RS ≤ 25 and known race/ethnicity were included in this analysis including the following: 2,833 non-Hispanic (NH) White pts (70%), 248 NH Black pts (6.1%), 610 Hispanic pts (15.1%), 324 Asian pts (8.0%), and 33 NAPI pts (0.8%). Asian and Hispanic women were younger than NH Whites (by 7.1 and 2.4 years, respectively) but NH Blacks did not differ in age. RS distribution did not differ among all racial subgroups (p=0.49). There were also no significant differences in tumor size (p=0.10) or number of positive LNs (p=0.26) across all racial groups. However, tumor grade was found to be significantly different with grade 3 tumors higher for NH Blacks (18.0%), NH NAPI (21.1%), and Hispanics (14.5%) vs. NH Whites (10.4%) and Asians (6.5%) (p&lt; 0.001). Overall five-year IDFS was lower for NH Blacks (87.0%) compared to that for Asians (93.9%), NH Whites (91.5%), and Hispanics (91.4%) (Table 1). A multivariable Cox model adjusting for RS and tx arm showed worse IDFS for NH Blacks compared to NH Whites (HR=1.38; 95% CI 1.00-1.90; p=0.048), although Asian pts had better IDFS than NH Whites (HR=0.65; 95% CI 0.44-0.97; p=0.034). In a separate analysis by menopausal status the magnitude of the IDFS hazard ratios (HRs) for NH Blacks was similar, although no longer statistically significant (premenopausal HR=1.37; 95% CI 0.69-2.72; postmenopausal HR=1.38; 95% CI 0.96-1.98). While there was no statistically significant interaction between NH Blacks vs. NH Whites and tx arm for either premenopausal (p=0.99) or postmenopausal women (p=0.44), adjusting for RS, the small number of events in the NH Black cohort, particularly in premenopausal women (n = 9 IDFS events), limit power and inference about differences in chemotherapy benefit. Among postmenopausal women, NH Blacks had worse DRFS compared to NH Whites (HR=1.69; 95% CI 1.12-2.53; p=0.01), adjusting for tx and RS. A similar trend was seen among premenopausal women (HR=1.74; 95% CI 0.79-3.82; p=0.17), although not statistically significant. Data on tx adherence over 5 years was not mature, although NH Blacks were more likely to accept tx assignment compared to NH Whites at randomization (93% vs. 86%, p=0.004).

Conclusion: Black women with HR+/HER2- BC, 1-3 involved LNs and RS ≤ 25 have worse outcomes compared to White women despite similar RS results. There was no significant interaction between NH Blacks vs. NH Whites and tx arm, although this analysis was limited due to sample size. There remains an important need for novel approaches to improve clinical outcomes particularly for NH Black Women.

Table 1. IDFS by Race and Ethnicity.

Citation Format: Yara Abdou, William E. Barlow, Julie R. Gralow, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Kathy S. Albain, Daniel F. Hayes, Nancy U. Lin, Edith A. Perez, Lori J. Goldstein, Stephen K. Chia, Sukhbinder Dhesy-Thind, Priya Rastogi, Emilio Alba, Suzette Delaloge, Anne F. Schott, Steven Shak, Priyanka Sharma, Danika L. Lew, Jieling Miao, Joseph M. Unger, Debu Tripathy, Lajos Pusztai, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, Kevin Kalinsky. Race and clinical outcomes in the RxPONDER Trial (SWOG S1007) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr GS1-01.

Abstract P6-05-06: Patient-reported anxiety and fatigue in women enrolled in the RxPONDER trial (SWOG S1007) by menopausal status

Introduction: Anxiety and fatigue have been reported by women undergoing cytotoxic and endocrine treatment (tx) for breast cancer and can have lasting effects on quality of life (QoL). The differential effects of menopausal (meno) status, tx allocation and duration of symptoms are not well established.

Methods: Participants (pts) with hormone receptor positive, HER2 negative breast cancer with 1-3 positive lymph nodes and an Oncotype DX recurrence score of 0-25 enrolled in the RxPONDER trial were randomly assigned to endocrine therapy (ET) alone vs chemotherapy followed by ET (CET). A subset of English speaking pts in the US at the start of the trial were invited to complete health-related QoL (HRQoL) questionnaires shortly after randomization (baseline; BL) and 6, 12, and 36 months after BL until accrual goal reached. BL surveys were completed in clinic; cognitive function results presented separately. Standardized T scores (mean 50; SD 10) were computed for anxiety (PROMIS Emotional Distress – Anxiety Short Form 7a) and fatigue (PROMIS Fatigue Short Form 7a). Higher T scores indicate more anxiety or fatigue. The primary endpoint of this exploratory analysis was to compare mean anxiety and fatigue T score by tx arm by meno status. Separately by meno status, a GEE model was fit to the three follow-up timepoints adjusting for BL to estimate the difference between tx arms and whether there was a time trend over the three follow-up measures.

Results: The accrual exceeded the goal of 500 pts with 74% of pts participating voluntarily until the QOL invitation was removed from the protocol (12/1/12). A total of 139 pre and 432 postmenopausal pts completed the anxiety questionnaire at BL. There was no difference in anxiety between tx arms [Table 1]. Mean anxiety score difference between CET and ET over time in the premenopausal cohort was -0.63 (p=0.63) and in the postmenopausal cohort was 0.59 (p=0.45). Although anxiety scores decreased over the three follow-up times, the change was not statistically significant.

A total of 139 pre and 429 postmenopausal pts completed the fatigue questionnaire at BL. Fatigue mean T scores in both the pre and postmenopausal cohorts were higher over time in the CET vs ET arm [Table 2]. Fatigue scores were 2.85 points higher for CET vs. ET over time in the premenopausal cohort (p=0.02) and 1.82 points higher in the postmenopausal cohort (p=0.007). Fatigue scores decreased over time for premenopausal (p=0.01), but not for postmenopausal (p=0.62) pts.

Dropoff occurred over time with 79%, 76%, 60% of pts at BL participating at 6, 12, and 36 months. Endocrine treatment adherence data are not yet available at each timepoint.

Conclusions: CET had a clinically significant negative effect on mean fatigue scores compared to ET alone in both pre and postmenopausal pts over time. Scores improved over time but did not return to BL. Pts had lower mean anxiety scores during tx compared to BL, but differences in scores between CET and ET groups out to 3 years did not significantly differ. Future therapeutic studies must continue to include HRQoL assessments to broaden our understanding of the full impact of chemotherapy and for the development of preventative and therapeutic strategies to manage these toxicities.

Table 1. Comparisons of mean Anxiety score by treatment arm and menopausal status.

Table 2. Comparisons of mean Fatigue score by treatment arm and menopausal status.

Citation Format: Michelle M. Loch, Jamie K. Forschmiedt, Irene M. Kang, Julie R. Gralow, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Kathy S. Albain, Daniel F. Hayes, Nancy U. Lin, Edith A. Perez, Lori J. Goldstein, Priya Rastogi, Anne F. Schott, Steven Shak, Priyanka Sharma, Danika L. Lew, Jieling Miao, William E. Barlow, Debu Tripathy, Lajos Pusztai, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, Kevin Kalinsky, N. Lynn Henry. Patient-reported anxiety and fatigue in women enrolled in the RxPONDER trial (SWOG S1007) by menopausal status [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-05-06.

Cisplatin with veliparib or placebo in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer and BRCA mutation-associated breast cancer (S1416): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial

BACKGROUND

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors are effective in germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA1/2) mutation-associated metastatic breast cancer. However, studies evaluating PARP inhibitors plus platinum-based chemotherapy in germline BRCA1/2-wildtype triple-negative breast cancer are scarce. A large proportion of germline BRCA1/2-wildtype triple-negative breast cancer shows homologous recombination deficiency (HRD), resulting in a BRCA-like phenotype that might render sensitivity to PARP inhibitors. The S1416 trial assessed the efficacy of cisplatin combined with the PARP inhibitor veliparib in three predefined groups of metastatic breast cancer: germline BRCA1/2-mutated, BRCA-like, and non-BRCA-like.

METHODS

S1416 was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 2 trial conducted at 154 community and academic clinical sites across the USA. Eligible patients aged 18 years or older had metastatic or recurrent triple-negative breast cancer or germline BRCA1/2-associated metastatic or recurrent breast cancer, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0-2, and had received up to one line of chemotherapy for metastatic disease. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) via the National Clinical Trials Network open interactive system with dynamic balancing on number of previous cytotoxic regimens for metastatic disease to receive intravenous cisplatin (75 mg/m2, day 1) combined with either veliparib or matching placebo (300 mg orally twice a day, days 1-14) on a 21-day cycle. Investigators, patients, and the sponsors were masked to treatment assignment; the study statisticians were unmasked. Central testing after ran domisation classified patients as having mutated or wildtype germline BRCA1/2. A biomarker panel established a priori was used to classify patients with wildtype germline BRCA1/2 into BRCA-like and non-BRCA-like phenotype groups, with BRCA-like status based on at least one of the biomarkers: genomic instability score (≥42), somatic BRCA1/2 mutations, BRCA1 promoter methylation, or non-BRCA1/2 homologous recombination repair germline mutations. The primary endpoint was investigator-assessed progression-free survival, analysed separately for the three predefined biomarker groups with a prespecified α value for each analysis. Efficacy analyses were done by intention to treat and included all eligible patients. Safety analyses of toxicities attributed to treatment included all patients who received at least one dose of veliparib or placebo. The study is ongoing and registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02595905.

