Prognostic value of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Prognostic Score in metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Utility of Established Prognostic Scoring Systems for Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Enrolled in Immunotherapy-Based Early-Phase Clinical Trials

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal malignancy for which multiagent chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment resulting in limited survival and symptomatic benefit. Treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has proven effective in a growing number of solid tumors but has yet to show clinical benefit in patients with PDAC. Given the growing number of ICI-based clinical trials in development for patients with PDAC and lack of clinical benefit thus far with ICI-based therapies in these patients, we sought to (1) determine the outcomes of patients with PDAC treated with ICI-based therapies as part of an early phase clinical trial, (2) validate the utility of established prognostic scoring systems, and (3) identify novel prognostic factors in an attempt to better identify patients that would benefit from enrollment onto an ICI-based early phase clinical trial.

METHODS

We conducted a single-center retrospective analysis of patients with advanced PDAC who were treated with ICI-based therapy as part of an early-phase clinical trial.

RESULTS

Patients were only able to stay on study for a limited time due to disease progression and/or a change in performance status and had a poor overall survival. Established prognostic scoring systems were not effective in predicting outcomes in this patient population, but factors such as pre-treatment albumin neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLC) may be helpful in patient selection.

CONCLUSIONS

This study underscores the need for larger studies to help identify patient and tumor intrinsic factors that predict response to ICI-based therapies in patients with PDAC.

The Memorial Sloan Kettering Prognostic Score: Correlation with survival in patients with advanced gastric cancer

BACKGROUND

Notwithstanding that the past decade has witnessed unprecedented medical progress, gastric cancer (GC) remains a leading cause of cancer death, highlighting the need for effective prognostic markers. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Prognostic Score (MPS) has been validated as a valuable prognostic tool for patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma (mPDAC). This study aimed to assess the prognostic value of the MPS in advanced GC.

METHODS

Data from 367 patients were analyzed in the present study. The MPS for each patient was calculated based on the sum of scores based on the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and serum albumin levels. Multivariate analyses were performed to identify the independent clinicopathological parameters associated with overall survival (OS). Further subgroup analyses based on clinicopathological features were conducted.

RESULTS

Patients with MPS 0 (n = 161), MPS 1 (n = 158), and MPS 2 (n = 48) exhibited significantly different OS, with a median survival duration of 20.7 (95%CI: 12.2-29.2), 14.9 (95%CI: 12.5-17.3), and 12.7 (95%CI: 9.3-16.0) months, respectively (p < 0.001). Significant differences in survival were observed among different groups of patients receiving chemotherapy (18.5 months vs. 14.7 months vs. 11.0 months, p = 0.03) or the subgroup receiving chemotherapy plus immunotherapy as first-line treatment (32.6 months vs. 17.7 months vs. 12.7 months, p = 0.02). The MPS was identified as an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis. During subgroup analyses, MPS-low (MPS 0) was consistently associated with a better prognosis than MPS-high (MPS 1 or 2).

CONCLUSIONS

MPS is a practical, simple, and useful prognostic tool for patients with advanced GC. Further studies are warranted to validate its prognostic value in advanced GC.

Interpretations of the Role of Plasma Albumin in Prognostic Indices: A Literature Review

This review assesses how publications interpret factors that influence the serum or plasma albumin (PA) level in prognostic indices, focusing on inflammation and nutrition. On PubMed, a search for "albumin AND prognosis" yielded 23,919 results. From these records, prognostic indices were retrieved, and their names were used as search strings on PubMed. Indices found in 10 or more original research articles were included. The same search strings, restricted to "Review" or "Systematic review", retrieved yielded on the indices. The data comprised the 10 latest original research articles and up to 10 of the latest reviews. Thirty indices had 294 original research articles (6 covering two indices) and 131 reviews, most of which were from recent years. A total of 106 articles related the PA level to inflammation, and 136 related the PA level to nutrition. For the reviews, the equivalent numbers were 54 and 65. In conclusion, more publications mention the PA level as a marker of nutrition rather than inflammation. This is in contrast to several general reviews on albumin and nutritional guidelines, which state that the PA level is a marker of inflammation but not nutrition. Hypoalbuminemia should prompt clinicians to focus on the inflammatory aspects in their patients.

Systemic inflammatory prognostic scores in advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

Systemic inflammatory scores may aid prognostication and patient selection for trials. We compared five scores in advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

METHODS

Unresectable/metastatic PDAC patients enrolled in the Comprehensive Molecular Characterisation of Advanced Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma for Better Treatment Selection trial (NCT02750657) were included. Patients had pre-treatment biopsies for whole genome and RNA sequencing. CD8 immunohistochemistry was available in a subset. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, Prognostic Nutritional Index, Gustave Roussy Immune Score (GRIm-S), and Memorial Sloan Kettering Prognostic Score (MPS) were calculated. Overall survival (OS) was estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods. Associations between inflammatory scores, clinical/genomic characteristics, and OS were analysed.

