A novel BRCA1 splicing variant detected in an early onset triple-negative breast cancer patient additionally carrying a pathogenic variant in ATM: A case report

The widespread adoption of gene panel testing for cancer predisposition is leading to the identification of an increasing number of individuals with clinically relevant allelic variants in two or more genes. The potential combined effect of these variants on cancer risks is mostly unknown, posing a serious problem for genetic counseling in these individuals and their relatives, in whom the variants may segregate singly or in combination. We report a female patient who developed triple-negative high grade carcinoma in the right breast at the age of 36 years. The patient underwent bilateral mastectomy followed by combined immunotherapy and chemotherapy (IMpassion030 clinical trial). Two years later she developed a skin recurrence on the right anterior chest wall. Despite intensive treatment, the patient died at 40-year-old due to disease progression. Gene panel testing of patient’s DNA revealed the presence of a protein truncating variant in ATM [c.1672G>T; p.(Gly558Ter)] and of a not previously reported variant in the BRCA1 exon 22 donor splice site [c.5406+6T>C], whose clinical significance was unknown. The analysis of patient’s RNA revealed the up-regulation of two alternative BRCA1 mRNA isoforms derived from skipping of exon 22 and of exons 22-23. The corresponding predicted protein products, p.(Asp1778GlyfsTer27) and p.(Asp1778_His1822del) are both expected to affect the BRCA1 C Terminus (BRCT) domain. The two variants were observed to co-occur also in the proband’s brother who, in addition, was heterozygous for a common variant (c.4837A>G) mapped to BRCA1 exon 16. This allowed to ascertain, by transcript-specific amplification, the lack of functional mRNA isoforms expressed by the c.5406+6T>C allele and provided evidence to classify the BRCA1 variant as pathogenic, according to the guidelines of the Evidence-based Network for the Interpretation of Germline Mutant Alleles (ENIGMA) consortium. To our knowledge, excluding two cases detected following the screening of population specific recurrent variants, only one ATM/BRCA1 double heterozygote has been reported in the literature, being the case here described the one with the youngest age at cancer onset. The systematic collection of cases with pathogenic variants in more than one cancer predisposition gene is needed to verify if they deserve ad hoc counseling and clinical management

Aromatase Inhibitors: A New Reality for the Adjuvant Endocrine Treatment of Early-Stage Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women

Tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), has been used for many decades as the "gold standard" adjuvant treatment for patients with hormonereceptor- positive early breast cancer. This drug, when administered for 5 years, reduces the risk for recurrence, contralateral breast cancer (BC) and death. These benefits have been observed up to 15 years and are independent of the patient's age, menopausal status, nodal status, hormonal receptor status, and the use of adjuvant chemotherapy. The optimal duration of tamoxifen in the adjuvant setting has not been established yet, but it has been demonstrated that 5 years are better than shorter treatment while it is still unclear if a prolongation of the treatment for more than 5 years is worthwhile. Tamoxifen is usually well-tolerated, but important adverse events such as endometrial cancer, cerebrovascular accidents and thromboembolic events can occur, and the increase in absolute risk of these adverse events appears to be age-correlated. In the last decade, third generation aromatase inhibitors (AIs), either steroidal (exemestane) or non-steroidal (anastrozole, letrozole), have shown to be an effective alternative to tamoxifen in postmenopausal patients with BC regardless of its stage. These agents act by blocking the aromatase enzyme which converts androgens into estrogens. Trials comparing AIs to tamoxifen in postmenopausal women with metastatic disease have shown a superiority of AIs over tamoxifen and a more favourable safety profile. In the adjuvant setting, AIs have been shown to be more effective than tamoxifen given for 5 years either in the up-front administration or after 2-3 years (early switch). Two randomised trials which have evaluated the two strategies of AIs administration have shown superimposable results in terms of efficacy with AIs given up-front or in sequence to tamoxifen. AIs seem to give benefits in comparison to placebo if given after 5 years (late switch) of tamoxifen. At the moment, therefore, the treatment decision should be based on individual factors such as risk of relapse, absolute benefit, and comorbidities.SCOPUS: ch.binfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Nivolumab plus ipilimumab in lung cancer with a high tumor mutational burden