FINDINGS

Between July 7, 2016, and June 15, 2019, 335 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned. 320 patients (n=162 to cisplatin plus veliparib, all women; and n=158 to cisplatin plus placebo, 157 women and one man) were eligible for efficacy evaluation. 247 patients were classified into the three biomarker groups: germline BRCA1/2-mutated (n=37), BRCA-like (n=101), and non-BRCA-like (n=109). 73 patients could not be classified due to missing biomarker information. Median follow-up was 11·1 months (IQR 5·6-20·8). In the germline BRCA1/2-mutated group, median progression-free survival was 6·2 months (95% CI 2·3-9·2) in the cisplatin plus veliparib group and 6·4 months (4·3-8·2) in the cisplatin plus placebo group (HR 0·79 [95% CI 0·38-1·67]; log-rank p=0·54). In the BRCA-like group, median progression-free survival was 5·9 months (95% CI 4·3-7·8) in the cisplatin plus veliparib group versus 4·2 months (2·3-5·0) in the cisplatin plus placebo group (HR 0·57 [95% CI 0·37-0·88]; p=0·010). In the non-BRCA-like group, median progression-free survival was 4·0 months (95% CI 2·5-4·7) in the cisplatin plus veliparib group versus 3·0 months (2·2-4·4) in the cisplatin plus placebo group (HR 0·89 [95% CI 0·60-1·33]; p=0·57). The most common grade 3 or worse adverse events attributed to treatment were neutropenia (71 [46%] of 155 patients in the cisplatin plus veliparib group vs 29 [20%] of 147 in the cisplatin plus placebo group), leukopenia (42 [27%] vs 11 [7%]), anaemia (35 [23%] vs 12 [8%]), and thrombocytopenia (29 [19%] vs four [3%]). Serious adverse events attributed to treatment occurred in 48 (31%) patients in the cisplatin plus veliparib group and 53 (36%) patients in the cisplatin plus placebo group. Treatment-related adverse events led to death in one patient in the cisplatin plus veliparib group (sepsis) and one patient in the cisplatin plus placebo group (acute kidney injury due to cisplatin plus heart failure from previous doxorubicin exposure).

INTERPRETATION

The addition of veliparib to cisplatin significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with BRCA-like metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, but not in patients with non-BRCA-like metastatic breast cancer. PARP inhibitors combined with platinum-based chemotherapy should be explored further in BRCA-like triple-negative breast cancer.

FUNDING

National Cancer Institute and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (US National Institutes of Health); AbbVie; Myriad Genetics; the Biomarker, Imaging, and Quality of Life Studies Funding Program (awarded by the National Cancer Institute); and The University of Kansas Cancer Center.

IL-37 alleviates intervertebral disc degeneration via the IL-1R8/NF-κB pathway

OBJECTIVE

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) has been reported to be a major cause of low back pain (LBP). Interleukin (IL)-37 is an anti-inflammatory cytokine of the interleukin-1 family, which exerts salutary physiological effects. In this study, we assessed the protective effect of IL-37 on IDD progression and its underlying mechanisms.

METHODS

Immunofluorescence (IF) was conducted to measure IL-37 expression in nucleus pulposus tissues. CCK-8 assay and Edu staining were used to examine the vitality of IL-37-treated nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs). Western blot, qPCR, ELISA as well as immunohistochemistry were used to assess senescence associated secreted phenotype (SASP) factors expression; and NF-κB pathway was evaluated by western blot and IF; while IL-1R8 knock-down by siRNAs was performed to ascertain its significance in the senescence phenotype modulated by IL-37. The therapeutic effect of IL-37 on IDD were evaluated in puncture-induced rat model using X-ray, Hematoxylin-Eosin, Safranin O-Fast Green (SO), and alcian blue staining.

RESULTS

We found IL-37 expression decreased in the IDD process. In vitro, IL-37 suppressed SASP factors level and senescence phenotype in IL-1β treated NPCs. In vivo, IL-37 alleviated the IDD progression in the puncture-induced rat model. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that IL-37 inhibited IDD progression by downregulating NF-κB pathway activation in NPCs by activating IL-1R8.

CONCLUSION

The present study suggests that IL-37 delays the IDD development through the IL-1R8/NF-κB pathway, which suggests IL-37 as a promising novel target for IDD therapy.

Tumor-Derived Extracellular Vesicles as Complementary Prognostic Factors to Circulating Tumor Cells in Metastatic Breast Cancer

PURPOSE

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are strongly prognostic for overall survival (OS) in metastatic breast cancer although additional prognostic biomarkers are needed. We evaluated the complementary prognostic value of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (tdEVs) next to CTCs.

METHODS

We applied the open-source ACCEPT software to archived CellSearch images from the prospective clinical trial SWOG0500 to enumerate CTCs and tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (tdEVs) before and after one cycle of chemotherapy.

RESULTS

CTCs enumerated by ACCEPT were strongly correlated with classical ocular enumeration (correlation r = 0.98). OS was worse with elevated tdEVs (median OS for high/medium/low groups: 17.1 v 29.0 v 43.3 months; P < .0001). In patients with longer OS by CTC counts (< 5 CTC/7.5 mL blood), elevated tdEV levels were independently associated with poorer OS (multivariable analysis P < .001). OS was also longer for patients with low tdEVs after one cycle of chemotherapy (median OS for high/medium/low group: 10.8 v 17.8 v 26.7; P < .0001).

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the complementary prognostic significance of tdEVs in metastatic breast cancer before and after one cycle of chemotherapy.

Circulating Tumor DNA Kinetics Predict Progression-Free and Overall Survival in EGFR TKI-Treated Patients with EGFR-Mutant NSCLC (SWOG S1403)

PURPOSE

Dynamic changes in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) are under investigation as an early indicator of treatment outcome.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Serial plasma ctDNA (baseline, 8 weeks, and at progression) was prospectively incorporated into the SWOG S1403 clinical trial of afatinib ± cetuximab in tyrosine kinase inhibitor-naïve, EGFR mutation tissue-positive non-small cell lung cancer.

RESULTS

EGFR mutations were detected in baseline ctDNA in 77% (82/106) of patients, associated with the presence of brain and/or liver metastases and M1B stage. Complete clearance of EGFR mutations in ctDNA by 8 weeks was associated with a significantly decreased risk of progression, compared with those with persistent ctDNA at Cycle 3 Day 1 [HR, 0.23; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.12-0.45; P < 0.0001], with a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 15.1 (95% CI, 10.6-17.5) months in the group with clearance of ctDNA versus 4.6 (1.7-7.5) months in the group with persistent ctDNA. Clearance was also associated with a decreased risk of death (HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.21-0.90), P = 0.02; median overall survival (OS): 32.6 (23.5-not estimable) versus 15.6 (4.9-28.3) months.

CONCLUSIONS

Plasma clearance of mutant EGFR ctDNA at 8 weeks was highly and significantly predictive of PFS and OS, outperforming RECIST response for predicting long-term benefit.

Abstract GS2-07: Updated results from a phase 3 randomized clinical trial in participants (pts) with 1-3 positive lymph nodes (LN), hormone receptor-positive (HR+) and HER2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer (BC) with recurrence score (RS) ≤ 25 randomized to endocrine therapy (ET) +/- chemotherapy (CT): SWOG S1007 (RxPONDER)

