Off-target effects and clinical outcome in metastatic colorectal cancer patients receiving regorafenib: The TRIBUTE analysis

Regorafenib is an orally administered multikinase inhibitor indicated for the treatment of heavily pretreated metastatic colorectal cancer patients with good performance status, albeit less than 50% treated patients achieve disease stabilisation or better at the first radiological evaluation. In addition to that a particularly broad spectrum of toxicities (experienced as G3 or more NCI CTCAE graded by 50% of patients treated) have led to reconsider its widespread use in the majority of patients. We retrospectively collected data about the magnitude of off-target effects experienced during the first 8-weeks of regorafenib monotherapy and analysed their correlation with overall survival, progression free survival and disease control rate. Our findings suggest that skin rash (Exp (B): 0.52, p = 0.0133) or hypothyroidism (Exp (B): 0.11, p = 0.0349) were significantly correlated with improved overall survival at multivariate regression analysis. It was also demonstrated a statistically significant role of diarrhea as predictor of improved survival but its independent prognostic role was lost at multivariate analysis (Exp (B): 0.63, p = 0.162). This is the first analysis showing a potential correlation between the onset of these forms of side effects and regorafenib efficacy, however sample size limitations and the retrospective nature of our analysis prevent us from drawing definitive conclusion

Panitumumab: the evidence for its use in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer

Panitumumab is the first fully human monoclonal antibody to Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) to enter clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumors. The anti-tumor activity of panitumumab has been tested in vitro and in vivo, and inhibition of tumor growth has been observed in numerous cancer models, particularly lung, kidney and colorectal (CRC). Preclinical and clinical studies have established a role for panitumumab in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) refractory to multiple chemotherapeutic regimens. Based on these encouraging findings, panitumumab was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of patients with epidermal growth factor receptor-expressing mCRC refractory to fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin-, and/or irinotecan-containing chemotherapeutic regimens. The improvement in progression free survival (PFS) and response rate (RR) produced by panitumumab monotherapy was significantly greater in patients with non mutated (wild-type) K-RAS than in those with mutant K-RAS. Therefore implementing routine K-RAS screening and limiting the use of EGFR inhibitors to patients with wild-type K-RAS appears the better strategy for select only the patients who could benefit from the therapy with panitumumab and also may have the potential for cost savings. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the patient-related, disease-related and economic-related evidence for the use of panitumumab in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer in clinical practice

Emerging role of tumor-associated macrophages as therapeutic targets in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) derived from peripheral blood monocytes recruited into the renal cell carcinoma (RCC) microenvironment. In response to inflammatory stimuli, macrophages undergo M1 (classical) or M2 (alternative) activation. M1 cells produce high levels of inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-12, IL-23 and IL-6, while M2 cells produce anti-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-10, thus contributing to RCC-related immune dysfunction. The presence of extensive TAM infiltration in RCC microenvironment contributes to cancer progression and metastasis by stimulating angiogenesis, tumor growth, and cellular migration and invasion. Moreover, TAMs are involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition of RCC cancer cells and in the development of tumor resistance to targeted agents. Interestingly, macrophage autophagy seems to play an important role in RCC. Based on this scenario, TAMs represent a promising and effective target for cancer therapy in RCC. Several strategies have been proposed to suppress TAM recruitment, to deplete their number, to switch M2 TAMs into antitumor M1 phenotype and to inhibit TAM-associated molecules. In this review, we summarize current data on the essential role of TAMs in RCC angiogenesis, invasion, impaired anti-tumor immune response and development of drug resistance, thus describing the emerging TAM-centered therapies for RCC patients

Role of maspin in cancer.

Maspin (mammary serine protease inhibitor), is a member of the serine protease inhibitor/non-inhibitor superfamily. Its expression is down-regulated in breast, prostate, gastric and melanoma cancers but over-expressed in pancreatic, gallbladder, colorectal, and thyroid cancers suggesting that maspin may play different activities in different cell types. However, maspin expression seems to be correlated with better prognosis in prostate, bladder, lung, gastric, colorectal, head and neck, thyroid and melanoma cancer. In breast and ovarian cancer maspin significance is associated with its subcellular localization: nucleus maspin expression correlates with a good prognosis, whilst in pancreatic cancer it predicts a poor prognosis. Since tumor metastasis requires the detachment and invasion of tumor cells through the basement membrane and stroma, a selectively increased adhesion by the presence of maspin may contribute to the inhibition of tumor metastasis. Furthermore the different position of maspin inside the cell or its epigenetic modifications may explain the different behavior of the expression of maspin between tumors. The expression of maspin might be useful as a prognostic and possibly predictive factor for patients with particular types of cancer and data can guide physicians in selecting therapy. Its expression in circulating tumor cells especially in breast cancer, could be also useful in clinical practice along with other factors, such as age, comorbidities, blood examinations in order to select the best therapy to be carried out. Focusing on the malignancies in which maspin showed a positive prognostic value, therapeutic approaches studied so far aimed to re-activate a dormant tumor suppressor gene by designed transcription factors, to hit the system that inhibits the expression of maspin, to identify natural substances that can determine the activation and the expression of maspin or possible "molecules binds" to introduce maspin in cancer cell and gene therapy capable of up-regulating the maspin in an attempt to reduce primarily the risk of metastasis.Further studies in these directions are necessary to better define the therapeutic implication of maspin

Novel small molecule EGFR inhibitors as candidate drugs in non-small cell lung cancer.