Background Nivolumab plus ipilimumab showed promising efficacy for the treatment of non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in a phase 1 trial, and tumor mutational burden has emerged as a potential biomarker of benefit. In this part of an open-label, multipart, phase 3 trial, we examined progression-free survival with nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus chemotherapy among patients with a high tumor mutational burden (≥10 mutations per megabase). Methods We enrolled patients with stage IV or recurrent NSCLC that was not previously treated with chemotherapy. Those with a level of tumor programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression of at least 1% were randomly assigned, in a 1:1:1 ratio, to receive nivolumab plus ipilimumab, nivolumab monotherapy, or chemotherapy; those with a tumor PD-L1 expression level of less than 1% were randomly assigned, in a 1:1:1 ratio, to receive nivolumab plus ipilimumab, nivolumab plus chemotherapy, or chemotherapy. Tumor mutational burden was determined by the FoundationOne CDx assay. Results Progression-free survival among patients with a high tumor mutational burden was significantly longer with nivolumab plus ipilimumab than with chemotherapy. The 1-year progression-free survival rate was 42.6% with nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus 13.2% with chemotherapy, and the median progression-free survival was 7.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.5 to 13.2) versus 5.5 months (95% CI, 4.4 to 5.8) (hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.58; 97.5% CI, 0.41 to 0.81; PConclusions Progression-free survival was significantly longer with first-line nivolumab plus ipilimumab than with chemotherapy among patients with NSCLC and a high tumor mutational burden, irrespective of PD-L1 expression level. The results validate the benefit of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in NSCLC and the role of tumor mutational burden as a biomarker for patient selection. (Funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ono Pharmaceutical; CheckMate 227 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02477826.

Table_1_A novel BRCA1 splicing variant detected in an early onset triple-negative breast cancer patient additionally carrying a pathogenic variant in ATM: A case report.docx

The widespread adoption of gene panel testing for cancer predisposition is leading to the identification of an increasing number of individuals with clinically relevant allelic variants in two or more genes. The potential combined effect of these variants on cancer risks is mostly unknown, posing a serious problem for genetic counseling in these individuals and their relatives, in whom the variants may segregate singly or in combination. We report a female patient who developed triple-negative high grade carcinoma in the right breast at the age of 36 years. The patient underwent bilateral mastectomy followed by combined immunotherapy and chemotherapy (IMpassion030 clinical trial). Two years later she developed a skin recurrence on the right anterior chest wall. Despite intensive treatment, the patient died at 40-year-old due to disease progression. Gene panel testing of patient’s DNA revealed the presence of a protein truncating variant in ATM [c.1672G>T; p.(Gly558Ter)] and of a not previously reported variant in the BRCA1 exon 22 donor splice site [c.5406+6T>C], whose clinical significance was unknown. The analysis of patient’s RNA revealed the up-regulation of two alternative BRCA1 mRNA isoforms derived from skipping of exon 22 and of exons 22-23. The corresponding predicted protein products, p.(Asp1778GlyfsTer27) and p.(Asp1778_His1822del) are both expected to affect the BRCA1 C Terminus (BRCT) domain. The two variants were observed to co-occur also in the proband’s brother who, in addition, was heterozygous for a common variant (c.4837A>G) mapped to BRCA1 exon 16. This allowed to ascertain, by transcript-specific amplification, the lack of functional mRNA isoforms expressed by the c.5406+6T>C allele and provided evidence to classify the BRCA1 variant as pathogenic, according to the guidelines of the Evidence-based Network for the Interpretation of Germline Mutant Alleles (ENIGMA) consortium. To our knowledge, excluding two cases detected following the screening of population specific recurrent variants, only one ATM/BRCA1 double heterozygote has been reported in the literature, being the case here described the one with the youngest age at cancer onset. The systematic collection of cases with pathogenic variants in more than one cancer predisposition gene is needed to verify if they deserve ad hoc counseling and clinical management.</p

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Association among gene polymorphisms and risk of toxicity of any grade (grade1–2–3-4 vs 0). (DOC 83 kb

Additional file 2: Table S2. of Influence of chemotherapeutic drug-related gene polymorphisms on toxicity and survival of early breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy

Association among gene polymorphisms and clinical-pathological features. (DOC 99 kb

Nivolumab (nivo) + ipilimumab (ipi) vs platinum-doublet chemotherapy (PT-DC) as first-line (1L) treatment (tx) for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): initial results from CheckMate 227

Nivo + ipi showed promising clinical activity and tolerability as 1L tx for advanced NSCLC in a phase 1 study. Tumor mutation burden (TMB) has emerged as an important biomarker for benefit of immune checkpoint blockade in lung cancer. CheckMate 227 (NCT02477826) is a large, open-label, phase 3 study of 1L nivo + ipi, nivo, or nivo + PT-DC vs PT-DC in advanced NSCLC. A preplanned co-primary endpoint was based on TMB to evaluate progression-free survival (PFS) of nivo + ipi vs PT-DC. This is the first phase 3 study to evaluate TMB as a predictive biomarker for immunotherapy as a co-primary endpoint. We report initial results from Part 1 of the study