Background: We previouslyreported that invasive disease-free survival (IDFS), the primary outcome, and distantdisease-free survival (DDFS), a secondary outcome, differed by menopausalstatus in a pre-specified analysis. Here,we report updates on IDFS and DDFS with additional follow-up, as well as distantrecurrence-free interval (DRFI) and post hoc analyses in premenopausal women.Methods: Eligibilitycriteria included women &gt; 18 years of age with HR+, HER2-BC and 1-3 +LN and no contraindications to taxane and/or anthracycline basedCT. DRFI was defined as time to distant recurrence or death from breast cancer.Analyses were intent-to-treat among eligible pts. We performed a post hocanalysis evaluating IDFS between treatment arms in premenopausal pts with pN1mi.In addition, we conducted a two-year landmarked IDFS analysis by ovarianfunction suppression (OFS) or not in the ET arm, as well as by regularmenstrual periods or not in both treatment arms.Results: Among the 4,984eligible pts, there were 553 IDFS events and median follow-up of 6.1 years.Postmenopausal women do not have any IDFS or DDFS benefit with CT; however, 5-yearabsolute benefits for IDFS and DDFS with CT for premenopausal pts were 5.9% and3.3%, respectively. In pre-menopausal pts, CT was associated with improved DRFIfor all RS values &lt; 25, with an absolute improvement of 2.3% for RS0-13 and of 2.8% for RS 14-25. Among premenopausal pts, 12.4% (n=206) had pNmi)disease. In a post hoc analysis, there was a trend for CT benefit for thosewith pNmi [hazard ratio (HR)=0.44, confidence interval (CI)=0.18-1.08]. Therewere only 22 IDFS events. Only 17.2% of premenopausal pts assigned to ETunderwent OFS in the first 24 months and in two-year landmarked analysis, therewas no IDFS difference in those who underwent OFS or not (HR=0.88,CI=0.47-1.63). In premenopausal women assigned to ET, 58.9% stopped havingperiods within the first 24 months, and have anumerically improved IDFS compared to those who continued regular periods (HR=1.48,CI: 0.92-2.40). Among premenopausal assigned to CT followed by ET, 80.8%stopped having periods within the first 24 months and have a numericallyimproved IDFS compared to those who continue to have regular periods (HR=1.56, CI:0.85-2.86).Discussion: In accordancewith the differential IDFS and DDFS benefit based upon menopausal status inS1007, premenopausal pts with 1-3+LN and RS &lt; 25 had a statisticallysignificant improvement in DRFI with the addition of CT. A small proportion of S1007premenopausal participants underwent OFS. The role of OFS as it relates to CTbenefit cannot be determined from this study. A future randomized trial should address the clinical question if OFScan replace CT in premenopausal pts with HR+/HER2-, node-positive breast cancer.Funding: Supported by National Cancer Institute grants U10CA180888, U10CA180819,U10CA180820, U10CA180821, U10CA180868, U10CA180863, and in part by Susan G.Komen for the Cure® Research Program, The Hope Foundation for Cancer Research,Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and Genomic Health, Inc.

Citation Format: Kevin M Kalinsky, William E Barlow, Julie R Gralow, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Kathy S Albain, Daniel F Hayes, Nancy U Lin, Edith A Perez, Lori A Goldstein, Stephen KL Chia, Sukhbinder Dhesy-Thind, Priya Rastogi, Emilio Alba, Suzette Delaloge, Miguel Martin, Catherine M Kelly, Manuel Ruiz-Borrego, Miguel Gil-Gil, Claudia H Arce-Salinas, Etienne GC Brain, Eun Sook Lee, Jean-Yves Pierga, Begoña Bermejo, Manuel Ramos-Vasquez, Kyung Hae Jung, Jean-Marc Ferrero, Anne Schott, Steven Shak, Priyanka Sharma, Danika Lew, Jieling Miao, Debasish Tripathy, Lajos Pusztai, Gabriel Hortobagyi. Updated results from a phase 3 randomized clinical trial in participants (pts) with 1-3 positive lymph nodes (LN), hormone receptor-positive (HR+) and HER2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer (BC) with recurrence score (RS) ≤ 25 randomized to endocrine therapy (ET) +/- chemotherapy (CT): SWOG S1007 (RxPONDER) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr GS2-07.

21-Gene Assay to Inform Chemotherapy Benefit in Node-Positive Breast Cancer

BACKGROUND

The recurrence score based on the 21-gene breast-cancer assay has been clinically useful in predicting a chemotherapy benefit in hormone-receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative, axillary lymph-node-negative breast cancer. In women with positive lymph-node disease, the role of the recurrence score with respect to predicting a benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy is unclear.

METHODS

In a prospective trial, we randomly assigned women with hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, one to three positive axillary lymph nodes, and a recurrence score of 25 or lower (scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating a worse prognosis) to endocrine therapy only or to chemotherapy plus endocrine (chemoendocrine) therapy. The primary objective was to determine the effect of chemotherapy on invasive disease-free survival and whether the effect was influenced by the recurrence score. Secondary end points included distant relapse-free survival.

RESULTS

A total of 5083 women (33.2% premenopausal and 66.8% postmenopausal) underwent randomization, and 5018 participated in the trial. At the prespecified third interim analysis, the chemotherapy benefit with respect to increasing invasive disease-free survival differed according to menopausal status (P = 0.008 for the comparison of chemotherapy benefit in premenopausal and postmenopausal participants), and separate prespecified analyses were conducted. Among postmenopausal women, invasive disease-free survival at 5 years was 91.9% in the endocrine-only group and 91.3% in the chemoendocrine group, with no chemotherapy benefit (hazard ratio for invasive disease recurrence, new primary cancer [breast cancer or another type], or death, 1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.82 to 1.26; P = 0.89). Among premenopausal women, invasive disease-free survival at 5 years was 89.0% with endocrine-only therapy and 93.9% with chemoendocrine therapy (hazard ratio, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.43 to 0.83; P = 0.002), with a similar increase in distant relapse-free survival (hazard ratio, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.39 to 0.87; P = 0.009). The relative chemotherapy benefit did not increase as the recurrence score increased.

CONCLUSIONS

Among premenopausal women with one to three positive lymph nodes and a recurrence score of 25 or lower, those who received chemoendocrine therapy had longer invasive disease-free survival and distant relapse-free survival than those who received endocrine-only therapy, whereas postmenopausal women with similar characteristics did not benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. (Funded by the National Cancer Institute and others; RxPONDER ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01272037.).

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales colonization and subsequent infection in a neonatal intensive care unit in Shanghai, China

Background

Colonization has been reported to play an important role in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) infection; however, the extent to which carriers develop clinical CRE infection and related risk factors in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients is unclear.

Aim

To investigate the frequency of CRE colonization and its contribution to infections in NICU patients.

Methods

CRE colonization screening and CRE infection surveillance were performed in the NICU in 2017 and 2018.

Findings

Among 1230 unique NICU patients who were screened for CRE colonization, 144 patients tested positive (11.7%, 144/1230), with 9.2% (110/1197) in the intestinal tract, which was higher than that in the upper respiratory tract (6.6%, 62/945) (P=0.026). Gestational age, low birth weight and prolonged hospitalization were risk factors for CRE colonization (all P<0.001). Diversilab homology monitoring found an overall 17.4% (25/144) risk of infection among patients colonized with CRE. For carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CR-KP) and carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli (CR-ECO), the risks were 19.1% (21/110) and 13.8% (4/29), respectively. The independent risk factors for CR-KP clinical infection among CR-KP carriers were receiving mechanical ventilation (odds ratio (OR), 10.177; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.667–38.830; P=0.013), a high level of neonatal nutritional risk assessment (OR, 0.251; 95% CI, 0.072–0.881; P=0.031) and a high neonatal acute physiology II (SNAP-II) score (OR, 0.256; 95% CI, 0.882–1.034; P=0.025).

Conclusions

The colonization of CRE may increase the incidence of corresponding CRE infection in NICU patients. Receiving mechanical ventilation, malnutrition and critical conditions with high SNAP-II scores were independent risk factors for subsequent CR-KP clinical infection.

Clinical benefits of TNF-α inhibitors in Chinese adult patients with NLRP3-associated autoinflammatory disease

BACKGROUND

Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3)-associated autoinflammatory disease (NLRP3-AID) is a rare, heterogeneous disease entity associated with mutations in NLRP3. Biologic therapy for NLRP3-AID yields diverse results.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to evaluate the clinical features and outcomes of Chinese adult patients with NLRP3-AID who were treated with tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitors.

METHODS

Five patients with NLRP3-AID were diagnosed and treated with TNF-α inhibitors at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between 2017 and 2020 and were followed up for 6 to 12 months. All patients were systematically studied for treatment outcomes, including clinical manifestations and inflammatory markers.

RESULTS

All five adult NLRP3-AID patients were Chinese Han, and four patients were males. The mean age at disease onset was 4.2 ± 4.1 years, and the mean time of diagnosis delay was 19.8 ± 6 years. All patients received TNF-α inhibitors with or without methotrexate/prednisone. During follow-up, all patients achieved remarkable clinical remission of skin lesions and polyarthritis and showed improvements in acute-phase reactants, inflammatory cytokines, patient visual analogue scale, physician global assessment and 36-item Short Form (SF-36).

CONCLUSIONS

Early diagnosis and effective therapy for NLRP3-AID are essential for avoiding irreversible organ damage. TNF-α inhibitors might serve as a therapeutic alternative for patients with NLRP3-AID who have unsatisfactory responses or no access to interleukin-1 inhibitors.

Phase II study of durvalumab plus tremelimumab as therapy for patients with previously treated anti-PD-1/PD-L1 resistant stage IV squamous cell lung cancer (Lung-MAP substudy S1400F, NCT03373760)

INTRODUCTION

S1400F is a non-match substudy of Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP) evaluating the immunotherapy combination of durvalumab and tremelimumab to overcome resistance to anti-programmed death ligand 1 (PD-(L)1) therapy in patients with advanced squamous lung carcinoma (sq non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)).

