Andrea Botticelli

The importance of lymph node retrieval and lymph node ratio following preoperative chemoradiation of rectal cancer

Preoperative chemoradiation (CRT) for rectal cancer decreases the number of examined lymph nodes (NELN) found in the resected specimen. However, the prognostic role of lymph node evaluation including overall numbers and the lymph node ratio (LNR) in patients having preoperative CRT have not yet been defined. The study has assessed the influence of CRT on the NELN and on lymph node number and LNR on the survival of patients with rectal cancer.

An Italian cost-effectiveness analysis of paclitaxel albumin (nab-paclitaxel) versus conventional paclitaxel for metastatic breast cancer patients: the COSTANza study

Purpose Paclitaxel albumin (nab-paclitaxel) is a nanoparticle albumin-bound paclitaxel formulation aimed at increasing therapeutic index in metastatic breast cancer. When compared to conventional paclitaxel, nab-paclitaxel has a reported longer time to progression, higher response, lower incidence of neutropenia, no need for premedication, shorter time of administration, and in pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients, extended overall survival. This study investigates the cost-effectiveness of nab-paclitaxel versus conventional paclitaxel for pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients in Italy. Materials and methods A Markov model with progression-free, progressed, and dead states was developed to estimate costs, outcomes, and quality adjusted life years over 5 years from the Italian National Health Service viewpoint. Patients were assumed to receive nab-paclitaxel 260 mg/m2 three times weekly or conventional paclitaxel 175 mg/m2 three times weekly. Data on health care resource consumption was collected from a convenience sample of five Italian centers. Resources were valued at Euro (€) 2011. Published utility weights were applied to health states to estimate the impact of response, disease progression, and adverse events on quality adjusted life years. Three sensitivity analyses tested the robustness of the base case incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). Results and conclusion Compared to conventional paclitaxel, nab-paclitaxel gains an extra 0.165 quality adjusted life years (0.265 life years saved) and incurs additional costs of €2506 per patient treated. This translates to an ICER of €15,189 (95% confidence interval: €11,891–€28,415). One-way sensitivity analysis underscores that ICER for nab-paclitaxel remains stable despite varying taxanes cost. Threshold analysis shows that ICER for nab-paclitaxel exceeds €40,000 only if cost per mg of conventional paclitaxel is set to zero. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis highlights that nab-paclitaxel has a 0.99 probability to be cost-effective for a threshold value of €40,000 and is the optimal alternative from a threshold value of €16,316 onwards. Based on these findings, nab-paclitaxel can be considered highly cost-effective when compared to the acceptability range for ICER proposed by the Italian Health Economics Association (€25,000–€40,000).

Cross-talk between microbiota and immune fitness to steer and control response to anti PD-1/PDL-1 treatment.

Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs) are improving the survival of cancer patients, however only the 20-30% of treated patients present clinical benefits. Toxicity represents the major cause of reduced dosage, delayed drug administration and therapy discontinuation. Hence in the context of multiple treatment possibilities, the identification of predictive markers of response and toxicity is a challenging approach for drug selection in order to obtain the best clinical benefit while minimizing the side effects. The loss of the protective function of intestinal barriers that interacts with the environment measured as increased intestinal permeability and the changes occurring in the microbiota composition have been proposed as a mechanism potentially explaining the pathogenesis of immune related toxicity. In this review we discuss the new perspectives on the involvement of PD-1 and PDL-1 in the cross talk between gut microbiota and immune fitness and how gut microbiota impacts on the efficacy of anti-PD-1 and anti-PDL-1 treatments in cancer.

