Efficacy and toxicity of sorafenib in patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and neck : a case series of five patients

Introduction: Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the head and neck is a rare malignancy of the salivary glands that accounts for approximately 10% of salivary gland carcinoma. Despite aggressive local therapy, local recurrence and distant metastases occur frequently. Response rates (RR) to potential curative and palliative chemotherapy are limited, so new strategies are needed. Case reports: We describe five case reports of patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic ACC of the head and neck who have been treated with sorafenib, a multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (mTKI). Results: In this case series, we found that three out of five patients treated with sorafenib survived, respectively, 16, 35 and 35 months. Two patients showed a partial response (PR) and one patient had a prolonged stable disease (SD) for almost three years. Grade 3 adverse events (AE) occur under sorafenib so adequate toxicity management is essential. This retrospective case series hints towards the possibility of clinical benefit for treating ACC patients with sorafenib. Efficacy of sorafenib should be studied in a prospective-randomized clinical trial which is a challenging task due to the rarity of the disease

Adequate iron chelation therapy for at least six months improves survival in transfusion-dependent patients wih lower risk myelodysplastic syndromes

Background: Most patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) require transfusions at the risk of ironoverload and associated organ damage, and death. Emerging evidence indicates that iron chelation ther-apy (ICT) could reduce mortality and improve survival in transfusion-dependent MDS patients, especiallythose classified as International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) Low or Intermediate-1 (Low/Int-1).Methods: Follow-up of a retrospective study. Sample included 127 Low/Int-1 MDS patients from 28 centersin Belgium. Statistical analysis stratified by duration (≥6 versus <6 months) and quality of chelation (adequate versus weak). Results: Crude chelation rate was 63% but 88% among patients with serum ferritin ≥1000 g/L. Of the 80chelated patients, 70% were chelated adequately mainly with deferasirox (26%) or deferasirox followingdeferoxamine (39%). Mortality was 70% among non-chelated, 40% among chelated, 32% among patientschelated ≥6 m, and 30% among patients chelated adequately; with a trend toward reduced cardiacmortality in chelated patients. Overall, median overall survival (OS) was 10.2 years for chelated and 3.1years for non-chelated patients (p < 0.001). For patients chelated ≥6 m or patients classified as adequatelychelated, median OS was 10.5 years. Mortality increased as a function of average monthly transfusionintensity (HR = 1.08, p = 0.04) but was lower in patients receiving adequate chelation or chelation ≥6 m(HR = 0.24, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Six or more months of adequate ICT is associated with markedly better overall survival. Thissuggests a possible survival benefit of ICT in transfusion-dependent patients with lower-risk MDS

Overall survival in the OlympiA phase III trial of adjuvant olaparib in patients with germline pathogenic variants in BRCA1/2 and high-risk, early breast cancer

Background: The randomized, double-blind OlympiA trial compared 1 year of the oral poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibitor, olaparib, to matching placebo as adjuvant therapy for patients with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in germline BRCA1 or BRCA2 (gBRCA1/2pv) and high-risk, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative, early breast cancer (EBC). The first pre-specified interim analysis (IA) previously demonstrated statistically significant improvement in invasive disease-free survival (IDFS) and distant disease-free survival (DDFS). The olaparib group had fewer deaths than the placebo group, but the difference did not reach statistical significance for overall survival (OS). We now report the pre-specified second IA of OS with updates of IDFS, DDFS, and safety. Patients and methods: One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six patients were randomly assigned to olaparib or placebo following (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy if indicated. Endocrine therapy was given concurrently with study medication for hormone receptor-positive cancers. Statistical significance for OS at this IA required P < 0.015. Results: With a median follow-up of 3.5 years, the second IA of OS demonstrated significant improvement in the olaparib group relative to the placebo group [hazard ratio 0.68; 98.5% confidence interval (CI) 0.47-0.97; P = 0.009]. Four-year OS was 89.8% in the olaparib group and 86.4% in the placebo group (Δ 3.4%, 95% CI -0.1% to 6.8%). Four-year IDFS for the olaparib group versus placebo group was 82.7% versus 75.4% (Δ 7.3%, 95% CI 3.0% to 11.5%) and 4-year DDFS was 86.5% versus 79.1% (Δ 7.4%, 95% CI 3.6% to 11.3%), respectively. Subset analyses for OS, IDFS, and DDFS demonstrated benefit across major subgroups. No new safety signals were identified including no new cases of acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. Conclusion: With 3.5 years of median follow-up, OlympiA demonstrates statistically significant improvement in OS with adjuvant olaparib compared with placebo for gBRCA1/2pv-associated EBC and maintained improvements in the previously reported, statistically significant endpoints of IDFS and DDFS with no new safety signals