METHODS

Patients with previously treated sqNSCLC with disease progression after anti-PD-(L)1 monotherapy, who did not qualify for any active molecularly targeted Lung-MAP substudies, were eligible. Patients received tremelimumab 75 mg plus durvalumab 1500 mg once every 28 days for four cycles then durvalumab alone every 28 days until disease progression. The primary endpoint was the objective response rate (RECIST V.1.1). Primary and acquired resistance cohorts, defined as disease progression within 24 weeks versus ≥24 weeks of starting prior anti-PD-(L)1 therapy, were analyzed separately and an interim analysis for futility was planned after 20 patients in each cohort were evaluable for response.

RESULTS

A total of 58 eligible patients received drug, 28 with primary resistance and 30 with acquired resistance to anti-PD-(L)1 monotherapy. Grade ≥3 adverse events at least possibly related to treatment were seen in 20 (34%) patients. The response rate in the primary resistance cohort was 7% (95% CI 0% to 17%), with one complete and one partial response. No responses were seen in the acquired resistance cohort. In the primary and resistance cohorts the median progression-free survival was 2.0 months (95% CI 1.6 to 3.0) and 2.1 months (95% CI 1.6 to 3.2), respectively, and overall survival was 7.7 months (95% CI 4.0 to 12.0) and 7.6 months (95% CI 5.3 to 10.2), respectively.

CONCLUSION

Durvalumab plus tremelimumab had minimal activity in patients with advanced sqNSCLC progressing on prior anti-PD-1 therapy.Trial registration numberNCT03373760.

A Dose-finding Study Followed by a Phase II Randomized, Placebo-controlled Trial of Chemoradiotherapy With or Without Veliparib in Stage III Non-small-cell Lung Cancer: SWOG 1206 (8811)

BACKGROUND

We conducted a 2-part study to evaluate the incorporation of veliparib, a PARP inhibitor, into chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for stage III non-small-cell lung cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

In the phase I part, patients were treated successively at 3 dose levels of veliparib (40, 80, and 120 mg) twice daily during CRT. In the phase II part, patients were randomized to receive veliparib or placebo during thoracic radiotherapy with concurrent weekly carboplatin and paclitaxel, followed by 2 cycles of consolidation carboplatin and paclitaxel with veliparib or placebo. The study was prematurely discontinued owing to the emergence of adjuvant immunotherapy as standard of care.

RESULTS

Of 21 patients enrolled in phase I, 2 patients developed dose-limiting toxicities (DLTs): 1 grade 3 esophagitis with dysphagia (at 40 mg) and 1 grade 3 esophagitis with dehydration (at 80 mg). No DLTs were seen at veliparib dose of 120 mg twice daily, which was selected for the phase II part that enrolled 31 eligible patients. Progression-free survival (PFS) was not different between the 2 arms (P = .20). For the veliparib and placebo arms, response rates were 56% and 69%, PFS at 1 year 47% and 46%, and overall survival at 1 year 89% and 54%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Veliparib with CRT was feasible and well tolerated. Efficacy could not accurately be determined because of early study closure. Nonetheless, there is enthusiasm for the evaluation of PARP inhibitors in lung cancer as predictive biomarkers are being developed and combinations with immunotherapy are attractive.

Application of fracture body surface localization film combined with CT volume rendering in the minimally invasive rib fractures internal fixation

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the application value of the technique of fracture body surface localization film combined with CT volume rendering in the selection of minimally invasive incision for internal fixation of rib fractures.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Clinical data of 55 cases of patients who underwent internal fixation for rib fracture in our hospital from June 2019 to April 2020 were selected. The differences in the accuracy of preset incision, incision length, operation time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative wound drainage, and postoperative pain score between the group with fracture body surface localization film combined with CT volume rendering (n=32) and the group with traditional localization method (n=23).

RESULTS

Compared with traditional localization method, fracture body surface localization film combined with CT volume rendering could improve the accuracy of surgical incision, reduce the operation time, incision length, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative wound drainage, and postoperative pain score (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The application of fracture body surface localization film combined with CT volume rendering has obvious effects on the accurate selection of incision of rib fracture internal fixation, and it is an effective method that is worthy of promotion.

Phase 2 Study of Talazoparib in Patients With Homologous Recombination Repair-Deficient Squamous Cell Lung Cancer: Lung-MAP Substudy S1400G

PURPOSE

This signal finding study (S1400G) was designed to evaluate the efficacy of talazoparib in advanced stage squamous cell lung cancer harboring homologous recombination repair deficiency.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The full eligible population (FEP) had tumors with a deleterious mutation in any of the study-defined homologous recombination repair genes and without prior exposure to a PARP inhibitor. The primary analysis population (PAP) is a subset of FEP with alteration in ATM, ATR, BRCA1, BRCA2, or PALB2. Treatment consisted of talazoparib 1 mg daily continuously in 21-day cycles. A 2-stage design with exact 93% power and 1-sided 0.07 type I error required enrollment of 40 patients in the PAP in order to rule out an overall response rate (ORR) of 15% or less if the true ORR is ≥ 35%.

RESULTS

The study enrolled 47 patients in the FEP, of whom 24 were in the PAP. The median age for the FEP was 66.7 years; 83% were male and 85% white. ORR in the PAP was 4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0, 21) with disease control rate of 54% (95% CI, 33, 74). Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 2.4 months (95% CI, 1.5-2.8) and 5.2 months (95% CI, 4.0-10), respectively. In the FEP, ORR was 11% (95% CI, 3.6, 23), the disease control rate was 51% (95% CI, 36, 66), and the median duration of response was 1.8 months (95% CI, 1.3, 4.2). Median progression-free and overall survival were 2.5 months and 5.7 months, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

S1400G failed to show sufficient level of efficacy for single agent talazoparib in a biomarker defined subset of squamous lung cancer with homologous recombination repair deficiency.

[Study on the effect of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine in the treatment of brucellosis]

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine on brucellosis and its influence on humoral immune indexes. Methods: In October 2019, 169 cases of brucellosis hospitalized in Tianjin Second People's Hospital were selected as the research objects, and divided into two groups according to the random number method, 84 cases in the integrated treatment group and 85 cases in the western medicine treatment group. The western medicine treatment group was given antibiotics and other routine western medicine support treatment. The integrated treatment group was given traditional Chinese medicine for treatment based on syndrome differentiation, on the basis of western medicine treatment group, and 6 weeks was a course of treatment. The clinical efficacy and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) syndrome scores were compared between the two groups of patients after treatment, and the changes in humoral immune indexes, biochemical, and liver and kidney functions of the patients before and after treatment were analyzed. Results: The total effective rate was 100.00% (84/84) in the integrated treatment group and 97.65% (83/85) in the western medicine treatment group. The difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05) . The difference was not statistically significant (P>0.05) . There was no statistically significant difference in TCM syndrome scores between the two groups before treatment (P>0.05) , and the TCM syndrome scores after treatment were lower than before treatment (P<0.05) . Among them, the TCM syndrome scores of the integrated treatment group were lower than those of the western medicine treatment group (P<0.05) . There was no significant difference in IgG, IgA, IgM, C3, C4, miRNA-155, C-reactive protein (CRP) , erythrocyte sedimention rate (ESR) , alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) between the two groups before treatment (P>0.05) . After treatment, IgG, IgA, IgM, miRNA-155, CRP, ESR, ALT and AST were all lower than before treatment, and C3 and C4 complement levels were higher than before treatment (P<0.05) . Among them, IgG, IgA, IgM, miRNA-155, CRP, ESR, ALT and AST in the integrative treatment group were all lower than the western medicine treatment group, while the C3 and C4 complement levels were higher than the western medicine treatment group (P<0.05) . Conclusion: The treatment of brucellosis with integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine can significantly improve the TCM syndrome score and reduce the levels of CRP and ESR. The mechanism of action may be related to the regulation of the patient's humoral immunological indicators.