Pre-treatment evaluation of 5-fluorouracil degradation rate: association of poor and ultra-rapid metabolism with severe toxicity in a colorectal cancer patients cohort

Despite the wide use of 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy, development of severe toxicity that follow the treatment is not a rare event. The efforts to establish pretreatment tools for toxicity prediction, led to the development of various pharmacogenetic and biochemical assays, mainly targeted to assess the activity level of dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), the main metabolizing enzyme for 5-fluorouracil. Using peripheral blood mononuclear cells, we developed a biochemical assay, that is not limited to the evaluation of DPD activity, but determines the net result of all the enzymatic transformation of 5FU, in terms of the amount of drug consumed by the cells in a time unit. This parameter, named 5-fluorauracil degradation rate, presents a normal distribution inside the population and highlight the presence of an ultra-rapid metabolizers class of subjects, besides the expected poor metabolizers class. Here we will show that, in a colorectal cancer patient cohort, both poor and ultra-rapid metabolizers have significantly increased the risk of developing severe toxicity (grade3–4). Patient stratification depending on the individual 5-fluorouracil degradation rate allows to identify a 10% of the overall population at high risk of developing severe toxicity, compared to the 1.3% (as assessed in the Italian population) identified by the most commonly employed pharmacogenetic test, including the DPD polymorphism IVS14+1G>A.

The TYMS-TSER polymorphism is associated with toxicity of low-dose capecitabine in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer

Low doses of drugs delivered at close, regular intervals are increasingly being used to manage patients with different neoplasms. Despite the good tolerability, treatment-related adverse events still occur following metronomic protocols. The aim of this study was to retrospectively investigate whether polymorphisms of different genes involved in fluoropyrimidine metabolism and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) degradation rate were associated with the outcome of a low-dose capecitabine schedule. Genotyping of DPYD IVS14+1 G>A, MTHFR C677T, and A1298C single-nucleotide polymorphisms was performed by pyrosequencing technology. A PCR technique was used for genotyping TYMS-TSER. Using peripheral blood mononuclear cells, we also evaluated the 5-FU degradation rate, which determines the net result of all the enzymatic transformation of 5-FU, in terms of the amount of drug consumed by the cells in a time unit. The association of these variables with clinical outcome was evaluated using multivariate logistic regression analysis. Eighty-four patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancer, who had been treated with a low-dose fluoropyrimidine schedule, as a rescue therapy were included in the study. The TSER 2R/2R genotype was significantly associated with both hematologic (odds ratio=7.90, P=0.002) and gastrointestinal toxicity (odds ratio=3.24, P=0.009). Because DPYD IVS14 G>A single-nucleotide polymorphism was not observed in the cohort, it was excluded from the statistical analysis. No significant association was detected between clinical outcome and both MTHFR polymorphisms and the 5-FU degradation rate. In the advanced setting of cancer care, high attention should be paid toward avoiding toxicity and worsening of quality of life. Although metronomic chemotherapy is generally well tolerated, treatment toxicity nonetheless does occur. Our data suggest a possible role of the TSER 2R/2R polymorphism as a predictive marker of toxicity in patients treated with low-dose capecitabine.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer: A multicentric retrospective observational study in real-life setting

We aimed to assess the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in a cohort of 213 triple‐negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients treated in real‐world practice at eight Italian cancer centers. We computed descriptive statistics for all the variable of interest. Factors testing significant in univariate analysis were included in multivariate models. Survival data were compared by Kaplan–Meier curves and log‐rank test. The median follow‐up was 45 months. We observed 60 (28.2%) pathological complete response (pCR). The sequential anthracyclines‐taxanes‐based regimens produced the highest rate of pCR (42.6%), followed by concomitant anthracycline‐taxane (24.2%), and other regimens (15.6%) (p = 0.008). When analyzing the role of baseline Ki‐67, a 50% cut‐off was the optimal threshold value for pCR prediction (p = 0.0005). The 5‐year disease‐free survival (DFS) was 57.3% and the 5‐year overall survival (OS) was 70.8%. In patients not achieving pCR, the optimal Ki‐67 variation between biopsy and surgical specimen with prognostic relevance on long‐term outcomes was 13% (p = 0.04). Patients with a Ki‐67 reduction (rKi‐67)<13% had worse outcomes compared to those who experienced pCR or a rKi‐67≥13%. The number of NACT cycles also affected long‐term outcomes (5‐year DFS 65.7% vs 51.6% in patients having received >6 cycles compared with their counterparts, p = 0.02). In multivariate analysis, node status, grading, and bio‐pathological treatment response (including pCR and rKi‐67) impacted DFS and OS. Our results confirmed the advantage conferred by more than 6 cycles of a sequential antracycline‐taxane‐based NACT. Higher baseline Ki‐67 values shows greater predictive significance on pathogical response, while the rKi‐67 plays a prognostic role on long‐term outcomes.

