The creation of hope in patients with lung cancer

BACKGROUND

Lung cancer is associated with biomedical and psychological symptoms as well as a generally poor prognosis. When healthcare staff communicate with lung cancer patients it is essential that they consider the patients' own views of the situation to avoid putting unnecessary strain upon the patients' shoulders. The purpose of the present study is to better understand how a group of patients with lung cancer reflects upon their new life situation after diagnosis and primary treatment.

METHOD

Fifteen patients with non-small cell lung cancer were consecutively included and, where possible, repeatedly interviewed during the course of the disease process. The 29 interviews were conducted in a thematically structured narrative form that facilitated a dialog between the interviewer and the patient. The interviews covered experiences with health care, living an everyday life, and thoughts about the future. FINDINGS AND REFLECTIONS: By focusing on how the patients more or less preconsciously elaborated mentally with their vulnerable situation, it was possible to detect different mental manoeuvres that they used as a way of creating hope. The patients distanced themselves from their disease, relied on a feeling of a sound body, idealised treatment possibilities, relied on healthy behaviour, focused on a concrete project, found that they were better off than others, and took solace in the fact that there were patients who had successfully managed the disease.

DISCUSSION

The patients were not passive victims in the face of their diagnosis, but were actively trying to find ways of looking at their despairing situation in a positive light. A creative process for psychological survival had thus been initiated by the patients. We suggest that acknowledging this process should be the starting point from which physicians can engage in hope work with their patients.

LRIG and cancer prognosis

BACKGROUND

Optimal treatment decisions for cancer patients require reliable prognostic and predictive information. However, this information is inadequate in many cases. Several recent studies suggest that the leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains (LRIG) genes, transcripts, and proteins have prognostic implications in various cancer types.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Relevant literature was identified on PubMed using the key words lrig1, lrig2, and lrig3. LRIG mRNA expression in cancer versus normal tissues was investigated using the Oncomine database.

RESULTS

The three human LRIG genes, LRIG1, LRIG2, and LRIG3, encode single-pass transmembrane proteins. LRIG1 is a negative regulator of growth factor signaling that has been shown to function as a tumor suppressor in vitro and in vivo in mice. The functions of LRIG2 and LRIG3 are less well defined. LRIG gene and protein expression are commonly dysregulated in human cancer. In early stage breast cancer, LRIG1 copy number was recently shown to predict early and late relapse in addition to overall survival; in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, loss of LRIG1 is also associated with poor survival. LRIG gene and protein expression have prognostic value in breast cancer, uterine cervical cancer, head-and-neck cancer, glioma, non-small cell lung cancer, prostate cancer, and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. In general, expression of LRIG1 and LRIG3 is associated with good survival, whereas expression of LRIG2 is associated with poor survival. Additionally, LRIG1 regulates cellular sensitivity to anti-cancer drugs, which indicates a possible role as a predictive marker.

CONCLUSIONS

LRIG gene statuses and mRNA and protein expression are clinically relevant prognostic indicators in several types of human cancer. We propose that LRIG analyses could become important when making informed and individualized clinical decisions regarding the management of cancer patients.

Loss of LRIG1 locus increases risk of early and late relapse of stage I/II breast cancer

Gains and losses at chromosome 3p12-21 are common in breast tumors and associated with patient outcomes. We hypothesized that the LRIG1 gene at 3p14.1, whose product functions in ErbB-family member degradation, is a critical tumor modifier at this locus. We analyzed 971 stage I/II breast tumors using Affymetrix Oncoscan molecular inversion probe arrays that include 12 probes located within LRIG1. Copy number results were validated against gene expression data available in the public database. By partitioning the LRIG1 probes nearest exon 12/13, we confirm a breakpoint in the gene and show that gains and losses in the subregions differ by tumor and patient characteristics including race/ethnicity. In analyses adjusted for known prognostic factors, loss of LRIG1 was independently associated with risk of any relapse (HR, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.32-2.73), relapse≥5 years (HR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.31-4.36), and death (HR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.11-2.16). Analyses of copy number across chromosome 3, as well as expression data from pooled, publicly available datasets, corroborated the hypothesis of an elevated and persistent risk among cases with loss of or low LRIG1. We concluded that loss/low expression of LRIG1 is an independent risk factor for breast cancer metastasis and death in stage I/II patients. Increased hazard in patients with loss/low LRIG1 persists years after diagnosis, suggesting that LRIG1 is acting as a critical suppressor of tumor metastasis and is an early clinical indicator of risk for late recurrences in otherwise low-risk patients.

