31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Cancer Screening Recommendations and Clinical Management of Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancer Syndromes in Childhood

Item does not contain fulltextHereditary gastrointestinal cancer predisposition syndromes have been well characterized, but management strategies and surveillance remain a major challenge, especially in childhood. In October 2016, the American Association for Cancer Research organized the AACR Childhood Cancer Predisposition Workshop in which international experts in care of children with a hereditary risk of cancer met to define surveillance strategies and management of children with cancer predisposition syndromes. In this article, we review the current literature in polyposis syndromes that can be diagnosed in childhood and may be associated with an increased incidence of gastrointestinal neoplasms and other cancer types. These disorders include adenomatous polyposis syndromes (APC and MUTYH), juvenile polyposis coli (BMPR1A and SMAD4), Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome (STK11/LKB1), and PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome (PHTS; PTEN), which can present with a more limited juvenile polyposis phenotype. Herein, the panel of experts provides recommendations for clinical diagnosis, approach to genetic testing, and focus on cancer surveillance recommendations when appropriate during the pediatric period. We also review current controversies on genetic evaluation of patients with hepatoblastoma and indications for surveillance for this tumor. Childhood cancer risks and surveillance associated with disorders involving the mismatch repair genes, including Lynch syndrome and constitutional mismatch repair deficiency (CMMRD), are discussed elsewhere in this series. Clin Cancer Res; 23(13); e107-e14. (c)2017 AACRSee all articles in the online-only CCR Pediatric Oncology Series