Abstract GS3-00: First results from a phase III randomized clinical trial of standard adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET) +/- chemotherapy (CT) in patients (pts) with 1-3 positive nodes, hormone receptor-positive (HR+) and HER2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer (BC) with recurrence score (RS) &lt; 25: SWOG S1007 (RxPonder)

Funding: Supported by National Cancer Institute grants U10CA180888, U10CA180819, U10CA180820, U10CA180821, U10CA180868, U10CA180863; and in part by Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Research Program, The Hope Foundation for Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and Genomic Health, Inc. Acknowledgement: The authors wish to thank Dr. Ana M. Gonzalez-Angulo, MD, for her invaluable contributions to the design and implementation of this study. Background: The clinical utility of the RS to determine CT benefit is well established in pts with HR+, HER2-, axillary lymph node (LN)-negative BC. Retrospective analyses from SWOG S8814 support the potential prognostic and predictive role of RS for CT benefit in postmenopausal pts with LN+ BC. SWOG S1007 is a prospective, randomized trial of endocrine therapy (ET) vs. chemoendocrine therapy (CET) in women with 1-3 +LN and a RS &lt; 25 (NCT01272037). Methods: Eligibility criteria included women &gt; 18 years of age with HR+, HER2- BC and 1-3 +LN and no contraindications to taxane and/or anthracycline based CT. Women with a RS &lt; 25 were randomized to receive ET or CET in 1:1 randomization using 3 stratification factors: (1) RS (0-13 vs.14-25); (2) menopausal status; and (3) axillary nodal dissection vs. sentinel node biopsy. The primary objective was to determine the effect of CT on invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) and whether the effect depended on the RS. The primary analysis was to test for a significant interaction of the treatment arm and continuous RS using a Cox regression model for IDFS, adjusting for treatment, RS, and menopausal status. A total of 832 IDFS events were expected for the final analysis. Secondary objectives included overall survival (OS). The protocol specified that interaction between treatment and the stratification variables was to be tested and, if significant, separate analyses performed by stratum. Annual interim analyses were planned starting at 24% of events. At the third interim analysis with 410 IDFS events, the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee recommended reporting results, with a decision by the NCI’s Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, the study sponsor. Results: Of the 9,383 women screened from 2/28/11-9/29/17, 5,083 pts (54.2%) were randomized. With a median follow-up of 5.1 years, 447 IDFS events have been observed. For the primary analysis, the interaction test for CT benefit and continuous RS was not statistically significant, p=0.30. In a model with CT, RS, and menopausal status (no interaction term), higher continuous RS was associated with worse IDFS [HR 1.06, 2-sided p&lt;0.001, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.04-1.07], and CT was associated with an improvement in IDFS (HR 0.81, p=0.026, 95% CI 0.67-0.98). In a pre-specified analysis, a significant interaction was identified between CT and menopausal status (p=0.004), necessitating separate analyses by menopausal status. In postmenopausal pts (N=3350, 67%), adjusting for continuous RS, the HR for CET vs. ET was not significant (HR=0.97, p=0.82, 95% CI 0.78-1.22; 5-year IDFS 91.6% vs. 91.9%) indicating no benefit from CT. In premenopausal pts (N=1665, 33%), the HR (0.54) was statistically significant (p=0.0004, 95% CI 0.38-0.76; 5-year IDFS 94.2% vs. 89.0%), indicating CT benefit. In premenopausal pts, ovarian suppression was performed in 15.9% vs. 3.7% (ET vs. CET), and 47.9% vs. 26.4% reported menstruation after 6 months of treatment. Although the number of events is limited, the HR for treatment adjusted by RS for OS in premenopausal pts was 0.47 (p=0.032, 95% CI 0.24-0.94). At this time, there is no differential effect with CT in regard to other stratification factors. Conclusions: There is a significant differential treatment effect of CT benefit based on RS for premenopausal vs. postmenopausal women requiring separate analyses. While only 54% of the protocol specified events are recorded and pts will be followed for 15 years, the current data show that adjuvant therapy can be de-escalated to ET alone in postmenopausal pts with a RS &lt; 25 and 1-3 +LN. However, there is a strong IDFS benefit for CET in premenopausal pts, with an early indication of an OS improvement.

Citation Format: Kevin Kalinsky, William E Barlow, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Julie R Gralow, Kathy S Albain, Daniel Hayes, Nancy Lin, Edith A Perez, Lori J Goldstein, Stephen Chia, Subkhbinder Dhesy-Thind, Priya Rastogi, Emilio Alba, Suzette Delaloge, Miguel Martín, Miguel Gil Gil, Claudia Arce-Salinas, Etienne Brain, In Hae Park, Jean-Yves Pierga, Ana Hernandez Lluch, Manuel Ramos Vasquez, Manuel Ruiz Borrego, Kyung Hae Jung, Jean-Marc Ferrero, Anne Schott, Steve Shak, Priyanka Sharma, Danika L Lew, Jieling Miao, Debu Tripathy, Gabriel Hortobagyi, Lajos Pusztai. First results from a phase III randomized clinical trial of standard adjuvant endocrine therapy (ET) +/- chemotherapy (CT) in patients (pts) with 1-3 positive nodes, hormone receptor-positive (HR+) and HER2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer (BC) with recurrence score (RS) &lt; 25: SWOG S1007 (RxPonder) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Virtual Symposium; 2020 Dec 8-11; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(4 Suppl):Abstract nr GS3-00.

Randomized Trial of Afatinib Plus Cetuximab Versus Afatinib Alone for First-Line Treatment of EGFR-Mutant Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: Final Results From SWOG S1403

PURPOSE

The irreversible ErbB family tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) afatinib plus the EGFR monoclonal antibody cetuximab was previously shown to overcome resistance to EGFR TKIs. We studied whether the combination of afatinib plus cetuximab compared with afatinib alone would improve progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with treatment-naive EGFR-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by preventing or delaying resistance.

METHODS

Patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC without prior treatment of advanced disease were enrolled in this phase II, multicenter trial and randomly assigned to receive afatinib 40 mg orally daily plus cetuximab 500 mg/m² intravenously every 2 weeks or afatinib alone. The primary end point was PFS.

RESULTS

Between March 25, 2015 and April 23, 2018, 174 patients were randomly assigned, and 168 (83 on afatinib + cetuximab and 85 on afatinib) were eligible. There was no improvement in PFS in patients receiving afatinib plus cetuximab compared with afatinib alone (hazard ratio [HR], 1.01; 95% CI, 0.72 to 1.43; P = .94; median, 11.9 months v 13.4 months). Similarly, there was no difference in response rate (67% v 74%; P = .38) or overall survival (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.50 to 1.36; P = .44). Toxicity was greater with the combination: grade ≥ 3 adverse events related to treatment occurred in 72% of patients receiving afatinib plus cetuximab compared with 40% of those receiving afatinib alone, most commonly rash and diarrhea. Dose reductions were more common in patients receiving the combination, and 30% of patients in this arm discontinued cetuximab due to toxicity. At interim analysis, there was insufficient evidence to support continued accrual, and the trial was closed.

CONCLUSIONS

The addition of cetuximab to afatinib did not improve outcomes in previously untreated EGFR-mutant NSCLC, despite recognized activity in the acquired resistance setting.

Intrinsic Mechanism for Anisotropic Magnetoresistance and Experimental Confirmation in Co_{x}Fe_{1-x} Single-Crystal Films

Using first-principles transport calculations, we predict that the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) of single-crystal Co_{x}Fe_{1-x} alloys is strongly dependent on the current orientation and alloy concentration. An intrinsic mechanism for AMR is found to arise from the band crossing due to magnetization-dependent symmetry protection. These special k points can be shifted towards or away from the Fermi energy by varying the alloy composition and hence the exchange splitting, thus allowing AMR tunability. The prediction is confirmed by delicate transport measurements, which further reveal a reciprocal relationship of the longitudinal and transverse resistivities along different crystal axes.

MiR-21 inhibitor improves locomotor function recovery by inhibiting IL-6R/JAK-STAT pathway-mediated inflammation after spinal cord injury in model of rat

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the function of miRNA-21 and interleukin-6 receptor/Janus Kinase-Signal transducer and activator of transcription (IL-6R/JAK-STAT) pathway in microglia on inflammatory responses after spinal cord injury (SCI).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study first detected respectively the protein level of inflammatory factor inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) by Western blotting after transfection of miR-21 or administration of miR-21 inhibitor in activated microglia cells of rat in vitro. The quantitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was utilized to detect the expression of IL-6R under two different interventions. Next, we established a model of spinal cord injury in rat and inspected miR-21 and IL-6R in SCI rat by qRT-PCR. In addition, the protein levels of iNOS and TNF-α in SCI rat were detected by Western blotting. MiR-21 inhibitor was injected into the injured area of SCI rat to delve into the function of miR-21 down-expression on iNOS and TNF-α expression by Western blot as well as the RNA levels of IL-6R, JAK and STAT3 by qRT-PCR. Furthermore, the SCI rat with movement and coordination of hindlimbs was observed by Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan locomotor rating scale (BBB scale) after miR-21 down-expression.

RESULTS

Compared with the microglia transfected with miR-21, the execution of inhibitor in microglia effectively relieved the expression of IL-6R and the breakout of iNOS and TNF-α. Meanwhile, the increase of miR-21 was significantly observed in SCI rat along with significant improvement of inflammatory response-related factors including iNOS and TNF-α. After that, we injected SCI rat with miR-21 inhibitor into the spinal cord injury area and found the inhibition of miR-21 decreased the protein levels of iNOS and TNF-α. Simultaneously, down-expression of miR-21 evidently declined the RNA levels of IL-6R, JAK, and STAT3 in SCI rat. Compared with the sham-operated rat, the movement and coordination of hindlimbs of the SCI group displayed dramatic dysfunction. However, miR-21 down-expression elevated the movement and coordination of hindlimbs of the SCI rat than those of the only injury group.

CONCLUSIONS

Inhibition of miR-21 can promote the recovery of spinal cord injury by down-regulating IL-6R/JAK-STAT signaling pathway and inhibiting inflammation.