A retrospective multicentric observational study of trastuzumab emtansine in HER2 positive metastatic breast cancer: a real-world experience

We addressed trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) efficacy in HER2+ metastatic breast cancer patients treated in real-world practice, and its activity in pertuzumab-pretreated patients. We conducted a retrospective, observational study involving 23 cancer centres, and 250 patients. Survival data were analyzed by Kaplan Meier curves and log rank test. Factors testing significant in univariate analysis were tested in multivariate models. Median follow-up was 15 months and median T-DM1 treatment-length 4 months. Response rate was 41.6%, clinical benefit 60.9%. Median progression-free and median overall survival were 6 and 20 months, respectively. Overall, no differences emerged by pertuzumab pretreatment, with median progression-free and median overall survival of 4 and 17 months in pertuzumab-pretreated (p=0.13), and 6 and 22 months in pertuzumab-naïve patients (p=0.27). Patients who received second-line T-DM1 had median progression-free and median overall survival of 3 and 12 months (p=0.0001) if pertuzumab-pretreated, and 8 and 26 months if pertuzumab-naïve (p=0.06). In contrast, in third-line and beyond, median progression-free and median overall survival were 16 and 18 months in pertuzumab-pretreated (p=0.05) and 6 and 17 months in pertuzumab-naïve patients (p=0.30). In multivariate analysis, lower ECOG performance status was associated with progression-free survival benefit (p<0.0001), while overall survival was positively affected by lower ECOG PS (p<0.0001), absence of brain metastases (p 0.05), and clinical benefit (p<0.0001). Our results are comparable with those from randomized trials. Further studies are warranted to confirm and interpret our data on apparently lower T-DM1 efficacy when given as second-line treatment after pertuzumab, and on the optimal sequence order.We addressed trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) efficacy in HER2+ metastatic breast cancer patients treated in real-world practice, and its activity in pertuzumab-pretreated patients. We conducted a retrospective, observational study involving 23 cancer centres, and 250 patients. Survival data were analyzed by Kaplan Meier curves and log rank test. Factors testing significant in univariate analysis were tested in multivariate models. Median follow-up was 15 months and median T-DM1 treatment-length 4 months. Response rate was 41.6%, clinical benefit 60.9%. Median progression-free and median overall survival were 6 and 20 months, respectively. Overall, no differences emerged by pertuzumab pretreatment, with median progression-free and median overall survival of 4 and 17 months in pertuzumab-pretreated (p=0.13), and 6 and 22 months in pertuzumab-naïve patients (p=0.27). Patients who received second-line T-DM1 had median progression-free and median overall survival of 3 and 12 months (p=0.0001) if pertuzumab-pretreated, and 8 and 26 months if pertuzumab-naïve (p=0.06). In contrast, in third-line and beyond, median progression-free and median overall survival were 16 and 18 months in pertuzumab-pretreated (p=0.05) and 6 and 17 months in pertuzumab-naïve patients (p=0.30). In multivariate analysis, lower ECOG performance status was associated with progression-free survival benefit (p<0.0001), while overall survival was positively affected by lower ECOG PS (p<0.0001), absence of brain metastases (p 0.05), and clinical benefit (p<0.0001). Our results are comparable with those from randomized trials. Further studies are warranted to confirm and interpret our data on apparently lower T-DM1 efficacy when given as second-line treatment after pertuzumab, and on the optimal sequence order.

