Project description:With the advent of checkpoint blockade therapies, immunotherapy is now a critical modality for the treatment of some cancers. While some patients respond well to checkpoint blockade, many do not, necessitating the need for other forms of therapy. Vaccination against malignancy has been a long sought goal of science. For cancers holding a microbial etiology, vaccination has been highly effective in reducing the incidence of disease. However, vaccination against established malignancy has been largely disappointing. In this review, we discuss efforts to develop diverse vaccine modalities in the treatment of cancer with a particular focus on melanoma. Recent work has suggested that vaccines targeting patient-specific tumor mutations may be more relevant than those targeting unmutated proteins. Nonetheless, tumor cells utilize many strategies to evade host immunity. It is likely that the full potential of cancer vaccination will only be realized when vaccines are combined with other therapies targeting tumor immunoevasive mechanisms. By modulating inhibitory molecules, regulatory immune cells, and the metabolic resources and demands of T cells, scientists and clinicians can ensure vaccine-stimulated T cells are fully functional within the immunosuppressive tumor microevironment.
Project description:BackgroundThe prevalence and cancer-specific death rate of lung cancer (LC) have risen in recent decades. A universally applicable prognostic signature for both adenocarcinoma LC (LUAD) and squamous cell carcinoma LC (LUSC) is still lacking.MethodsA total of 453 patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-LUAD cohort and 452 patients from TCGA-LUSC cohort were enrolled, and a prognostic model was constructed using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analysis based on the consensus prognostic genes in both cohorts. The newly defined pan-lung cancer risk count (PLCRC) of each patient was calculated via the summation formula.ResultsA total of 23 genes were selected for the calculation of the PLCRC. The PLCRC showed a moderate prognostic value in the entire (p < 0.001, HR: 2.75, AUC: 0.643), LUAD (p < 0.001, HR: 2.51, AUC: 0.636) and LUSC (p < 0.001, HR: 2.89, AUC: 0.656) cohorts. The PLCRC was an independent prognostic factor after adjusting the clinical features. The PLCRC was also effective in nine external validation cohorts and in patients with different clinical features. Activation of extracellular matrix pathways and infiltration of immunocytes promoted the tumorigenesis and development of both LUAD and LUSC. We generated a universally applicable prognostic signature, the PLCRC, which could dichotomize patients with significantly different clinical outcomes and guide the clinical treatment of LC patients. Chemotherapy is more suitable for patients with a low PLCRC, while anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 immunotherapy is more suitable for patients with a high PLCRC.ConclusionWe established and validated a newly defined prognostic signature, the PLCRC, for both LUAD and LUSC patients and provided clinical strategies for patients from different risk subgroups.
Project description:BackgroundLocally-advanced lung squamous cell carcinoma represents a special subset that is challenging to resect completely with surgery alone. Immunotherapy has achieved great success in treating late-stage lung cancer. However, whether neoadjuvant immunotherapy can facilitate resection of initially locally-advanced and surgically-difficult locally-advanced lung squamous cell carcinoma remains to be investigated.MethodsWe retrospectively collected clinical records of locally-advanced lung squamous cell carcinoma patients who received neoadjuvant immunotherapy followed by surgery between 2018 and 2020 at a large academic thoracic cancer center.ResultsA total of 23 patients (22 males, 1 female) with locally-advanced locally-advanced lung squamous cell carcinoma were included, initially clinically staged at IIIA (16, 69.6%), IIIB (n=4, 17.4%), IIB (n=2, 8.7%) and IIIC (n=1, 4.3%). The median interval between final treatment to surgery was 36 days (range, 25-93 days), without treatment-related delay in surgery. The neoadjuvant treatment resulted in a high rate of radical resection (n=20, 87.0%). The final histopathological examination demonstrated 6 (26.1%) cases with pathological complete response and 8 (34.8%) with pathological major response. Comparing with the computed tomography scan-based response, we observed a very low consistency (weighted kappa =0.122, P=0.315) between the computed tomography scan-based and final pathological evaluation. The median follow-up time was 510 days (range, 217-920 days). At the end of the follow-up, 1 patient died.ConclusionsOur findings showed the clinical promise of neoadjuvant immunotherapy plus surgery for locally-advanced lung squamous cell carcinoma. Computed tomography scan displays a poor role in assessing the resectability after neoadjuvant immunotherapy.
