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Ototoxicity is one of the major side-effects of platinum-based chemotherapy, in particular cisplatin (cis-diammine dichloroplatinum II). To our knowledge, no systematic review has previously provided a quantitative summary estimate of the impact of genetics upon the risk of developing hearing loss. We searched Embase, Medline, ASSIA, Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science, for studies documenting the genetic risk of ototoxicity in patients with cancer treated with cisplatin. Titles/abstracts and full texts were reviewed for inclusion. Meta-analytic estimates of risk (Odds Ratio) from the pooled data were calculated for studies that have been repeated twice or more. The search identified 3891 papers, of which 30 were included. The majority were retrospective (44%), ranging from n = 39 to n = 317, some including only patients younger than 25 years of age (33%), and some on both genders (80%). The most common cancers involved were osteosarcoma (53%), neuroblastoma (37%), prostate (17%) and reproductive (10%). Most studies performed genotyping, though only 5 studies performed genome-wide association studies. Nineteen single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 15 genes were repeated more than twice. Meta-analysis of group data indicated that rs1872328 on ACYP2 , which plays a role in calcium homeostasis, increases the risk of ototoxicity by 4.61 (95% CI: 3.04–7.02; N = 696, p  < 0.0001) as well as LRP2 rs4668123 shows a cumulated Odds Ratio of 3.53 (95% CI: 1.48–8.45; N = 118, p  = 0.0059), which could not be evidenced in individual studies. Despite the evidence of heterogeneity across studies, these meta-analytic results from 30 studies are consistent with a view of a genetic predisposition to platinum-based chemotherapy mediated ototoxicity. These new findings are informative and encourage the genetic screening of cancer patients in order to identify patients with greater vulnerability of developing hearing loss, a condition having a potentially large impact on quality of life. More studies are needed, with larger sample size, in order to identify additional markers of ototoxic risk associated with platinum-based chemotherapy and investigate polygenic risks, where multiple markers may exacerbate the side-effects.

ObjectivesTo describe the frequency and nature of symptoms in patients presenting with suspected renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and examine their reliability in achieving early diagnosis.DesignMulticentre prospective observational cohort study.Setting and participantsEleven UK centres recruiting patients presenting with suspected newly diagnosed RCC. Symptoms reported by patients were recorded and reviewed. Comprehensive clinico-pathological and outcome data were also collected.OutcomesType and frequency of reported symptoms, incidental diagnosis rate, metastasis-free survival and cancer-specific survival.ResultsOf 706 patients recruited between 2011 and 2014, 608 patients with a confirmed RCC formed the primary study population. The majority (60%) of patients were diagnosed incidentally. 87% of patients with stage Ia and 36% with stage III or IV disease presented incidentally. Visible haematuria was reported in 23% of patients and was commonly associated with advanced disease (49% had stage III or IV disease). Symptomatic presentation was associated with poorer outcomes, likely reflecting the presence of higher stage disease. Symptom patterns among the 54 patients subsequently found to have a benign renal mass were similar to those with a confirmed RCC.ConclusionsRaising public awareness of RCC-related symptoms as a strategy to improve early detection rates is limited by the fact that related symptoms are relatively uncommon and often associated with advanced disease. Greater attention must be paid to the feasibility of screening strategies and the identification of circulating diagnostic biomarkers.

