Contemporary analysis of functional immune recovery to opportunistic and vaccine-preventable infections after allogeneic haemopoietic stem cell transplantation

Objectives

Infections are a major cause of mortality after allogeneic haemopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT), and immune recovery is necessary for prevention. Novel transplant procedures have changed the epidemiology of infections but contemporary data on functional immune recovery are limited. In this pilot study, we aimed to measure immune recovery in the current era of alloHSCT.

Methods

Twenty, 13, 11, 9 and 9 alloHSCT recipients had blood collected at baseline (time of conditioning) and 3‐, 6‐, 9‐, and 12‐months post‐alloHSCT, respectively. Clinical data were collected, and immune recovery was measured using immunophenotyping, lymphocyte proliferation, cytokine analysis and antibody isotyping.

Results

Median absolute T‐ and B‐cell counts were below normal from baseline until 9‐ to 12‐months post‐alloHSCT. Median absolute CD4⁺ T‐cell counts recovered at 12‐months post‐alloHSCT. Positive proliferative responses to Aspergillus, cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV), influenza and tetanus antigens were detected from 9 months. IL‐6 was the most abundant cytokine in cell cultures. In cultures stimulated with CMV, EBV, influenza and tetanus peptides, the CD4⁺ T‐cell count correlated with IL‐1β (P = 0.045) and CD8⁺ T‐cell count with IFNγ (P = 0.013) and IL‐1β (P = 0.012). The NK‐cell count correlated with IL‐1β (P = 0.02) and IL‐17a (P = 0.03). Median serum levels of IgG1, IgG2 and IgG3 were normal while IgG4 and IgA were below normal range throughout follow‐up.

Conclusions

This pilot study demonstrates that immune recovery can be measured using CD4⁺ T‐cell counts, in vitro antigen stimulation and selected cytokines (IFNγ, IL‐1β, IL‐4, IL‐6, IL‐17, IL‐21, IL‐31) in alloHSCT recipients. While larger studies are required, monitoring immune recovery may have utility in predicting infection risk post‐alloHSCT.

Epidermal growth factor receptor T790M mutation: A major culprit in the progression of epidermal growth factor receptor-driven non-small cell lung cancer and the role of repeat biopsy

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for the majority of primary lung cancer cases worldwide. The activating mutations of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have been demonstrated to associate with the development of NSCLC, with T790M mutation being the most common. Over the years, EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) were developed to target EGFR-related mutations. However, patients with activating EGFR mutations who are initially responsive to EGFR-TKIs eventually develop acquired resistance after a median progression-free survival of 10-16 months, followed by disease progression. Recently, the third-generation EGFR inhibitors have emerged as potential therapeutics to block the growth of EGFR T790M-positive tumors. This article reviews the emerging data regarding EGFR mutations and clinical evidence on third-generation agents against EGFR T790M mutation in the treatment of patients with advanced NSCLC. It also reviews the role of repeat biopsy in improving the success rates of treatment of EGFR T790M-derived drug-resistant NSCLC.

Abstract P6-13-07: Chemotherapy with and without trastuzumab or no treatment in elderly patients with HER2 amplified breast cancer at a single center

Introduction

Trastuzumab with systemic chemotherapy has shown an improvement in outcomes for patients (pts) with HER2 amplified/overexpressed (HER2+) breast cancer. Pts enrolled onto trials were young with a minority of pts at ≥65 years (yrs) of age. Herein, we report the administration of systemic treatment (ST) (chemotherapy and/or trastuzumab) verus no treatment in elderly pts at a single center.

Methods

Patients ≥65 yrs with stage I-III HER2+ (defined as IHC 3+ or FISH >2.0) breast cancer, treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center between 2000-2012, were retrospectively identified from our database.

Clinicopathologic features were retrieved and co-morbidity indexes (CI) were calculated. Pts were divided by hormone receptor (HR) (defined as ER >10% and/or PR >10%) status into HER2+HR- and HER2+HR+. Each group was further divided by use of ST into: chemotherapy and trastuzumab (CT+T), chemotherapy alone (CT) or no systemic treatment (No Rx). Patients receiving neoadjuvant ST or trastuzumab only as ST were excluded from the KM analysis. Primary objective was to identify patterns of treatment recommendation in the elderly population. We explored disease-free survival (DFS) as estimated using the Kaplan-Meier (KM) method.

