Emerging technologies for the genomic analysis of cancer

Cancer-cell survival, growth and metastatic potential are directed by dominant molecular signalling patterns, the components of which have been shown to be qualitatively different from their normal tissue counterparts. These signalling patterns can now be further distinguished by quantitative assessment, either at a single point in time or at intervals. This commentary will focus on the emergence of proteomic analysis which, in conjunction with the genomic expression data, is an evolving technology that one day will enable personalized therapeutic strategies that are differentially targeted against cancer

Phase II assessment of talabostat and cisplatin in second-line stage IV melanoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Metastatic melanoma is an incurable disease with an average survival of less than one year. Talabostat is a novel dipeptidyl peptidase inhibitor with immunostimulatory properties.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This phase II, open label, single arm study was conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of 75–100 mg/m²cisplatin combined with 300–400 mcg talabostat bid for 6, 21-day cycles. The primary endpoint was overall response. The rate of complete responses, duration of overall objective response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival were the secondary endpoints.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Six objective partial responses were recorded in the 74 patients (8.1%) in the intention-to-treat population. Five of these responses involved the 40 evaluable patients (12.5%). Thirty-one percent of patients reported SAEs to the combination of talabostat and cisplatin.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Acceptable tolerability was observed in the intention-to-treat population and antitumor activity was observed in 12.5% of evaluable patients, which is not greater than historical expectation with cisplatin alone.</p

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

Use of Proteomics Analysis for Molecular Precision Approaches in Cancer Therapy

The rapidly expanding data sets derived from genomic and transcriptomic analyses have allowed greater understanding of structural and functional network patterns within the genome resulting in a realignment of thinking within a systems biologic framework of cancer. However, insofar as spatially and temporally dynamic differential gene expression at the protein level is the mediate effector of cellular behavior and, in view of extensive post translational modification (PTM), the need for sensitive, quantitative, and high throughput proteomic analytic techniques has emerged. To circumvent the problems of tissue sample heterogeneity, laser capture microdissection (LCM) allows for the acquisition of homogeneous cell populations. Using different fluorescent dyes to label protein samples prior to gel electrophoresis, 2-D DIGE (two-dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis) can, with reasonable sensitivity, process three protein samples on the same gel allowing for intragel relative quantification. MudPIT (multidimensional protein identification technology) is a non-gel approach exploiting the unique physical properties of charge and hydrophobicity which allows the separation of peptide mixtures as well as direct MS (mass spectrometry) and database searching. The introduction of iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification) achieves labeling of all peptides by employing an 8-plex set of amine reactive tags to derivatize peptides at the N-terminus and lysine side chains allowing for absolute quantification and assessment of PTM. These and other new laboratory technologies, along with improved bioinformatics tools, have started to make significant contributions in cancer diagnostics and treatments

Results of the X-PECT study: A phase III randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study of perifosine plus capecitabine (P-CAP) versus placebo plus capecitabine (CAP) in patients (pts) with refractory metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

LBA3501 The full, final text of this abstract will be available at abstract.asco.org at 12:01 AM (EDT) on Sunday, June 3, 2012, and in the Annual Meeting Proceedings online supplement to the June 20, 2012, issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology. Onsite at the Meeting, this abstract will be printed in the Sunday edition of ASCO Daily News