The sexist behaviour of immune checkpoint inhibitors in cancer therapy

Background Immune checkpoint inhibitors, targeting the molecules CTLA-4, PD-1 and PD-L1, showed efficacy against several type of cancers and are currently used in clinical practice. An important biological variable that influences innate and adaptive immunity is the sex, acting through genetic, hormonal and environmental factors. The overall differences between sexes could be crucial to evaluate the response to ICIs. Materials and methods We performed a meta-analysis of Phase II-III Clinical Trials published up to June 2017 in which anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 were studied. We extracted the OS and PFS HR differentiated by sex from subgroups analysis of each trial. We analyzed the three classes of drugs separately. Results We selected 36 Phase II-III Clinical Trials, 9 of which reported results for OS and 6 for PFS. We analyzed 2 Clinical Trials for OS with anti-CTLA-4, including 1178 patients, observing a benefit for males vs females (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.55-0.77 vs HR 0.79, 95% CI 0.65-0.96, p 0.078). Not statistically significant results were observed with anti-PD-1 neither for OS (males vs females: HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.64-0.83 vs HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.70-0.94, p 0.285) neither for PFS (males vs females: HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.52-0.82 vs HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.66-1.09, p 0.158). We cannot perform a meta-analysis for anti-PD-L1 due to the lack of data. Conclusions Different mechanisms could be involved in sex differences with regard to immunotherapy. These differences could be relevant to identify immunological targets in order to draw studies exploring novel combinations of immunotherapy agents.

CYP19A1 Genetic Polymorphisms rs4646 and Osteoporosis in Patients Treated with Aromatase Inhibitor-Based Adjuvant Therapy.

OBJECTIVE Third-generation aromatase inhibitors (AI) are potent suppressors of aromatase activity. The aim of this study was to measure the incidence of adverse effects in breast cancer patients treated with AI-based adjuvant therapy and the relationship with the CYP19A1 genotypes. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty-five postmenopausal breast cancer patients (46-85 yrs) in AI adjuvant treatment were genotyped for the rs4646 polymorphisms of CYP19A1 gene and three variations were identified. Toxicities were registered at each follow-up medical examination, and classified in accord with the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. RESULTS Twenty-four (53.3%) patients presented the GG genotype; 19 (42.2%) the GT, and 2 (4.4%) the TT. The AI treatment was Anastrazole for 35 patients (77.8%) and Letrozole for the others (n=10; 22.2%). Osteoporosis was significantly associated with the GG genotype (p=0.001). Treatment discontinuation (TD) was observed in 6 cases (13.3%). The only parameter able to predict TD was the appearance of severe arthralgia/myalgia (Odds Ratio, OR=23.75; p=0.009), when adjusted for age and AI treatment. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that CYP19A1 polymorphic variants may influence susceptibility to develop AI-related side effects. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm the role of the aromatase gene (CYP19A1) polymorphisms in predicting adverse effects to AI-based therapy.

A nomogram to predict 5-fluorouracil toxicity: when pharmacogenomics meets the patient

Fluoropyrimidines combined with other agents are commonly used for gastrointestinal cancer treatment. Considering that severe toxicities occur in 30% of patients, we aimed to structure a nomogram to predict toxicity, based on metabolic parameter and patients’ characteristics. We retrospectively enrolled patients affected by gastrointestinal tract cancers. Pretreatment 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) degradation rate and DPYD, TSER, MTHFR A1298T, and C677T gene polymorphisms were characterized. Data on toxicities were collected according to CTCAE v3.0. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to structure a nomogram. 642 patients were enrolled (384 men; 258 female; median age: 67 years, range: 27–87): 449 (69.9%) patients were affected by colorectal cancer; 118 (18.4%) by gastroesophageal cancer; 66 (10.3%) by pancreatic cancer; and nine (1.4%) by other cancers. Grade 3–4 toxicities were observed in 118 (18.4%) patients and were most frequently observed in patients with altered 5-FU degradation rate (43.5 and 26.7% of the patients in the poor metabolizer and in the ultrarapid metabolizer group respectively, vs. 17% in the normal metabolizer group) and in DPYD heterozygous mutated patients (83.3% of the patients). Age, DPYD status, the number of drugs administered, and 5-FU degradation rate value were associated to severe toxicities. On the basis of these findings, we structured a nomogram to assess a score to predict the risk of developing severe toxicity. Compared with the available pharmacogenetic tests, this approach can be applied to the whole population, predicting the risk for severe toxicity, with an easy, low-cost, and not invasive technique.