Systematic pathway enrichment analysis of a genome-wide association study on breast cancer survival reveals an influence of genes involved in cell adhesion and calcium signaling on the patients' clinical outcome

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) may help to understand the effects of genetic polymorphisms on breast cancer (BC) progression and survival. However, they give only a focused view, which cannot capture the tremendous complexity of this disease. Therefore, we investigated data from a previously conducted GWAS on BC survival for enriched pathways by different enrichment analysis tools using the two main annotation databases Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). The goal was to identify the functional categories (GO terms and KEGG pathways) that are consistently overrepresented in a statistically significant way in the list of genes generated from the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. The SNPs with allelic p-value cut-offs 0.005 and 0.01 were annotated to the genes by excluding or including a 20 kb up-and down-stream sequence of the genes and analyzed by six different tools. We identified eleven consistently enriched categories, the most significant ones relating to cell adhesion and calcium ion binding. Moreover, we investigated the similarity between our GWAS and the enrichment analyses of twelve published gene expression signatures for breast cancer prognosis. Five of them were commonly used and commercially available, five were based on different aspects of metastasis formation and two were developed from meta-analyses of published prognostic signatures. This comparison revealed similarities between our GWAS data and the general and the specific brain metastasis gene signatures as well as the Oncotype DX signature. As metastasis formation is a strong indicator of a patient’s prognosis, this result reflects the survival aspect of the conducted GWAS and supports cell adhesion and calcium signaling as important pathways in cancer progression.

Bevacizumab plus radiotherapy-temozolomide for newly diagnosed glioblastoma

BACKGROUND

Standard therapy for newly diagnosed glioblastoma is radiotherapy plus temozolomide. In this phase 3 study, we evaluated the effect of the addition of bevacizumab to radiotherapy-temozolomide for the treatment of newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

METHODS

We randomly assigned patients with supratentorial glioblastoma to receive intravenous bevacizumab (10 mg per kilogram of body weight every 2 weeks) or placebo, plus radiotherapy (2 Gy 5 days a week; maximum, 60 Gy) and oral temozolomide (75 mg per square meter of body-surface area per day) for 6 weeks. After a 28-day treatment break, maintenance bevacizumab (10 mg per kilogram intravenously every 2 weeks) or placebo, plus temozolomide (150 to 200 mg per square meter per day for 5 days), was continued for six 4-week cycles, followed by bevacizumab monotherapy (15 mg per kilogram intravenously every 3 weeks) or placebo until the disease progressed or unacceptable toxic effects developed. The coprimary end points were investigator-assessed progression-free survival and overall survival.

RESULTS

A total of 458 patients were assigned to the bevacizumab group, and 463 patients to the placebo group. The median progression-free survival was longer in the bevacizumab group than in the placebo group (10.6 months vs. 6.2 months; stratified hazard ratio for progression or death, 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.55 to 0.74; P<0.001). The benefit with respect to progression-free survival was observed across subgroups. Overall survival did not differ significantly between groups (stratified hazard ratio for death, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.76 to 1.02; P=0.10). The respective overall survival rates with bevacizumab and placebo were 72.4% and 66.3% at 1 year (P=0.049) and 33.9% and 30.1% at 2 years (P=0.24). Baseline health-related quality of life and performance status were maintained longer in the bevacizumab group, and the glucocorticoid requirement was lower. More patients in the bevacizumab group than in the placebo group had grade 3 or higher adverse events (66.8% vs. 51.3%) and grade 3 or higher adverse events often associated with bevacizumab (32.5% vs. 15.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

The addition of bevacizumab to radiotherapy-temozolomide did not improve survival in patients with glioblastoma. Improved progression-free survival and maintenance of baseline quality of life and performance status were observed with bevacizumab; however, the rate of adverse events was higher with bevacizumab than with placebo. (Funded by F. Hoffmann-La Roche; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00943826.).

Expression of LRIG1 is associated with good prognosis and human papillomavirus status in oropharyngeal cancer

Background:

The incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal cancer has increased rapidly during the past decades. HPV is typically associated with a favourable outcome; however, a need exists for new and more effective prognostic and predictive markers for this disease. Leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains (LRIG)-1 is a tumour suppressor protein that belongs to the LRIG family. LRIG1 expression has prognostic significance in various human cancers, including cervical cancer, where HPV is a key aetiological agent.