Results

We identified 300 pts ≥65 yrs with HER2+ tumors. 128 (42.7%) were HER2+HR- and 172 (57.3%) were HER2+HR+. The median follow-up for all patients was 6.1 years (range, 0.07-16.7).

In the HER2+HR- group, 63 (49.2%) patients received CT+T, 25 (19.5%) CT alone, and 40 (31.3%) had no Rx. Anthracycline based chemotherapy was administered to 57/88 (65%) of patients on CT. Women receiving chemotherapy with or without trastuzumab were younger (65-70 vs >70 years of age) (p=.002) and had more advanced tumor stages (p=.003). Their respective 5-yr DFS KM estimates were 0.84, 0.80, and 0.61 (logrank p=0.06).

In the HER2+HR+ group, 77 (44.8%) patients received CT+T, 22 (12.8%) CT alone, and 73 (42.2%) had no Rx. Anthracycline based chemotherapy was administered to 51/99 (51%) of patients on CT. Endocrine therapy was given to 153/172 (89%) of the total cohort. Women receiving chemotherapy with or without trastuzumab were younger (p<.001), and had higher nuclear grade (NG) (p=.04), more lymphovascular invasion (<.001) and more advanced tumor stages (p=.002). Their respective 5-yr DFS KM estimates were 0.84, 1.00, and 0.83 (log rank p=0.02).

Conclusions

At a single center, in the elderly populations at ≥65 years of age with HER2+ HR- and HER2+HR+ breast cancer, pts who received systemic treatment were younger and had higher stage of disease than those who received no treatment. In an exploratory analysis, there appeared to be a benefit of systemic treatment in pts in the HER+HR- group.

Citation Format: Muhsen S, Dang C, Plitas G, Seier K, Stempel M, Patil S, Morrow M, El-Tamer M. Chemotherapy with and without trastuzumab or no treatment in elderly patients with HER2 amplified breast cancer at a single center [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-13-07.

Abstract P4-10-12: Treatment decision making, and strategies for coping with financial stress in Indian women diagnosed with breast cancer and their families

Introduction: In spite of rapid urbanization and modernization the family remains central in the socio-cultural structure of India. The individuals are enmeshed into this unit and tend to be interlinked financially, emotionally and socially. The head of this family unit tends to be a male more often than not. As is well known, despite recent attempts by the governments at the state and centre at providing health coverage for cancer through regional cancer centres, a majority have to raise the money for cancer care by themselves. We have examined the role of the family in treatment decision making and in the strategies employed to raise the money and cope with the financial stress imposed by a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Method: 378 women with breast cancer were enrolled into a longitudinal study at first diagnosis between the years 2008-2012, at two tertiary care hospitals in Bangalore, India. The median follow up as of May 31st 2017 is 78 months with only 2% loss to follow-up over the past 8 years. Follow-up was maintained by frequent meetings between a counselling psychologist (AA) and the patient and/or a family member. The frequency of meetings was monthly during the initial treatment and then quarterly over the next 5 years. Information on demographics was collected during the treatment phase and information on the psychosocial aspects was collected in non-structured interactions subsequently. This information included details of support structure, decision making, and financial arrangements.

Results: This is a predominantly urban cohort with 80% being urban. The median age of patients at first diagnosis was 55 years. Almost all of our patients (99%) had the support of one or more family members. We analysed the pattern of decision making for treatment and in half of all cases either the husband or the son were the decision makers. In an additional 15% daughters and other relatives were the primary decision makers. Approximately a third of women made the decision concerning treatment themselves, and these women tended to be college educated (51% vs 16%) and employed (53% vs 12%).

30% of the patients met the costs incurred through medical insurance plans purchased by the family. Another quarter of patients were able to meet the costs from their savings. 45% had difficulty in finding the money for treatment and 15% took personal loans while 30% had to sell land/gold ornaments or take loans against assets of these sorts. Only (3%) discontinued the treatment due to financial difficulties. As in the case of decision making those who had the financial resources tended to be more educated (41% vs 11%), and were employed (31% vs 21%).

Conclusion: The data from a predominantly urban cohort of breast cancer enrolled between 2008-2012, supports the general belief that in India the family remains the fulcrum of an individual during crises, and not surprisingly education and employment lead to both psychological and economic emancipation of women.