BackgroundRegulation of alternative splicing is a new therapeutic approach in cancer. The programmed cell death receptor 1 (PD-1) is an immunoinhibitory receptor expressed on immune cells that binds to its ligands, PD-L1 and PD-L2 expressed by cancer cells forming a dominant immune checkpoint pathway in the tumour microenvironment. Targeting this pathway using blocking antibodies (nivolumab and pembrolizumab) is the mainstay of anti-cancer immunotherapies, restoring the function of exhausted T cells. PD-1 is alternatively spliced to form isoforms that are either transmembrane signalling receptors (flPD1) that mediate T cell death by binding to the ligand, PD-L1 or an alternatively spliced, soluble, variant that lacks the transmembrane domain.MethodsWe used PCR and western blotting on primary peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and Jurkat T cells, IL-2 ELISA, flow cytometry, co-culture of melanoma and cholangiocarcinoma cells, and bioinformatics analysis and molecular cloning to examine the mechanism of splicing of PD1 and its consequence.ResultsThe soluble form of PD-1, generated by skipping exon 3 (∆Ex3PD1), was endogenously expressed in PBMCs and T cells and prevents cancer cell-mediated T cell repression. Multiple binding sites of SRSF1 are adjacent to PD-1 exon 3 splicing sites. Overexpression of phosphomimic SRSF1 resulted in preferential expression of flPD1. Inhibition of SRSF1 phosphorylation both by SRPK1 shRNA knockdown and by a selective inhibitor, SPHINX31, resulted in a switch in splicing to ∆Ex3PD1. Cholangiocarcinoma cell-mediated repression of T cell IL-2 expression was reversed by SPHINX31 (equivalent to pembrolizumab).ConclusionsThese results indicate that switching of the splicing decision from flPD1 to ∆Ex3PD1 by targeting SRPK1 could represent a potential novel mechanism of immune checkpoint inhibition in cancer.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is inevitably refractory to surgery and chemoradiation. The hope for immunotherapy has yet to be realised in the treatment of GBM. Immune checkpoint blockade antibodies, particularly those targeting the Programme death 1 (PD-1)/PD-1 ligand (PD-L1) pathway, have improved the prognosis in a range of cancers. However, its use in combination with chemoradiation or as monotherapy has proved unsuccessful in treating GBM. This review focuses on our current knowledge of barriers to immunotherapy success in treating GBM, such as diminished pre-existing anti-tumour immunity represented by low levels of PD-L1 expression, low tumour mutational burden and a severely exhausted T-cell tumour infiltrate. Likewise, systemic T-cell immunosuppression is seen driven by tumoural factors and corticosteroid use. Furthermore, unique anatomical differences with primary intracranial tumours such as the blood-brain barrier, the type of antigen-presenting cells and lymphatic drainage contribute to differences in treatment success compared to extracranial tumours. There are, however, shared characteristics with those known in other tumours such as the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment. We conclude with a summary of ongoing and future immune combination strategies in GBM, which are representative of the next wave in immuno-oncology therapeutics.

Recent phase 3 trials have shown an overall survival benefit in metastatic melanoma. We aimed to assess whether progression-free survival (PFS) could be regarded as a reliable surrogate for overall survival through a meta-analysis of randomised trials. We systematically reviewed randomised trials comparing treatment regimens in metastatic melanoma that included dacarbazine as the control arm, and which reported both PFS and overall survival with a standard hazard ratio (HR). We correlated HRs for overall survival and PFS, weighted by sample size or by precision of the HR estimate, assuming fixed and random effects. We did sensitivity analyses according to presence of crossover, trial size, and dacarbazine dose. After screening 1649 reports and meeting abstracts published before Sept 8, 2013, we identified 12 eligible randomised trials that enrolled 4416 patients with metastatic melanoma. Irrespective of weighting strategy, we noted a strong correlation between the treatment effects for PFS and overall survival, which seemed independent of treatment type. Pearson correlation coefficients were 0·71 (95% CI 0·29–0·90) with a random-effects assumption, 0·85 (0·59–0·95) with a fixed-effects assumption, and 0·89 (0·68–0·97) with sample-size weighting. For nine trials without crossover, the correlation coefficient was 0·96 (0·81–0·99), which decreased to 0·93 (0·74–0·98) when two additional trials with less than 50% crossover were included. Inclusion of mature follow-up data after at least 50% crossover (in vemurafenib and dabrafenib phase 3 trials) weakened the PFS to overall survival correlation (0·55, 0·03–0·84). Inclusion of trials with no or little crossover with the random-effects assumption yielded a conservative statement of the PFS to overall survival correlation of 0·85 (0·51–0·96). PFS can be regarded as a robust surrogate for overall survival in dacarbazine-controlled randomised trials of metastatic melanoma; we postulate that this association will hold as treatment standards evolve and are adopted as the control arm in future trials. None.