Results of a phase II randomized trial of cisplatin +/- veliparib in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and/or germline BRCA-associated breast cancer (SWOG S1416)

1001

Background: PARP inhibitors(i) are effective in BRCA-mutation -associated metastatic breast cancer(MBC). However, there are no studies evaluating PARPi + platin chemotherapy in BRCA wild-type(wt) TNBC. Approximately 1/2 of BRCAwt TNBC demonstrate homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) resulting in a BRCA-like phenotype which might render them sensitive to PARPi. S1416 compared the efficacy of cisplatin plus PARPi veliparib (Vel) or placebo (P) in 3 groups of MBC: gBRCA+; BRCA-like; and non-BRCA-like. Methods: Patients (pts) with metastatic TNBC or g BRCA1/2-associated MBC, who had received < 1 line of prior therapy were treated with cisplatin (75mg/m2) plus Vel or P (300 mg po BID days 1-14), every 3 weeks. All pts underwent central gBRCA testing. A priori established multipronged biomarker panel was used to classify BRCAwt pts into BRCA-like and non-BRCA-like groups, and included myChoice HRD score, somatic BRCA1/2 mutations, BRCA1 methylation and non- BRCA1/2 HR germline mutations. Primary end-point was progression-free survival (PFS) in the three pre-defined groups; secondary end-points included objective response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS), toxicity. Results: 323/335 randomized pts were eligible for efficacy evaluation; 31% had received 1 prior chemotherapy for MBC. 248 pts were classified into the three groups: (1) 37 gBRCA+ (2) 101 BRCA-like; (3) 110 non- BRCA-like. Remaining 75 could not be classified due to missing biomarker information. In the gBRCA+ group (which reached 62% of its projected accrual), numerically better PFS was noted with Vel compared to P (HR=0.64; p=0.26) though this difference was not statistically significant. In BRCA-like group improved PFS was noted with Vel vs P (median PFS 5.7 vs 4.3 months HR=0.58; p=0.023, 1 years PFS 20% vs 7%). Numerically better OS (median OS 13.7 vs 12.1 months, HR=0.66; p=0.14) and ORR (45% vs 35%, p=0.38) were noted with Vel vs P in BRCA-like group. Non-BRCA-like group did not show benefit of veliparib for PFS (HR=0.85; p=0.43) neither did the unclassified group (HR=0.97). Grade 3/4 neutropenia (46% vs 19%) and anemia (23% vs 7%) occurred at higher frequency in Vel arm compared to P. Conclusions: Addition of Vel to cisplatin significantly improved PFS and showed a trend towards improved OS for BRCA-like advanced TNBC. Integral biomarkers used in this study identified a subgroup of BRCAwt TNBC who benefited from addition of PARPi to cisplatin; platinum plus PARPi combination should be explored further in BRCA-like TNBC. Clinical trial information: NCT02595905 .

SWOG S1400F (NCT03373760): A phase II study of durvalumab plus tremelimumab for previously treated patients with acquired resistance to PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor therapy and stage IV squamous cell lung cancer (Lung-MAP Sub-study)

9623

Background: The Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP) is designed to evaluate novel targeted therapies in patients with advanced squamous lung carcinoma. In the S1400F sub-study (non-match), we tested whether combined CTLA-4 and PD-1 inhibition with durvalumab plus tremelimumab (D+T) could overcome primary or acquired resistance to anti-PD-(L)1 therapy. Response, progression-free (PFS) and overall survival, and safety in the acquired resistance cohort are reported herein. Methods: Patients with previously treated squamous lung carcinoma, performance status (PS) 0-1, and adequate organ function that developed disease progression after ≥24 weeks of anti-PD-(L)1 monotherapy were eligible. Prior severe immune-related toxicities, intervening systemic therapy and combination chemo-immunotherapy were not permitted. Patients received D1500 mg + T75 mg IV q28 days for 4 cycles then D maintenance until disease progression. The primary endpoint was best objective response (RECIST 1.1). Interim analysis for futility was planned after 20 patients evaluable for response were enrolled. If no responses were observed, the cohort would stop enrolment. Results: 30 eligible patients were accrued to the acquired resistance cohort. Median age was 68 years, 60% of patients were male, 33% PS 0 and had received a median of 2 prior lines of therapy (maximum 4). Best response to prior anti-PD-(L)1 therapy was CR/PR/SD in 3/7/20 patients, with a median duration of anti-PD-(L)1 therapy of 8.6 months (5.2-30.4). No objective responses were seen with D+T; 47% had SD as best response. Median PFS was 2.0 months (95% CI 1.6-2.9) and survival 7.5 months (95% CI 5.3-8.7). Among the 14 patients with SD as best response, the median PFS calculated from first disease assessment is 2.8 months (95% CI: 1.4-3.9). Grade≥3 adverse events at least possibly related to protocol therapy were seen in 10/30 patients. These include 1 treatment-related death due to pneumonitis and 1 death not otherwise specified. Other adverse events include grade 3 confusion (1), dehydration (2), diarrhea (3), encephalopathy (1), weakness (1), hyperglycemia (1), hypoxia (1), lymphopenia (1), nausea, (1), neutropenia (1), thrombocytopenia (1), rash (1), vomiting (1), grade 4 dyspnea (1), leucopenia (1) and lymphopenia (1). Conclusions: D+T did not demonstrate activity in patients with acquired resistance to PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors and pretreated advanced squamous lung carcinoma. Clinical trial information: NCT03373760 .

Abstract P2-18-02: Fractures in women with breast cancer receiving high-dose bisphosphonates to prevent breast cancer metastases as part of the SWOG S0307 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00127205)

Background: Evidence from randomized trials, including a recent meta-analysis, suggests that adjuvant bisphosphonates can decrease recurrence and death in postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer. Bisphosphonates (BP) have been included as adjuvant therapy for postmenopausal breast cancer patients in multiple guidelines. SWOG S0307 compared efficacy of 3 BPs in early stage breast cancer, with no evidence of differences in efficacy on breast cancer outcomes by type of bisphosphonate, either in the overall analysis or subgroups. BPs are generally well tolerated, with a relatively low risk of serious adverse effects. Treatment for hormone sensitive breast cancer frequently includes treatment with an aromatase inhibitor (AI) or ovarian function suppression (OFS), both of which can accelerate bone loss, decrease bone density, and increase fractures. In addition to decreasing breast cancer events, BPs have been shown to decrease fractures in breast cancer patients receiving AIs or OFS. However, concerns have been raised about the risk of atypical femur fractures (AFF), a rare subtype of fragility fractures, which appear to increase with longer BP use (3-100/100,000 person-years) (Shane 2013). This substudy evaluated all fractures occurring in patients enrolled on S0307.

Methods: Patients with stage I-III breast cancer who were receiving adjuvant systemic therapy were randomized to receive 3 years of intravenous zoledronic acid (ZA) 4 mg IV given every 4 weeks for the first six months, and then every 3 months for the following 2.5 years, oral clodronate (CLOD) 1,600 mg/day orally, or oral ibandronate (IBAN) 50 mg/day orally. The primary endpoint was disease-free survival (DFS). On-treatment data collection forms specifically queried whether a fracture had occurred during the reporting period, the site of the fracture, and whether or not it was associated with trauma.

Results: A total of 6,097 patients were randomized to S0307, with a median age of 53 years. Rates for overall fractures at 7.7 years were higher for CLOD (9.3%) compared to IBAN (7.4%) and ZA (7.1%) (p=0.02), with differences being mostly in the spine. Traumatic fracture differences were not significant (CLOD 2.0%, ZA 1.9%, IBAN 1.7%; p=0.83). Fragility fracture rates were 5.2% with ZA, 7.2% with CLOD, and 5.6% with IBAN. Ankle fractures were the most common fracture site at 2.8% overall. Leg fractures, including femur fractures, were relatively low with a rate of 1.5% overall and not different between agents. AFF were not specifically queried/determined.

Conclusion: In S0307, BPs were used in higher doses than is recommended for treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. There is limited data comparing the long-term effects across BP drugs used at these higher doses on the skeleton. In S0307, an overall fracture rate of 8% was seen in early stage breast cancer patients despite receiving BPs along with conventional systemic therapy. Fracture rates were slightly higher for CLOD than ZA and IBAN for fragility and overall fractures, but similar for traumatic fractures. This may reflect the potency of CLOD or the dosing schedule. Rates of femur fractures were relatively low in all arms without evidence of excess femur fractures.

Funding: NIH/NCI CA180888, CA180819, CA180820, CA180821, CA180868, CA180863, CA196175; BCRF, Komen, Berlex (Bayer), Roche/Genentech, Novartis.

Citation Format: Rachel L (MD) Yung, Jieling Miao, Alexander HG Paterson, Mark Clemons, Elizabeth C Dees, James N Ingle, Carla I Falkson, William Barlow, Gabriel N Hortobagyi, Julie R Gralow. Fractures in women with breast cancer receiving high-dose bisphosphonates to prevent breast cancer metastases as part of the SWOG S0307 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00127205) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2019 Dec 10-14; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-18-02.