RESULTS

We analysed 263 patients. High-risk NLR, GRIm-S and MPS were poorly prognostic. The GRIm-S had the highest predictive ability: median OS 6.4 vs. 10 months for high risk vs. low-risk (P < 0.001); HR 2.26 (P < 0.001). ECOG ≥ 1, the basal-like subtype, and low-HRDetect were additional poor prognostic factors (P < 0.01). Inflammatory scores did not associate with RNA-based classifiers or homologous recombination repair deficiency genotypes. High-risk MPS (P = 0.04) and GRIm-S (P = 0.02) patients had lower median CD8 + tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes.

CONCLUSIONS

Inflammatory scores incorporating NLR have prognostic value in advanced PDAC. Understanding immunophenotypes of poor-risk patients and using these scores in trials will advance the field.

Circulating Protein Biomarkers for Prognostic Use in Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Undergoing Chemotherapy

Patients with advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) have a dismal prognosis. We aimed to find a prognostic protein signature for overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced PDAC, and to explore whether early changes in circulating-protein levels could predict survival. We investigated 92 proteins using the Olink Immuno-Oncology panel in serum samples from 363 patients with advanced PDAC. Protein panels for several survival cut-offs were developed independently by two bioinformaticians using LASSO and Ridge regression models. Two panels of proteins discriminated patients with OS < 90 days from those with OS > 2 years. Index I (CSF-1, IL-6, PDCD1, TNFRSF12A, TRAIL, TWEAK, and CA19-9) had AUCs of 0.99 (95% CI: 0.98−1) (discovery cohort) and 0.89 (0.74−1) (replication cohort). For Index II (CXCL13, IL-6, PDCD1, and TNFRSF12A), the corresponding AUCs were 0.97 (0.93−1) and 0.82 (0.68−0.96). Four proteins (ANGPT2, IL-6, IL-10, and TNFRSF12A) were associated with survival across all treatment groups. Longitudinal samples revealed several changes, including four proteins that were also part of the prognostic signatures (CSF-1, CXCL13, IL-6, TNFRSF12A). This study identified two circulating-protein indices with the potential to identify patients with advanced PDAC with very short OS and with long OS.

First-line gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel versus FOLFIRINOX for metastatic pancreatic cancer in a real-world population

Aim: To compare the overall survival (OS) among patients who received first-line modified gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel (G/nab-P) or 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan and oxaliplatin (mFOLFIRINOX) for metastatic pancreatic cancer. Methods: A single-center, retrospective, real-world study was conducted. Results: The median OS was 9.4 months versus 7.5 months in the mFOLFIRINOX and modified G/Nab-P groups, respectively (p = 0.16). An exploratory subgroup analysis excluding patients who received one infusion and had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance score of 2 demonstrated similar OS of 11.3 months and 8.9 months, respectively. Median progression-free survival and time-to-treatment failure were not significantly different. Higher rates of adverse events were noted with mFOLFIRINOX. Conclusion: mFOLFIRINOX did not significantly prolong OS compared with modified G/nab-P and was associated with increased toxicities.

Frailty is associated with poor prognosis after resection for pancreatic cancer

BACKGROUND

With population aging, the number of frail patients with pancreatic cancer has increased. The Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) is a simple and validated tool to assess frailty, and higher scores predict worse clinical outcomes after cardiovascular surgery. In this retrospective study, we aimed to examine the association of preoperative frailty with prognosis after resection for pancreatic cancer.

METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed data from 142 consecutive patients undergoing resection for pancreatic cancer between April 2010 and December 2018. We used the CFS: 1 (very fit) to 9 (terminally ill) to assess frailty and examined associations of the CFS scores with recurrence-free survival (RFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS). Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs), controlling for potential confounders.

RESULTS

Of the 142 patients, 113 (80%) had CFS scores of ≤ 3, 13 (9.2%) scores of 4, and 16 (11%) scores of ≥ 5. Scores of ≥ 5 on the CFS were associated with worse CSS (univariable HR: 2.62, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.19-5.18, P = 0.019; multivariable HR: 2.49, 95% CI 1.05-5.34, P = 0.039) and OS (univariable HR: 2.42, 95% CI 1.19-4.46, P = 0.016; multivariable HR: 2.25, 95% CI 1.05-4.43, P = 0.038). The association between CFS scores and RFS was not significant in multivariable analysis (univariable HR: 2.11, 95% CI 1.08-3.79, P = 0.030; multivariable HR: 1.47, 95% CI 0.71-2.83, P = 0.29).

CONCLUSION

Higher scores on the CFS are associated with worse CSS and OS after resection for pancreatic cancer. Preoperative measurement of frailty may improve risk assessment among patients with pancreatic cancer.