Methods:

The prognostic value of LRIG1 and LRIG2 immunoreactivity was investigated in tumour specimens from a Swedish cohort of patients with tonsillar and base of tongue oropharyngeal cancers, including 278 patients.

Results:

LRIG1 immunoreactivity correlated with disease-free survival and overall survival in univariate and multivariate analyses. Notably, patients with HPV-positive tumours with high LRIG1 staining intensity or a high percentage of LRIG1-positive cells showed a very good prognosis. Furthermore, LRIG1 expression correlated with HPV status, whereas LRIG2 expression inversely correlated with HPV status.

Conclusions:

Taken together, the results suggest that LRIG1 immunoreactivity could be a clinically important prognostic marker in HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer.

Lrig2-deficient mice are protected against PDGFB-induced glioma

Background

The leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains (LRIG) proteins constitute an integral membrane protein family that has three members: LRIG1, LRIG2, and LRIG3. LRIG1 negatively regulates growth factor signaling, but little is known regarding the functions of LRIG2 and LRIG3. In oligodendroglial brain tumors, high expression of LRIG2 correlates with poor patient survival. Lrig1 and Lrig3 knockout mice are viable, but there have been no reports on Lrig2-deficient mice to date.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Lrig2-deficient mice were generated by the ablation of Lrig2 exon 12 (Lrig2E12). The Lrig2E12-/- mice showed a transiently reduced growth rate and an increased spontaneous mortality rate; 20-25% of these mice died before 130 days of age, with the majority of the deaths occurring before 50 days. Ntv-a transgenic mice with different Lrig2 genotypes were transduced by intracranial injection with platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) B-encoding replication-competent avian retrovirus (RCAS)-producing DF-1 cells. All injected Lrig2E12+/+ mice developed Lrig2 expressing oligodendroglial brain tumors of lower grade (82%) or glioblastoma-like tumors of higher grade (18%). Lrig2E12-/- mice, in contrast, only developed lower grade tumors (77%) or had no detectable tumors (23%). Lrig2E12-/- mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) showed altered induction-kinetics of immediate-early genes Fos and Egr2 in response to PDGF-BB stimulation. However, Lrig2E12-/- MEFs showed no changes in Pdgfrα or Pdgfrβ levels or in levels of PDGF-BB-induced phosphorylation of Pdgfrα, Pdgfrβ, Akt, or extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2). Overexpression of LRIG1, but not of LRIG2, downregulated PDGFRα levels in HEK-293T cells.

Conclusions

The phenotype of Lrig2E12-/- mice showed that Lrig2 was a promoter of PDGFB-induced glioma, and Lrig2 appeared to have important molecular and developmental functions that were distinct from those of Lrig1 and Lrig3.

Tumor response based on adapted Macdonald criteria and assessment of pseudoprogression (PsPD) in the phase III AVAglio trial of bevacizumab (Bv) plus temozolomide (T) plus radiotherapy (RT) in newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM)

2002^

Background: Until recently the primary criteria for assessing response to GBM therapy were those by Macdonald et al. (JCO 1990;8:1277–80). Advances in imaging technology/targeted therapies exposed limitations, addressed in 2010 by Response Assessment in Neuro-Oncology Working Group. Prior to this, the AVAglio study similarly adapted Macdonald criteria to address anti-angiogenic therapy/corticosteroid use by incorporating non-contrast-enhancing components and integrating a strict algorithm to standardize assessment of possible PsPD. Methods: Randomisedpts (n=921) received: T/RT + Bv or placebo (P), 6 wks; 28-d break; maintenance T + Bv or P (6 cycles); monotherapy Bv or P until PD/unacceptable toxicity. Tumor response was investigator (inv)-assessed by MRI (adapted Macdonald criteria) at baseline (BL), end of break, every 2nd maintenance cycle, every 9 wks during monotherapy, at PD and 9 wks post-PD. PsPD was inv-assessed at the end of the break. A ≥25% increase in index lesions and/or unequivocal progression of existing non-index lesions relative to BL and in the absence of clinical deterioration was assessed as PsPD. Confirmatory PsPD assessment: end of the 2nd maintenance cycle. If progression was confirmed, PsPD was retrospectively designated as PD. If PsPD was confirmed, pts remained on treatment and the 1st post-RT MRI was used as a new BL. Best ORR was evaluated in pts with lesions at BL, excluding pts with confirmed PsPD. Results: Co-primary endpoint of inv-assessed PFS was longer for pts receiving Bv+RT/T compared with P+RT/T (HR 0.64, 95% CI 0.55–0.74; p<0.0001). Best ORR and PsPD are shown (Table). Conclusions: Addition of Bv to 1st-line T/RT significantly improves ORR. The rate of confirmed PsPD was low in both arms. Clinical trial information: NCT00943826. [Table: see text]