In the last decade, better understanding of the role of epidermal growth factor receptor in the pathogenesis and progression of non-small cell lung cancer has led to a revolution in the work-up of these neoplasms. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as erlotinib and gefitinib, have been approved for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, demonstrating an improvement in progression-free and overall survival, particularly in patients harboring activating EGFR mutations. Nevertheless, despite initial responses and long-lasting remissions, resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors invariably develops, most commonly due to the emergence of secondary T790M mutations or to the amplification of mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (c-Met), which inevitably leads to treatment failure. Several clinical studies are ongoing (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov), aimed to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of combined approaches and to develop novel irreversible or multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors and mutant-selective inhibitors to overcome such resistance. This review is an overview of ongoing Phase I, II, and III trials of novel small molecule epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors and combinations in non-small cell lung cancer patients

Risk of recurrence and conditional survival in complete responders treated with TKIs plus or less locoregional therapies for metastatic renal cell carcinoma

PURPOSE: We retrospectively analyzed the risk of recurrence and conditional Disease-Free Survival (cDFS) in 63 patients with complete remission during treatment with tirosin kinase inhibitor (TKI), alone or with local treatment in metastatic renal cell carcinoma. RESULTS: 37% patients achieve CR with TKI alone, while 63% with additional loco-regional treatments. 49% patients recurred after CR, with a median Disease free survival of 28.2 months. Patients treated with multimodal approaches present lower rate of recurrence (40% vs 61%) and longer Disease free survival compared to patient treated with TKI alone (16.5 vs 41.9 months, p=0.039).Furthermore the rate of recurrence was higher in patients with brain (88%), pancreatic (71%) and bone metastasis (50%). Patients who continued TKI therapy after complete response had a longer disease free survival than patients who stopped therapy, although the difference was not significant (42.1 vs 25.1 months, p=0.254). 2y-cDFS was better in patients treated with multimodal treatment and who continued TKIs than the other patient arms.NS: The prognostic value of CR depends on the site where was obtained and how was obtained (with or without locoregional treatment). Cessation of TKI should be carefully considered in complete responder patients

Prognostic impact of the cumulative dose and dose intensity of everolimus in patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors

The aim of this work is to assess if cumulative dose (CD) and dose intensity (DI) of everolimus may affect survival of advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) patients. One hundred and sixteen patients (62 males and 54 females, median age 55\ua0years) with advanced PNETs were treated with everolimus for 653\ua0months. According to a Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis, patients were stratified into two groups, with CD\ua0 64\ua03000\ua0mg (Group A; n\ua0=\ua068) and CD\ua0>\ua03000\ua0mg (Group B; n\ua0=\ua048). The response rate and toxicity were comparable in the two groups. However, patients in group A experienced more dose modifications than patients in group B. Median OS was 24\ua0months in Group A while in Group B it was not reached (HR: 26.9; 95% CI: 11.0-76.7; P\ua0<\ua00.0001). Patients who maintained a DI higher than 9\ua0mg/day experienced a significantly longer OS and experienced a trend to higher response rate. Overall, our study results showed that both CD and DI of everolimus play a prognostic role for patients with advanced PNETs treated with everolimus. This should prompt efforts to continue everolimus administration in responsive patients up to at least 3000\ua0mg despite delays or temporary interruptions

Final results from the PERUSE study of first-line pertuzumab plus trastuzumab plus a taxane for HER2-positive locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer, with a multivariable approach to guide prognostication

Background: The phase III CLinical Evaluation Of Pertuzumab And TRAstuzumab (CLEOPATRA) trial established the combination of pertuzumab, trastuzumab and docetaxel as standard first-line therapy for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive locally recurrent/metastatic breast cancer (LR/mBC). The multicentre single-arm PERtUzumab global SafEty (PERUSE) study assessed the safety and efficacy of pertuzumab and trastuzumab combined with investigator-selected taxane in this setting. Patients and methods: Eligible patients with inoperable HER2-positive LR/mBC and no prior systemic therapy for LR/mBC (except endocrine therapy) received docetaxel, paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel with trastuzumab and pertuzumab until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. The primary endpoint was safety. Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Prespecified subgroup analyses included subgroups according to taxane, hormone receptor (HR) status and prior trastuzumab. Exploratory univariable analyses identified potential prognostic factors; those that remained significant in multivariable analysis were used to analyse PFS and OS in subgroups with all, some or none of these factors. Results: Of 1436 treated patients, 588 (41%) initially received paclitaxel and 918 (64%) had HR-positive disease. The most common grade 653 adverse events were neutropenia (10%, mainly with docetaxel) and diarrhoea (8%). At the final analysis (median follow-up: 5.7 years), median PFS was 20.7 [95% confidence interval (CI) 18.9-23.1] months overall and was similar irrespective of HR status or taxane. Median OS was 65.3 (95% CI 60.9-70.9) months overall. OS was similar regardless of taxane backbone but was more favourable in patients with HR-positive than HR-negative LR/mBC. In exploratory analyses, trastuzumab-pretreated patients with visceral disease had the shortest median PFS (13.1 months) and OS (46.3 months). Conclusions: Mature results from PERUSE show a safety and efficacy profile consistent with results from CLEOPATRA and median OS exceeding 5 years. Results suggest that paclitaxel is a valid alternative to docetaxel as backbone chemotherapy. Exploratory analyses suggest risk factors that could guide future trial design