Citation Format: Alexander A, Kaluve R, Prabhu JS, Korlimarla A, BS S, Manjunath S, Patil S, KS G, Sridhar TS. Treatment decision making, and strategies for coping with financial stress in Indian women diagnosed with breast cancer and their families [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-10-12.

Abstract P6-13-05: Frequency of delivery of systemic chemotherapy in elderly versus younger patients with triple negative breast cancer

Introduction

Chemotherapy (CT) is the standard of care for most triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). Chemotherapy is less commonly recommended in older than younger patients. We aim to explore the frequency of CT delivered in elderly patients when compared to young patients.

Methods

Patients ≤50yrs and ≥70 yrs with stage I-III TNBC defined as ER <10% PR < 10% HER2 IHC < 3+ or FISH < 2.0 and treated at our institution from 2000-2011 were identified from our institutional breast cancer database. Clinicopathologic features were retrieved and co-morbidity indexes (CI) were calculated. Patients were grouped by age and CT use, and features were compared between groups using chi-square tests. Cause of death was reported as dead of disease (DOD) or dead of other causes (DOC) when available; otherwise, it was recorded as dead of unknown causes (DUC). OS survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier (KM) methods. Cumulative incidence functions for competing risks were calculated and compared between groups using Gray's test. Competing risks regression was performed for multivariate analysis.

Results

We identified 901 pts with TNBC; 664 (73.7%) were ≤50yrs and 237 (26.3%) were ≥70 yrs. Median followup is 7 yrs (range, 0-16.8yrs).

Younger women diagnosed with TNBC were more likely to have stronger family history of breast cancer (p<.001), to present with palpable masses (p<.001), higher nuclear grade (NG) (p<.001), larger tumors (p=.04), more involved nodes (p=.01), advanced tumor stage (p=.02) and to receive systemic chemotherapy (<.001). Anthracycline-based chemotherapy was administered to 486 (80.3%) in women ≤50yrs and only to 42 (36.5%) in the ≥70 yrs cohort (p<0.001). Chemotherapy data was missing on 2 pts in ≤50 yrs and 4 pts ≥70 for a total cohort of 662 patients ≤50 yrs and 233 pts ≥70 yrs.

The 5 year rates of DOD were similar between both groups at 10.6% (range, 8.3-13.2) for pts ≤50yrs and 10.8% (range, 7.0-15.4) (p=0.52) for the older group; meanwhile, the 5 year OS rates were significantly different between both groups at 87.5% (range, 84.7-90.0) for pts ≤50yrs and 74.3% (range, 68.2-80.0) (p<.001) for the older group since older women die at higher rates from causes other than disease.

CT was given to 115 (49%) patients of the ≥70 yrs cohort with a selection biased by larger tumors (p<.001) and more advanced stages (p<.001). There was no significant difference however, between tumor size (p=0.47) and stage (p=0.98) when comparing the 609 (92%) pts ≤50 yrs and the 115 (49%) of ≥70 yrs patients who received CT.

When categorized based on age and receipt of CT, in the 662 pts ≤ 50 yrs, 609 (92%) and 53 (8%) received CT vs no CT respectively; in the 233 pts ≥70 yrs, 115 (49%) and 118 (50%) received CT vs no CT; the cumulative incidence curves for DOD were not statistically different for the four groups (p=0.85) at 5 years.

Conclusions

In our series, CT was given to 92% of patients ≤ 50 yrs of age. In the elderly pts ≥ 70 yrs of age, CT was limited to 50% of patients, namely those with worse clinicopathologic features.

Citation Format: Muhsen S, Dang C, Plitas G, Knezevic A, Stempel M, Patil S, Morrow M, El-Tamer M. Frequency of delivery of systemic chemotherapy in elderly versus younger patients with triple negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-13-05.

Outcomes in lung cancer: An experience from routine tertiary care setting

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to establish characteristics of lung cancer patients diagnosed at a tertiary care hospital in Bangalore.

METHODS

The retrospective study was undertaken comprising of 202 patients diagnosed of advanced lung cancer in a tertiary care setting. Data was analyzed to identify patients' characteristics, smoking history, tumor histology, stage of the disease, treatment received, and survival rates.

