The evolving landscape of immunotherapy in small-cell lung cancer: A focus on predictive biomarkers

Prognostic Nutritional Index Predicts Efficacy and Immune-Related Adverse Events of First-Line Chemoimmunotherapy in Patients with Extensive-Stage Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Background

Currently, there is a lack of well-established markers to predict the efficacy of chemoimmunotherapy in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI) and prognostic nutritional index (PNI) are associated with prognosis in several tumors, whereas their predictive role in SCLC remains unclear.

Methods

A retrospective study was conducted at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, involving extensive-stage SCLC (ES-SCLC) patients who received first-line chemoimmunotherapy between January 2020 and December 2021. Peripheral blood biomarkers were extracted from medical records and their correlation with prognosis and immune-related adverse events (IRAEs) was analyzed.

Results

A total of 114 patients were included. Patients with a low PLR, high ALI and high PNI had prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) compared to those with a high PLR, low ALI and low PNI. Patients with a low NLR, low PLR, high ALI and high PNI had prolonged overall survival (OS) compared to those with a high NLR, high PLR, low ALI and low PNI. Cox regression model showed that PNI was an independent risk factor for both PFS and OS. ROC curve showed that PNI outperforms NLR, PLR and ALI in predicting both PFS and OS. The PNI-based nomogram demonstrated strong predictive capability for both PFS and OS. In addition, there was a significant correlation between PNI and IRAEs.

Conclusion

A high baseline PNI might be associated with improved prognosis and the occurrence of IRAEs in ES-SCLC patients treated with first-line chemoimmunotherapy.

Expression patterns and clinical implications of PDL1 and DLL3 biomarkers in small cell lung cancer retrospectively studied: Insights for therapeutic strategies and survival prediction

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally, includes small cell lung cancer (SCLC), characterized by its aggressive nature and advanced disease at diagnosis. However, the identification of reliable biomarkers for SCLC has proven challenging, as no consistent predictive biomarker has been established. Nonetheless, certain tumor-associated antigens, including programmed death-ligand 1 (PDL1) and Delta-Like Ligand 3 (DLL3), show promise for targeted antibody-based immunotherapy. To ensure optimal patient selection, it remains crucial to comprehend the relationship between PDL1 and DLL3 expression and clinicopathological characteristics in SCLC. In this study, we investigated the expression patterns of PDL1 and DLL3 biomarkers in endobronchial samples from 44 SCLC patients, examining their association with clinical characteristics and survival. High PDL1 expression (>1%) was observed in 14% of patients, while the majority the SCLC patients (73%) exhibited high DLL3 expression (>75%). Notably, we found a positive correlation between high PDL1 expression (>1%) and overall survival. However, we did not observe any significant differences in the biomarkers expression concerning age, sex, disease status, smoking status, or distant metastases. Further subgroup analysis revealed that a high co-expression of both PDL1 (>1%) and DLL3 (100%) antigens was associated with improved overall survival. This suggests that SCLC expressing PDL1 and DLL3 antigens may exhibit increased sensitivity to therapy, indicating their potential as therapeutic targets. Thus, our findings provide novel insights into the simultaneous evaluation of PDL1 and DLL3 biomarkers in SCLC patients. These insights have significant clinical implications for therapeutic strategies, survival prediction, and development of combination immunotherapies.

Durvalumab ± Tremelimumab + Platinum-Etoposide in Extensive-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer (CASPIAN): Outcomes by PD-L1 Expression and Tissue Tumor Mutational Burden

PURPOSE

In the CASPIAN trial, first-line durvalumab plus platinum-etoposide (EP) significantly improved overall survival (OS) versus EP alone in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). We report exploratory analyses of CASPIAN outcomes by programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression and tissue tumor mutational burden (tTMB).

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Patients were randomized (1:1:1) to durvalumab (1,500 mg) plus EP, durvalumab plus tremelimumab (75 mg) plus EP, or EP alone. Treatment effects in PD-L1 and tTMB subgroups were estimated using an unstratified Cox proportional hazards model.

RESULTS

The PD-L1 and tTMB biomarker-evaluable populations (BEP) comprised 54.4% (438/805) and 35.2% (283/805) of the intention-to-treat population, respectively. PD-L1 prevalence was low: 5.7%, 25.8%, and 28.3% had PD-L1 expression on ≥1% tumor cells (TC), ≥1% immune cells (IC), and ≥1% TCs or ICs, respectively. OS benefit with durvalumab plus EP versus EP was similar across PD-L1 subgroups, with HRs all falling within the 95% confidence interval (CI) for the PD-L1 BEP (0.47‒0.79). OS benefit with durvalumab plus tremelimumab plus EP versus EP was greater in PD-L1 ≥1% versus <1% subgroups, although CIs overlapped. There was no evidence of an interaction between tTMB and treatment effect on OS (durvalumab plus EP vs. EP, P = 0.916; durvalumab plus tremelimumab plus EP vs. EP, P = 0.672).