Feasibility of diffusion and probabilistic white matter analysis in patients implanted with a deep brain stimulator

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease (PD) is an established advanced therapy that produces therapeutic effects through high frequency stimulation. Although this therapeutic option leads to improved clinical outcomes, the mechanisms of the underlying efficacy of this treatment are not well understood. Therefore, investigation of DBS and its postoperative effects on brain architecture is of great interest. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is an advanced imaging technique, which has the ability to estimate the structure of white matter fibers; however, clinical application of DWI after DBS implantation is challenging due to the strong susceptibility artifacts caused by implanted devices. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of generating meaningful white matter reconstructions after DBS implantation; and to subsequently quantify the degree to which these tracts are affected by post-operative device-related artifacts. DWI was safely performed before and after implanting electrodes for DBS in 9 PD patients. Differences within each subject between pre- and post-implantation FA, MD, and RD values for 123 regions of interest (ROIs) were calculated. While differences were noted globally, they were larger in regions directly affected by the artifact. White matter tracts were generated from each ROI with probabilistic tractography, revealing significant differences in the reconstruction of several white matter structures after DBS. Tracts pertinent to PD, such as regions of the substantia nigra and nigrostriatal tracts, were largely unaffected. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility and clinical applicability of acquiring and processing DWI post-operatively in PD patients after DBS implantation. The presence of global differences provides an impetus for acquiring DWI shortly after implantation to establish a new baseline against which longitudinal changes in brain connectivity in DBS patients can be compared. Understanding that post-operative fiber tracking in patients is feasible on a clinically-relevant scale has significant implications for increasing our current understanding of the pathophysiology of movement disorders, and may provide insights into better defining the pathophysiology and therapeutic effects of DBS.

Low-loss and broadband silicon mode filter using cascaded plasmonic BSWGs for on-chip mode division multiplexing

A mode splitter is a key device to eliminate undesired modes but allow desired modes go through for an on-chip mode-division multiplexing (MDM) system. Here, we propose a silicon high-order mode (HOM) pass filter based on the cascaded plasmonic bridged subwavelength gratings (BSWGs). A metal bridge is introduced to generate a plasmonic hybrid mode, which has a significant influence on the fundamental mode but a neglected impact on the first-order mode. A silicon HOM-pass filter for handling the TM₀ and TM₁ modes is optimized by using the 3D full-vectorial finite difference time domain (3D-FV-FDTD) method. The numerically simulated results indicate that the optimized mode filter is with a low loss of 0.63 dB and a mode extinction ratio (ER) of 26.4 dB based on 4-cascaded plasmonic BSWGs. The 3 dB bandwidth is over 493 nm from 1222 nm to 1715 nm. With the mode ER > 15.0 dB, a broad bandwidth of 150 nm can be achieved. The performance of the proposed mode filter is tolerant to the width error of ± 50 nm. The proposed silicon HOM-pass filter can be utilized in on-chip MDM systems for mode controlling.

1176Hepatocyte growth factor has prognostic utility in light chain and transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis

Background

With the advent of multiple novel therapeutics for light chain (AL) and transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis, there is a critical need for validated prognostic markers in cardiac amyloidosis. A discriminatory serum biomarker may improve prognostic and staging systems in AL and ATTR cardiac amyloidosis.

Purpose

Our objective was to test the hypothesis that hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is associated with clinical outcomes in patients with AL and ATTR cardiac amyloidosis.

Methods

102 patients with AL or ATTR and suspected cardiac involvement were prospectively enrolled. HGF, NT-proBNP, troponin-T, and eGFR were measured upon study enrollment. Cardiac involvement was established by 1) endomyocardial biopsy, or 2) non-cardiac biopsy with concentric hypertrophy on echocardiography, low voltage or pseudo-infarction on ECG, elevated NT-proBNP or troponin-T, or characteristic delayed myocardial enhancement on cardiac MRI. Patients were followed for the occurrence of all-cause mortality, cardiac transplantation, and left-ventricular assist device implantation.

Results

Of the total amyloidosis cohort, 72 had cardiac involvement while 30 had non-cardiac disease. HGF, NT-proBNP, and troponin-T levels were significantly higher in patients with cardiac involvement than in patients with non-cardiac disease (p<0.05 for all comparisons). Over a median follow-up period of 1.9 years there were 20 deaths, 1 cardiac transplant, and 1 left-ventricular assist device implant, all in patients with cardiac involvement. Patient stratification by cut-off levels of NT-proBNP (332 pg/mL), troponin-T (35 ng/L), and eGFR (45 mL/min/1.73m2) used in published staging models for AL and ATTR cardiac amyloidosis showed no association between abnormal biomarker level and adverse clinical outcome (p>0.05). In contrast, stratification by HGF level of 310 pg/mL (identified by the Youden Index for cardiac involvement by AL and ATTR in our cohort) showed that elevated HGF was associated with worse clinical outcomes (p=0.0211). Furthermore, event-free survival was worse in patients with elevated HGF, with survival curves diverging soon after enrollment (p=0.0730).

HGF is Prognostic in Cardiac Amyloidosis

Conclusions

Elevated HGF is associated with worse clinical outcomes in patients with AL and ATTR cardiac amyloidosis and has potential for clinical utility.

A comparison of nurses' and physicians' perception of cancer treatment burden based on reported adverse events

BACKGROUND

Cancer treatments are associated with a multitude of adverse events (AEs). While both nurses and physicians are involved in patient care delivery and AE assessment, very few studies have examined the differences between nurses' and physicians' reporting and perception of AEs. An approach was recently proposed to assess treatment burden based on reported AEs from the physician's perspective. In this paper, we use this approach to evaluate nurses' perception of burden, and compare nurses' and physicians' assessment of the overall and relative burden of AEs.

METHODS

AE records for 334 cancer patients from a randomized clinical trial conducted by the SWOG Cancer Research Network were evaluated by 14 nurses at Columbia University Medical Center. Two nurses were randomly selected to assign a burden score from 0 to 10 based on their impression of the global burden of the captured AEs. These nurses did not interact directly with the patients. Scores were compared to previously obtained physicians scores using paired T-test and Kappa statistic. Severity scores for individual AEs were obtained using mixed-effects models with nurses assessments, and were qualitatively compared to physicians'.

RESULTS

Given the same AEs, nurses' and physicians' perception of the burden of AEs differed. While nurses generally perceived the overall burden of AEs to be only slightly worse compared to physicians (mean average VAS score of 5.44 versus 5.14), there was poor agreement in the perception of AEs that were in mild to severe range. The percent agreement for a moderate or worse AE was 64% with a Kappa of 0.34. Nurses also assigned higher severity scores to symptomatic AEs compared to physicians (p < 0.05), such as gastrointestinal (4.77 versus 4.14), hemorrhage (5.07 versus 4.14), and pain (5.17 versus 4.14).

CONCLUSIONS

These differences in the perception of burden of AEs can lead to different treatment decisions and symptom management strategies. Thus, having provider consistency, training, or a collaborative approach in follow-up care between nurses and physicians is important to ensure continuity in care delivery. Moreover, estimating overall burden from both physicians' and nurses' perspective, and comparing them may be useful for deciding when collaborations are warranted.

Phase II Trial of Cediranib in Combination With Cisplatin and Pemetrexed in Chemotherapy-Naïve Patients With Unresectable Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (SWOG S0905)

PURPOSE

Antiangiogenic agents combined with chemotherapy have efficacy in the treatment of unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Cediranib (AstraZeneca, Cheshire, United Kingdom), a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor and platelet-derived growth factor receptor inhibitor, demonstrated therapeutic potential in a prior phase I trial. We evaluated a phase II trial for efficacy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

SWOG S0905 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01064648) randomly assigned cediranib or placebo with platinum-pemetrexed for six cycles followed by maintenance cediranib or placebo in unresectable chemotherapy-naïve patients with MPM of any histologic subtype. Primary end point was Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1 progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary end points included overall survival, PFS by modified RECIST v1.1, response (modified RECIST and RECIST v1.1), disease control, and safety/toxicity. The trial was designed to detect a difference in RECIST v1.1 PFS at the one-sided 0.1 level using a stratified log-rank test.

RESULTS

Ninety-two eligible patients were enrolled (75% epithelioid and 25% biphasic or sarcomatoid). The cediranib arm had more grade 3 and 4 diarrhea, dehydration, hypertension, and weight loss. Cediranib improved PFS by RECIST v1.1 (hazard ratio, 0.71; 80% CI, 0.54 to 0.95; P = .062; 7.2 months v 5.6 months) and increased modified RECIST v1.1 response (50% v 20%; P = .006). By modified RECIST v1.1, cediranib numerically increased PFS (hazard ratio, 0.77; 80% CI, 0.59 to 1.02; P = .12; median, 6.9 months v 5.6 months). No significant difference in overall survival was observed.