The aims of this study were to investigate the role of vascular invasion (blood and lymphatic), vessel density and the presence of tumour-associated macrophages as prognostic markers in 202 cutaneous melanoma patients. Sections of primary melanoma were stained with lymphatic-specific antibody D2-40 to assess lymphatic vessel invasion and density in intratumoural and peritumoural areas; an antibody against endothelial marker CD34 was used to determine blood vessel invasion and density, and an antibody against CD68 was used to determine macrophage counts. Immunohistochemically determined vascular invasion (combined blood and lymphatic) was compared with that determined using haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. The use of immunohistochemistry increased detection of vascular invasion from 8–30% of patients, and histological exam of H&E-stained tissue was associated with a false positive rate of 64%. Lymphatic vessel invasion occurred at a much higher frequency than blood vessel invasion (27 and 4% of patients, respectively). Although immunohistochemically detected vessel invasion was significantly associated with histological markers of adverse prognosis, such as increased Breslow thickness, ulceration and mitotic rate (all P <0.001), no associations with relapse-free or overall survival were observed. High macrophage counts were significantly associated with markers of aggressive disease, such as Breslow thickness, ulceration and mitotic rate ( P <0.001, P <0.001, P =0.005, respectively), and lymphatic vessel invasion and high microvessel density ( P =0.002 and P =0.003, respectively). These results suggest that vascular invasion is more accurately detected using immunohistochemistry and occurs predominantly via lymphatic vessels. The association of vessel characteristics with histological characteristics of the primary melanoma provides evidence for their biological importance in melanoma, but that they were not associated with clinical outcome attests to the value of existing histological prognostic biomarkers. We note that a high macrophage count may be associated with neovascularisation and primary tumour growth, and may also promote invasion through lymphatic vessels.

In metastatic renal cell carcinoma combinations of interferon alfa-2a, interleukin-2, and fluorouracil produce higher response rates and longer progression-free survival than do single agents. We aimed to compare overall survival in patients receiving combination treatment or interferon alfa-2a. RE04/30012 was an open-label randomised trial undertaken in 50 centres across eight countries. 1006 treatment-naive patients diagnosed with advanced metastatic renal cell carcinoma were randomly allocated (1 to 1) by minimisation to receive interferon alfa-2a alone or combination therapy with interferon alfa-2a, interleukin-2, and fluorouracil. Treatment was not masked. The primary endpoint was overall survival. Treatment groups were compared with a non-stratified log-rank test. Analysis was by intention to treat. This study is registered, number ISRCTN 46518965. 502 patients were randomly assigned to receive interferon alfa-2a and 504 to receive combined treatment. Median follow-up was 37·2 months (24·8–52·3). Median overall survival was 18·8 months (17·0–23·2) for patients receiving interferon alfa-2a versus 18·6 months (16·5–20·6) for those receiving combination therapy. Overall survival did not differ between the two groups (hazard ratio 1·05 [95% CI 0·90–1·21], p=0·55; absolute difference 0·3% (−5·1 to 5·6) at 1 year and 2·7% (−8·2 to 2·9) at 3 years). Serious adverse events were reported in 113 (23%) patients receiving interferon alfa-2a and 131 (26%) of those receiving combined treatment. Although combination therapy does not improve overall or progression-free survival compared with interferon alfa-2a alone, immunotherapy might still have a role because it can produce remissions that are of clinically relevant length in some patients. Identification of patients who will benefit from immunotherapy is crucial. UK Medical Research Council.

Checkpoint inhibitor-induced liver injury (ChILI) is an immune-related adverse reaction, occurring in patients with cancer receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (CPI). ChILI is currently managed with high doses of corticosteroids which carry their own risks and potential side effects, and the lack of available biomarkers makes monitoring patients at risk of developing ChILI a challenge. There is no specific test that distinguishes ChILI from other competing diagnoses such as acute autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury (DILI) due to other medications. Patients with cancer taking immunotherapy who did and did not develop ChILI were recruited. Patients gave samples during the acute phase of liver injury, before CPI treatment and at 12 weeks following the start of CPI therapy if no toxicity developed. Healthy controls were recruited as well as patients with DILI and AIH. Whole blood was taken for broad immune phenotyping using mass cytometry, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated for validatory flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), and plasma was used for cytokine profiling. Samples from a second ChILI cohort were used for validation. Snap-frozen liver biopsies were used for bulk RNA-seq to compare the immune response in ChILI to DILI and AIH and correlate with peripheral immune signals. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded liver biopsies were used to visualize liver CD8 T-cell infiltration using confocal microscopy. We have identified a circulating CD8 effector memory T-cell subset, expressing high levels of CD38, HLA-DR and CXCR3 and significantly correlated with alanine transaminase. Flow cytometry and single-cell RNA sequencing revealed an increase in granzyme expression, the liver residency marker CD69 and exhaustion markers CTLA-4, PDCD1 and HAVCR2 relative to other CD8 effector subsets. Liver tissue bulk RNA-seq and immune cell deconvolution showed a significant increase in resident CD8 T cells in ChILI compared with DILI and AIH, and a significant upregulation of genes related to CXCR chemokine receptor binding. Plasma cytokine profiling highlighted soluble CD27 and PD-1 as significantly elevated in ChILI relative to controls on CPI. We have shown that circulating CD8 T cells provide a potential biomarker to distinguish ChILI from DILI and AIH, and highlight different mechanistic pathways between ChILI and other immune-mediated liver injuries.