CONCLUSIONS

OS benefit with first-line durvalumab plus EP in patients with ES-SCLC was observed regardless of PD-L1 or tTMB status. PD-L1 expression may prove to be a useful biomarker for combined treatment with PD-(L)1 and CTLA-4 inhibition, although this requires confirmation with an independent dataset. See related commentary by Rolfo and Russo, p. 652.

Effect of chemotherapy alone or combined with immunotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic genitourinary small cell carcinoma: a real-world retrospective study

BACKGROUND

Genitourinary small cell carcinoma is rare, and has a poor prognosis. However, effective treatment options for this disease are limited. We present a study to assess the efficacy of chemotherapy alone or combined with immunotherapy for locally advanced or metastatic genitourinary small cell carcinoma (GSCC).

METHODS

We performed a retrospective analysis of patients with locally advanced or metastatic GSCC from Jan 2013 to September 2022 at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. The survival and safety profiles were analyzed.

RESULTS

Forty-two GSCC patients were enrolled, which included 20 with chemotherapy plus immunotherapy and 22 with chemotherapy alone. The median follow-up time was 15.13 months (95% CI, 8.84-21.42). The addition of immunotherapy to chemotherapy demonstrated no significant difference in median progression-free survival (p = 0.37). However, the median overall survival (OS) was 22.97 and 14.03 months with immunotherapy plus chemotherapy and chemotherapy alone, respectively (HR = 0.69, 95%CI 0.08-0.55, p = 0.017). Two patients with immunotherapy plus chemotherapy achieved clinical complete remission. The overall response rate for patients receiving chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy was 65%, which was higher in comparison to those treated with chemotherapy alone (50%). Univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that chemotherapy combined with immunotherapy independently achieved favorable OS. Four patients experienced immunotherapy-related adverse events, with one developing grade 3 hypothyroidism.

CONCLUSIONS

Among patients with locally advanced or metastatic GSCC, immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy might be thought of as a potentially effective treatment option for patients with GSCC.

Comparative efficacy and safety of novel immuno-chemotherapy for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer: a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trial

Background

Recently, several new first-line immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) plus chemotherapy have been approved for patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). However, direct comparisons between first-line treatments are lacking. Therefore, we indirectly compared the efficacy and safety of specific treatment strategies to inform physicians' and patients' clinical decisions.

Methods

The Pubmed, Cochrane, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched from 1 January 2000 to 27 November 2022, for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) assessing first-line immuno-chemotherapies for ES-SCLC. A fixed-effect multivariable meta-regression model was established for frequentist network meta-analysis and hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were computed to compare the effects of immuno-chemotherapies on patient overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), while risk ratios with 95% CI were used for treatment- and immune-related adverse events (AEs). The p score values were then used to rank treatments based on their odds of being the best treatment option. The research protocol was registered with the PROSPERO (CRD42022383254).

Results

Seven studies involving 3822 patients were eligible for analysis. Serplulimab plus chemotherapy had better OS outcomes compared to chemotherapy (HR = 0.63; 95% CI: 0.49-0.82) and ipilimumab plus chemotherapy (HR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.50-0.90). It additionally exhibited better PFS outcomes compared to chemotherapy (HR = 0.48; 95% CI: 0.39-0.60), adebrelimab (HR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.53-0.97), atezolizumab (HR = 0.62; 0.46-0.85), durvalumab (HR = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.45-0.80), durvalumab and tremelimumab (HR = 0.57; 95% CI: 0.43-0.76), ipilimumab (HR = 0.57; 95% CI: 0.44-0.73), and pembrolizumab (HR = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.48-0.86) plus chemotherapy. Serplulimab plus chemotherapy was linked to the greatest odds of effectively reducing the odds of death (p score = 0.87) and progression (p score = 0.99) while exhibiting a good safety profile.

Conclusion

Serplulimab plus chemotherapy exhibited the best survival outcomes with manageable AEs. Thus, serplulimab plus chemotherapy may represent the optimal best first-line treatment option for ES-SCLC patients.

Survival benefit with checkpoint inhibitors versus chemotherapy is modified by brain metastases in patients with recurrent small cell lung cancer

Introduction

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a rapidly growing malignancy with early distant metastases. Up to 70% will develop brain metastases, and the poor prognosis of these patients has not changed considerably. The potential of checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) in treating recurrent (r/r) SCLC and their effect on brain metastases remain unclear.

Methods

In this retrospective multicenter study, we analyzed r/r SCLC patients receiving second or further-line CPI versus chemotherapy between 2010 and 2020. We applied multivariable-adjusted Cox regression analysis to test for differences in 1-year mortality and real-world progression. We then used interaction analysis to evaluate whether brain metastases (BM) and/or cranial radiotherapy (CRT) modified the effect of CPI versus chemotherapy on overall survival.