Project description:Programmed death 1/programmed death ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitor has become one of the important treatment options for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, only a small subset of patients with NSCLC can currently receive single-agent PD-1 inhibitors as first-line therapy, for the limitations of population selection exclude most patients from immuno-oncology (IO) monotherapy. In order to expand the candidate population for IO first-line treatment and make more newly diagnosed patients benefit from IO treatment, a series of studies are focusing on the combination of IO and other drugs in NSCLC. We reviewed the latest clinical data of IO first-line combination therapy in recent years, suggesting that on the basis of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, combined with other IO, chemotherapy, anti-angiogenic drugs, targeted therapy or radiotherapy may produce synergistic anti-tumor effects. It is expected to benefit more newly diagnosed patients.?.
Project description:Immune checkpoint inhibitors enhance the activation and antitumor activity of the immune system, resulting in durable response rates in a select group of patients. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4) inhibitors target the inhibitory interaction between CTLA4 and CD80 or CD86. Programmed death 1 (PD1) inhibitors target the interaction between PD1 receptors on T-cells and PD-ligand 1 (PD-L1) and PD-ligand 2, blocking the inhibitory signaling and resulting in activation of T-cell effector function. These therapeutic drugs were originally evaluated in patients with metastatic melanoma before expansion to all tumor types, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with promising results. The PD1 inhibitors such as pembrolizumab have now received FDA approval in the first-line setting for patients with positive PD-L1 expression tumor types; however, only a portion of patients have shown objective and sustainable responses. To expand the number of patients with observed response to immunotherapeutic agents including patients with negative PD-L1 expression tumors, clinical trials are ongoing to assess the safety and efficacy of combination immune checkpoint inhibitors and combination immune checkpoint inhibitors with targeted therapy. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have been found to be a promising therapeutic drug class with sustainable response rates and a tolerable safety profile, and efforts continue to improve these drugs in patients with NSCLC.
Project description:Small cell lung cancer (SCLC), an aggressive and devastating malignancy, is characterized by rapid growth and early metastasis. Although most patients respond to first-line chemotherapy, the majority of patients rapidly relapse and have a relatively poor prognosis. Fortunately, immunotherapy, mainly including antibodies that target the cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4), checkpoints programmed death-1 (PD-1), and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) to block immune regulatory checkpoints on tumor cells, immune cells, fibroblasts cells and endothelial cells, has achieved the milestone in several solid tumors, such as melanoma and non-small-cell lung carcinomas (NSCLC). In recent years, immunotherapy has made progress in the treatment of patients with SCLC, while its response rate is relatively low to monotherapy. Interestingly, the combination of immunotherapy with other therapy, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapy, preliminarily achieve greater therapeutic effects for treating SCLC. Combining different immunotherapy drugs may act synergistically because of the complementary effects of the two immune checkpoint pathways (CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 pathways). The incorporation of chemoradiotherapy in immunotherapy may augment antitumor immune responses because chemoradiotherapy can enhance tumor cell immunogenicity by rapidly inducing tumor lysis and releasing tumor antigens. In addition, since immunotherapy drugs and the molecular targets drugs act on different targets and cells, the combination of these drugs may achieve greater therapeutic effects in the treatment of SCLC. In this review, we focused on the completed and ongoing trials of the combination therapy for immunotherapy of SCLC to find out the rational combination strategies which may improve the outcomes for SCLC.