BackgroundTargeting of melanoma by T cells drives anti-tumour responses. We have previously shown that a DNA vaccine, SCIB1, incorporating T cell epitopes from TRP-2/gp100 into an antibody framework to allow Fc targeting of activated dendritic cells, was successfully evaluated as a monotherapy in a phase 1/2 in stage 3/4 melanoma patients. Unresectable melanoma patients showed a 60% ORR and 88% of patients treated with SCIB1 post tumour resection, remained disease free for 5 years.1 The SCOPE trial tests the hypothesis that unresectable patients may have an improved response when SCIB1 is combined with checkpoint inhibitors (CPI).MethodsPatients were treated with nivolumab and ipilimumab and were also administered with SCIB1 (8mg) i.m. using needle-free injections at a fixed dosing schedule for a total of 10 doses over 24 months. The CPI therapy was administered i.v. in accordance with their respective SmPC. ORR as measured by RECIST 1.1 in the overall intention-to-treat population was the primary endpoint. The study is designed using Simon’s two stage methodology with 80% power when the true response rate is 70% with an overall type I error of 5%. In the first stage, 15 patients will be enrolled and if there are eight or fewer clinical responses (RECIST 1.1 objective response [CR or PR] within 25 weeks of the first dose of SCIB1), further recruitment will be stopped. The null hypothesis will be rejected if 27 or more responses are observed in 43 patients.Results16 patients received the combination of SCIB1 with nivolumab and ipilimumab. At study entry, all patients were stage IV. 10 patients had reached the first imaging timepoint at 13 weeks, and the objective response rate is 80%. Patients showed a 31–95% reduction in tumour volume between 13 and 25 weeks (figure 1). Most of the SCIB1-related adverse events were Grade 1/2. Only 1 patient reported a Grade 3 rash. No enhancement of immune-mediated adverse events was observed when SCIB1 was added to nivolumab with ipilimumab.ConclusionsSCIB1 in combination with nivolumab and ipilimumab as first line treatment for unresectable melanoma improved the ORR to 80% without an increase in clinically meaningful adverse events. These results if confirmed in a larger patient cohort provide confidence in initiating a randomised registration programme in unresectable melanoma patients with our novel DNA plasmid technology.AcknowledgementsWe thank all patients for dedicating their time, Ms Georgia Goodhew for providing oversight of the study and members of the investigational teams across the UK for their unwavering support.Trial Registration https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04079166ReferencePatel PM, et al. A phase I/II trial of SCIB1. Oncoimmunology 2018;22;7(6):e1433516.Ethics ApprovalThis clinical trial was approved by the North East - York Research Ethics Committee, reference number: 18/NE/0364 . All patients provided informed consent prior to participating in the clinical trial.Abstract 1533 Figure 1

Background The calpains are intracellular cysteine proteases that function in a variety of important cellular functions, including signalling, motility, apoptosis and survival. In breast cancer high calpain-1 and calpain-2 expression has been associated with adverse clinical outcome. Calpain-9 was thought to be exclusively expressed in the digestive tract; however recent studies have shown that this protein is also expressed in breast tissue. Methods We investigated the expression of calpain-9 in a large cohort of early stage breast cancer patients (n = 783) using immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray. Patients had long-term follow-up information available for analysis. Results Low expression of calpain-9 was associated with patients over 40 years of age ( P  = 0.025), smaller tumour size ( P  = 0.001), lower tumour stage ( P  = 0.009), a more favourable Nottingham Prognostic Index value ( P  = 0.002) and positive oestrogen receptor status ( P  = 0.014). Calpain-9 expression was not associated with survival in the total patient cohort, however low calpain-9 expression was associated with adverse survival in patients who received endocrine therapy ( P  = 0.033), which remained significant in multivariate Cox regression analysis accounting for potential confounding factors (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.56, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 0.36-0.89, P  = 0.013). Low calpain-9 expression was also associated with adverse survival in patients with an intermediate Nottingham Prognostic Index value ( P  = 0.009), and remained so in multivariate analysis (HR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.36-0.82, P  = 0.003). Conclusions This study suggests that calpain-9 may play a role in breast cancer and that low expression is associated with poorer patient clinical outcome following endocrine therapy. Validation studies are warranted as determining expression of calpain-9 may provide important prognostic information.