Progression-free survival (PFS) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in AVAglio, a phase III study of bevacizumab (Bv), temozolomide (T), and radiotherapy (RT) in newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM)

2005^

Background: GBM has a high disease burden and poor prognosis, and impacts negatively on HRQoL. Symptomatic therapies for GBM, such as corticosteroids (CS), may impact patient status negatively Methods: AVAglio, a randomized, double-blind, placebo (P)-controlled trial in patients (pts) ≥18 yrs with newly diagnosed GBM, evaluated the addition of Bv or P (10mg/kg, q2w) to 6 wks of T (75mg/m2/d) + RT (2Gy, 5d/wk) followed by 28 treatment-free days, then 6 cycles of T (150–200 mg/m2/d, 5d q4w) with Bv or P (10 mg/kg, q2w), and then single-agent Bv or P (15 mg/kg, q3w) until disease progression (PD)/unacceptable toxicity. Co-primary endpoints were investigator-assessed PFS and overall survival. Secondary endpoints included HRQoL (EORTC QLQ-C30 and BN20, with 5 prespecified domains based on relevance in GBM). HRQoL time to definitive deterioration (TDD) was defined as time from randomization to ≥10 point deterioration from baseline with no subsequent improvement, PD, or death. Exploratory endpoints included KPS and CS use. Results: Baseline characteristics were well balanced. Bv significantly prolonged PFS (HR 0.64, 95% CI 0.55–0.74, p<0.0001; median 10.6 vs 6.2 mo) and delayed TDD in HRQoL compared with P (p<0.0001; Table). Functional independence (KPS ≥ 70%) was maintained during PFS in both arms (median Bv vs P: 9 vs 6 mo). Among pts on CS (≥ 2mg) at baseline, discontinuation (≥ 5 consecutive days) was more frequent with Bv than P (66% vs 47%). In pts off CS at baseline (< 2mg), time to CS initiation was significantly longer with Bv than P (HR 0.71, 95% CI 0.57–0.88; median 12.3 vs 3.7 mo). Conclusions: Addition of Bv to RT/T provided a clinically meaningful and statistically significant PFS improvement associated with stable/improved HRQoL and KPS, and reduced CS requirement. Clinical trial information: NCT00943826. [Table: see text]

Biomarker (BM) evaluations in the phase III AVAglio study of bevacizumab (Bv) plus standard radiotherapy (RT) and temozolomide (T) for newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM)

2023^

Background: Bv plus 1st-line standard of care (SoC; T+RT) achieved a PFS benefit in the AVAglio phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo [P]-controlled trial in patients (pts) with newly diagnosed GBM. AVAglio includes BM evaluation to identify pts benefiting most from Bv. Analysis of plasma VEGF-A and VEGFR-2 was prioritized based on encouraging findings in Bv trials in several tumor types. Methods: AVAglio includes an optional, exploratory correlative BM analysis; participating pts provided informed consent for BMs. Baseline (BL) plasma samples were analyzed using the Roche IMPACT platform, based on multiplex ELISA technology. Pts were dichotomized according to BM levels using either Q1, median or Q3 cut-offs. Potential interactions between BL BM levels and PFS were tested using Cox regression analyses. Results: Of 921 patients enrolled, 571 (62%) were evaluable in the BM study. Baseline characteristics and PFS outcome were comparable in the ITT and BM-evaluable populations. Median BL VEGF-A and VEGFR-2 levels were 77.0 pg/mL and 12.6 ng/mL, respectively. No significant interaction for PFS was seen at α=0.025. Conclusions: The potential predictive (VEGF-A, VEGFR-2) and prognostic (VEGF-A) value seen in breast, pancreatic and gastric cancers was not apparent in BL BM samples from AVAglio using a median, Q1 or Q3 cut-off. Additional plasma and tumor BM analyses are ongoing. Clinical trial information: NCT00943826. [Table: see text]