Project description:BackgroundTo explore potential metabolomics biomarker in predicting the efficiency of the chemo-immunotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).MethodsA total of 83 eligible patients were assigned to receive chemo-immunotherapy. Serum samples were prospectively collected before the treatment to perform metabolomics profiling analyses under the application of gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The key metabolites were identified using projection to latent structures discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The key metabolites were used for predicting the chemo-immunotherapy efficiency in advanced NSCLC patients.ResultsSeven metabolites including pyruvate, threonine, alanine, urea, oxalate, elaidic acid and glutamate were identified as the key metabolites to the chemo-immunotherapy response. The receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) were 0.79 (95% CI: 0.69-0.90), 0.60 (95% CI: 0.48-0.73), 0.69 (95% CI: 0.57-0.80), 0.63 (95% CI: 0.51-0.75), 0.60 (95% CI: 0.48-0.72), 0.56 (95% CI: 0.43-0.67), and 0.67 (95% CI: 0.55-0.80) for the key metabolites, respectively. A binary logistic regression was used to construct a combined biomarker model to improve the discriminating efficiency. The AUC was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.77-0.94) for the combined biomarker model. Pathway analyses showed that urea cycle, glucose-alanine cycle, glycine and serine metabolism, alanine metabolism, and glutamate metabolism were the key metabolic pathway to the chemo-immunotherapy response in patients with advanced NSCLC.ConclusionMetabolomics analyses of key metabolites and pathways revealed that GC-MS could be used to predict the efficiency of chemo-immunotherapy. Pyruvate, threonine, alanine, urea, oxalate, elaidic acid and glutamate played a central role in the metabolic of PD patients with advanced NSCLC.
Project description:Immunotherapy is one of the most effective treatments for patients with advanced lung cancer. In many advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cases, the tumor is centrally located. For such patients, sleeve lobectomy has been considered as a more effective therapeutic option compared with pneumonectomy, achieving better long-term survival and quality of life with no increase in morbidity or mortality. Until now, there have been no studies regarding the efficacy and safety of neo-adjuvant chemo-immunotherapy prior to sleeve lobectomy for lung cancer. From January 2019 through October 2019, nine patients were diagnosed as NSCLC and evaluated to undergo sleeve lobectomy surgery (SLS). Of these patients, four received two cycles of pembrolizumab plus paclitaxel and cisplatin (PPC) followed by sleeve lobectomy, while five patients underwent SLS alone. The patients' clinical characteristics, perioperative parameters, and postoperative outcomes were analyzed. Multiplex fluorescent immunohistochemistry was performed to determine the number of macrophages, CD4+ and CD8 T cells, and Treg cells in the bronchial mucosa. Three of the four patients achieved a complete pathological response [0% viable tumor, pathologic complete response (pCR)]. All of the patients in the PPC group achieved major pathological response (≤10% viable tumor, MPR). No grade 3 or 4 treatment-related adverse events occurred in the PPC group, nor did any of the patients in the group experience treatment-related surgical delays. The mean surgical time and the number of lymph nodes dissected were the same in the two groups. The PPC group had a higher number of CD8 + T cells compared to the SLS group (P<0.01). No postoperative chylothorax, pneumonia, or other postoperative complications occurred in either group. The surgical difficulty and post-surgical complication rate of sleeve lobectomy with neo-adjuvant chemo-immunotherapy were similar to those of SLS alone. Neo-adjuvant chemo-immunotherapy is effective and safe with sleeve lobectomy for NSCLC patients. Additional prospective multi-center randomized studies using larger patient cohorts are necessary to validate our findings.
Project description:BACKGROUND Metaplastic breast cancer (MPBC) is a rare subtype of breast cancer that is difficult to manage and is resistant to therapy. Immunotherapy is becoming a promising option for care of several types of cancers including triple negative breast cancer. CASE REPORT We present a case of a patient with chemo-refractory metastatic metaplastic-type of breast cancer with failures to 3 active lines of chemotherapy. The patient achieved a complete and sustained response to chemo-immunotherapy combination with acceptable tolerability and minimal adverse events. The treatment was a combination of anti-PD-L1 antibody (durvalumab) immunotherapy in combination with the chemotherapeutic agent, paclitaxel. CONCLUSIONS This is the first case reporting the successful use of durvalumab and paclitaxel combination for treatment of triple negative breast cancer in general, and in metastatic MPBC in specific.