CONCLUSION

The addition of cediranib to platinum-pemetrexed improved PFS by RECIST v1.1 and response rate by modified RECIST in patients with unresectable MPM. Whereas adding antiangiogenics to chemotherapy has been a successful strategy for some patients, the cediranib toxicity profile and small incremental survival benefit precludes additional development in MPM.

Circulating Tumor Cell Clusters in Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer: a SWOG S0500 Translational Medicine Study

PURPOSE

Metastasis requires malignant cell circulation from the primary to a distant tissue. Elevated levels of circulating tumor cells (CTC) portend a poor prognosis in breast and other cancers. Recent studies have suggested that CTC clusters may be a factor in the metastatic process. We conducted a prospective retrospective study of the SWOG0500 clinical trial to test whether CTC clusters are associated with poorer prognosis.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

CTC CellSearch galleries from SWOG0500 trial were reread using prespecified criteria for CTC clusters, doublets, and enumeration. Survival analysis methods include Kaplan-Meier plots and log-rank tests.

RESULTS

Patients were classified into three prognostic subgroups based on baseline CTC/7.5 mL whole blood (WB): Arm A: <5CTC; Arm B/C: ≥5CTC and then B (<5CTC) and C (≥5CTC)/7.5 mL WB at first follow-up. At baseline, 19% of patients had CTC doublets or clusters, which were more likely in Arm B/C versus Arm A (38% vs. 1.4%; P < 0.0001). Furthermore, doublets or clusters were significantly more common in patients who were ultimately assigned to Arm C versus B (54% vs. 25%; P < 0.0001). In Arm C, doublets and clusters were associated with worse overall survival than only doublets, clusters, or no doublets nor clusters at baseline (P = 0.008) and first follow-up (P = 0.010). When compared with enumeration alone, doublets, clusters, or both were not prognostic in patients who had 5-19 or ≥20 CTC/7.5 mL WB.

CONCLUSIONS

In patients with metastatic breast cancer starting first-line chemotherapy, mortality is independent of the presence of CTC clusters, but rather depends on the number of CTC/7.5 mL WB.

SWOG S1400D (NCT02965378), a Phase II Study of the Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitor AZD4547 in Previously Treated Patients With Fibroblast Growth Factor Pathway-Activated Stage IV Squamous Cell Lung Cancer (Lung-MAP Substudy)

BACKGROUND

S1400D is a biomarker-driven therapeutic substudy of Lung-MAP evaluating the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptor (FGFR) inhibitor AZD4547 in patients with FGF pathway-activated squamous cell. This is the first phase II trial to evaluate AZD4547 as a targeted approach in patients with previously treated FGFR-altered squamous cell NSCLC and is the first demonstration of successful implementation and conduct of a national umbrella protocol in this disease setting.

METHODS

Eligible patients had tumoral FGFR alteration or mutation and had progressive disease after at least one line of platinum-based systemic therapy. Patients received AZD4547 80 mg twice daily orally. Primary endpoint was response by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1; secondary endpoints included progression-free survival, overall survival, and duration of response (DoR).

RESULTS

Ninety-two patients were assigned to S1400D, 43 were enrolled, and 27 AZD4547-treated patients were evaluable. Evaluable patients were predominantly white (n = 24, 89%), median age 66 years (range, 49-88 years old), and female (n = 7, 26%). FGFR alterations included FGFR1 amplification (n = 23; 85%), FGFR3 amplification (n = 2; 7%), FGFR3 S249C (n = 2; 7%), and FGFR3 fusion (n = 1; 4%). Treatment with ADZ4547 was well tolerated; grade 3 adverse events occurred in six patients, and one patient had grade 4 sepsis. Of 27 response-evaluable patients, 1 patient with FGFR3 S249C had unconfirmed partial response with a DoR of 1.5 months and 1 patient with FGFR1 amplification had a confirmed partial response with a DoR of 2.9 months (7%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0%-17%). Median progression-free survival and overall survival for the AZD4547-treated cohort were 2.7 months (95% CI: 1.4- 4.5 months) and 7.5 months (95% CI: 3.7-9.3 months).

CONCLUSIONS

AZD4547 had an acceptable safety profile but minimal activity in this predominantly FGFR1/FGFR3-amplified cohort. Evaluation of other targeted agents in Lung-MAP is ongoing.

SWOG S1400B (NCT02785913), a Phase II Study of GDC-0032 (Taselisib) for Previously Treated PI3K-Positive Patients with Stage IV Squamous Cell Lung Cancer (Lung-MAP Sub-Study)

BACKGROUND

S1400B is a biomarker-driven Lung-MAP substudy evaluating the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor taselisib (GDC-0032) in patients with PI3K pathway-activated squamous NSCLC (sqNSCLC).

METHODS

Eligible patients had tumoral phosphatidylinositol-4,5-biphosphate 3 kinase catalytic subunit alpha (PIK3CA) alterations by next-generation sequencing and disease progression after at least one line of platinum-based therapy. Patients received 4-mg taselisib orally daily. The primary analysis population (PAP) was a subset of patients having substitution mutations believed to be associated with clinical benefit of PI3K inhibitors. Primary endpoint was response by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1; secondary endpoints included progression-free survival, overall survival and duration of response.

RESULTS

Twenty-six patients treated with taselisib comprised the full evaluable population (FEP); 21 patients comprised the PAP. Median age for patients in the FEP was 68 years (range: 53-83 years), 19 were male (73%). The study was closed for futility at interim analysis with one responder in the PAP (5% response rate, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0%-24%). Two possibly treatment-related deaths (one respiratory failure, one cardiac arrest) were observed; one patient had grades 4 and 11 had grade 3 adverse events. Median progression-free survival and overall survival in the PAP group were 2.9 months (95% CI: 1.8-4.0 mo) and 5.9 months (95% CI: 4.2-7.8 mo), respectively. These numbers were nearly the same in the FEP.

CONCLUSIONS

Study S1400B evaluating taselisib in PIK3CA-altered sqNSCLC failed to meet its primary endpoint and was closed after an interim futility analysis. The trial is unique in cataloguing the diversity of PIK3CA mutations in sqNSCLC.

A phase II study of talazoparib (BMN 673) in patients with homologous recombination repair deficiency (HRRD) positive stage IV squamous cell lung cancer (Lung-MAP Sub-Study, S1400G)

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Background: This signal finding study was designed to evaluate the clinical efficacy of a PARP inhibitor, talazoparib, in advanced stage squamous cell lung cancer harboring HRRD. Methods: Eligible patients (pts) identified through the parent S1400 screening platform were required to have a deleterious mutation in any of the study-defined HRR genes [ATM, ATR, BARD1, BRCA1, BRCA2, BRIP1, CHEK1, CHEK2, FANCA, FANCC, FANCD2, FANCF, FANCM, NBN (NBS1), PALB2, RAD51, RAD51B (RAD51L1), RAD54L, RPA1) defined as the full eligible population (FEP). The primary analysis population (PAP) is defined by a subset of genes [ATM, ATR, BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2]. Pts have platinum sensitive disease (at least stable disease on platinum doublet) and progressed on most recent line of systemic therapy, a Zubrod performance status of 0-1, adequate organ function, and not have been previously exposed to a PARP inhibitor and not be on systemic therapy within 21 days of registration. A 2-stage design with exact 93% power and 1-sided 0.07 level type I error required enrollment of 40 patients in the PAP in order to rule out an ORR of 15% or less if the true ORR is 35% or greater. At least 3 or more responses were needed in the first 20 pts in order to proceed to full enrolment of 40 pts in the PAP. The total accrual goal was 60 FEP assuming 67% of patients would be in the PAP. Results: The study enrolled 51 patients of whom 47 are eligible and analyzable for response (FEP) with 24 in the PAP. In the FEP, median age 66.7 yrs; M/F 39/8 (83/17%); 85% White and 15% Black; 77% of the pts received at least 1 prior line of treatment for stage IV. The study was closed for futility with only one response in the PAP. In the PAP (n = 24, median age 68 yrs), ORR was 4% (95%CI: 0, 21) and DCR was 54% (95%CI: 33, 74); median PFS of 2.4 months (95%CI: 1.5-2.8) and median OS was 5.2 months (95%CI: 3.8-10, 7). There were five responders in the FEP with ORR of 11%; DCR of 53% and median DoR was 1.8 months (95% CI: 1.3, 4.2); median PFS was 2.5 months (95%CI: 1.6-3.0) and median OS was 5.7 months (95% CI: 4.5-8.7). The most frequent grade ≥3 adverse event in the FEP were: Anemia (14.9%), thrombocytopenia (12.8%); lymphopenia (8.5%) and nausea (6.4%). Conclusions: S1400G failed to show sufficient level of efficacy for talazoparib in a biomarker defined subset of squamous lung cancer with HRRD. There were no new safety signals and hematologic toxicities were the most frequent adverse events. Clinical trial information: NCT02154490.