RESULTS

Among the 202 patients diagnosed, 134 were males, and 68 were females. Tumor histology testing revealed that 168 patients had adenocarcinoma, 24 patients had squamous carcinoma, 5 patients had small cell carcinoma, and 5 patients were poorly differentiated carcinoma. Among the patients of adenocarcinoma, complete response, partial response (PR), stable disease, and progressive disease (PD) were seen in 0.6%, 52%, 17%, and 23.2% of the patients respectively. The median progression-free survival (PFS) for first-line treatment was 6.5 months; the highest PFS was seen with nab-paclitaxel/platinum combination. The mean overall survival was 11.7 months and the highest OS of 12.3 months with gefitinib therapy. In the squamous subset of patients, PR was observed in fourteen patients, of which five patients were treated with nab-paclitaxel/platinum. The mean overall survival of 10.5 months and mean PFS was 6.2 months with the highest PFS of 6.8 months were seen with weekly nab-paclitaxel. Among the small cell lung cancer patients, nine were treated with etoposide/platinum regimen with a compliance of 6 cycles. Three patients had a PR, and one had a PD on etoposide/platinum regimen. The mean overall survival in these patients was 4.6 months.

Observation of pseudogap in MgB2

We investigate the electronic structure of a specially prepared highly dense conventional high temperature superconductor, MgB₂, employing high resolution photoemission spectroscopy. The spectral evolution close to the Fermi energy is commensurate to BCS descriptions as expected. However, the spectra in the wider energy range reveal the emergence of a pseudogap much above the superconducting transition temperature indicating an apparent departure from the BCS scenario. The energy scale of the pseudogap is comparable to the energy of the [Formula: see text] phonon mode responsible for superconductivity in MgB₂ and the pseudogap can be attributed to the effect of electron-phonon coupling on the electronic structure. These results reveal a scenario of the emergence of the superconducting gap within an electron-phonon coupling induced pseudogap and have significant implications in the study of high temperature superconductors.

Isolation and evolutionary analysis of Australasian topotype of bluetongue virus serotype 4 from India

Bluetongue (BT) is a Culicoides-borne disease caused by several serotypes of bluetongue virus (BTV). Similar to other insect-borne viral diseases, distribution of BT is limited to distribution of Culicoides species competent to transmit BTV. In the tropics, vector activity is almost year long, and hence, the disease is endemic, with the circulation of several serotypes of BTV, whereas in temperate areas, seasonal incursions of a limited number of serotypes of BTV from neighbouring tropical areas are observed. Although BTV is endemic in all the three major tropical regions (parts of Africa, America and Asia) of the world, the distribution of serotypes is not alike. Apart from serological diversity, geography-based diversity of BTV genome has been observed, and this is the basis for proposal of topotypes. However, evolution of these topotypes is not well understood. In this study, we report the isolation and characterization of several BTV-4 isolates from India. These isolates are distinct from BTV-4 isolates from other geographical regions. Analysis of available BTV seg-2 sequences indicated that the Australasian BTV-4 diverged from African viruses around 3,500 years ago, whereas the American viruses diverged relatively recently (1,684 CE). Unlike Australasia and America, BTV-4 strains of the Mediterranean area evolved through several independent incursions. We speculate that independent evolution of BTV in different geographical areas over long periods of time might have led to the diversity observed in the current virus population.

Outcomes following osteosynthesis of periprosthetic hip fractures around cemented tapered polished stems

We retrospectively reviewed outcomes of 79 patients with periprosthetic hip fractures around cemented tapered polished stem (CTPS) implants treated with osteosynthesis between January 1997 and July 2011. All patients underwent open reduction and fixation using a broad dynamic compression plate (DCP). Seventy two (91%) of fractures united. There were seven (9%) non-unions with failure of metal work, three (4%) as a result of infection and four (5%) due to mechanical failure. Significant subsidence (>5mm) of the implant was seen in seven (9%) of cases. Ten (13%) cases developed post-operative infection. Non-anatomic reduction and infection were identified as predictors of poor outcome. This is the largest series of a very specific group of periprosthetic fractures treated with osteosynthesis. Open reduction internal fixation with a broad dynamic compression plate for patients with periprosthetic hip fractures around the tip of cemented tapered polished stems is a suitable treatment provided there is no bone loss and the fracture can be precisely, anatomically, reduced and adequately fixed.