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

A comprehensive evaluation for aspiration after esophagectomy reduces the incidence of postoperative pneumonia

ObjectiveThis study assesses the effect of using a comprehensive swallowing evaluation before starting oral feedings on aspiration detection and pneumonia occurrence after esophagectomy.MethodsThe records of all patients undergoing esophagectomy between January 1996 and June 2009 were reviewed. Multivariable logistic regression analysis assessed the effect of preoperative and operative variables on the incidence of aspiration and pneumonia. Separate analyses were performed on patients before (early era, 1996–2002) and after (later era, 2003–2009) a rigorous swallowing evaluation was used routinely before starting oral feedings.ResultsDuring the study period, 799 patients (379 from the early era and 420 from the later era) underwent esophagectomy; 30-day mortality was 3.5% (28 patients). Cervical anastomoses were performed in 76% of patients in the later era compared with 40% of patients in the early era. Overall, 96 (12%) patients had evidence of aspiration postoperatively, and the pneumonia incidence was 14% (113 patients). Age (odds ratio, 1.05 per year; P < .0001) and later era (odds ratio, 1.90; P = .0001) predicted aspiration in all patients in a multivariable model. In the early era, cervical anastomosis and aspiration independently predicted pneumonia. With a comprehensive swallowing evaluation in the later era, the detected incidence of aspiration increased (16% vs 7%, P < .0001), whereas the incidence of pneumonia decreased (11% vs 18%, P = .004) compared with the early era, such that neither anastomotic location nor aspiration predicted pneumonia in the later era.ConclusionsEsophagectomy is often associated with occult aspiration. A comprehensive swallowing evaluation for aspiration before initiating oral feedings significantly decreases the occurrence of pneumonia