Results

Among 285 patients, 99 (35%) received CPI and 186 (65%) patients received chemotherapy. Most patients (93%) in the CPI group received nivolumab/ipilimumab. Chemotherapy patients were entirely CPI-naïve and only one CPI patient had received atezolizumab for first-line treatment. CPI was associated with a lower risk of 1-year mortality (adjusted Hazard Ratio [HRadj] 0.59, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.82, p=0.002). This benefit was modified by BM and CRT, indicating a pronounced effect in patients without BM (with CRT: HRadj 0.34, p=0.003; no CRT: HRadj 0.50, p=0.05), while there was no effect in patients with BM who received CRT (HRadj 0.85, p=0.59).

Conclusion

CPI was associated with a lower risk of 1-year mortality compared to chemotherapy. However, the effect on OS was significantly modified by intracranial disease and radiotherapy, suggesting the benefit was driven by patients without BM.

Nanomedicine-based adjuvant therapy: a promising solution for lung cancer

Lung cancer has been the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide for decades. Despite the increasing understanding of the underlying disease mechanisms, the prognosis still remains poor for many patients. Novel adjuvant therapies have emerged as a promising treatment method to augment conventional methods and boost the therapeutic effects of primary therapies. Adjuvant therapy based on nanomedicine has gained considerable interest for supporting and enhancing traditional therapies, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy, due to the tunable physicochemical features and ease of synthetic design of nanomaterials. In addition, nanomedicine can provide protective effects against other therapies by reducing adverse side effects through precise disease targeting. Therefore, nanomedicine-based adjuvant therapies have been extensively employed in a wide range of preclinical and clinical cancer treatments to overcome the drawbacks of conventional therapies. In this review, we mainly discuss the recent advances in adjuvant nanomedicine for lung cancer treatment and highlight their functions in improving the therapeutic outcome of other therapies, which may inspire new ideas for advanced lung cancer therapies and stimulate research efforts around this topic.

Resveratrol analog, triacetylresveratrol, a potential immunomodulator of lung adenocarcinoma immunotherapy combination therapies

Introduction

Resveratrol, an activator for longevity regulatory genes-sirtuin family (SIRTs) and Sirtuin 2 (SIRT2) is an important factor of SIRTs which demonstrated biological function in cancers, but the underlying mechanism is unrevealed.

Methods

We investigated the mRNA and protein levels of SIRT2 in a variety of cancers and the potential role for clinical prognosis, as well as analysed the association between the gene and immune infiltration in various cancers. And an analysis of two types of lung cancer was conducted to construct a systematic prognostic landscape. Finally, putative binding site of the triacetylresveratrol bound to SIRT2 was built from homology modeling.

Results and discussion

We concluded that higher mRNA and protein levels of SIRT2 affected prognosis in various types of cancers, especially in LUAD cohorts. In addition, SIRT2 is linked with a better overall survival (OS) in LUAD patients. Further research suggested a possible explanation for this phenotype might be that SIRT2 mRNA levels are positively correlated with infiltrating status of multiple immunocytes in LU-AD but not LUSC, i.e. SIRT2 expression may contribute to the recruitment of CD8+T cell, CD4+ T cell, T cell CD4+ memory resting, Tregs, T cell NK and positively correlated to the expression of PD-1, also excluding neutrophil, T cell CD8+ naïve and B cell plasma cells in LUAD. We found that triacetyl-resveratrol demonstrated the most potent agonist efficiency to SIRT2 and the EC 50 as low as 142.79 nM. As a result, SIRT2 appears to be a promising novel biomarker for prognosis prediction in patients with LUAD and triacetylresveratrol might be a potential immunomodulator of LUAD to anti-PD-1 based immunotherapy combination therapies.

Potential predictors of immunotherapy in small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) having the worst prognosis. SCLC is diagnosed late in the disease's progression, limiting treatment options. The most common treatment for SCLC is chemotherapy. As the disease progresses, immunotherapy, most commonly checkpoint inhibitor medication, becomes more important. Efforts should be made in the development of immunotherapy to map specific biomarkers, which play a role in properly assigning a type of immunotherapy to the right cohort of patients, where the benefits outweigh any risks or adverse effects. The objective of this review was to provide a thorough assessment of current knowledge about the nature of the tumor process and treatment options for small cell lung cancer, with a focus on predictive biomarkers. According to the information obtained, the greatest potential, which has already been directly demonstrated in some studies, has characteristics such as tumor microenvironment composition, tumor mutation burden, and molecular subtyping of SCLC. Several other aspects appear to be promising, but more research, particularly prospective studies on a larger number of probands, is required. However, it is clear that this field of study will continue to expand, as developing a reliable method to predict immunotherapy response is a very appealing goal of current medicine and research in the field of targeted cancer therapy.

Holistic immunomodulation for small cell lung cancer

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is characterized by a high mortality rate, rapid growth, and early metastasis, which lead to a poor prognosis. Moreover, limited clinical treatment options further lower the survival rate of patients. Therefore, novel technology and agents are urgently required to enhance clinical efficacy. In this review, from a holistic perspective, we summarized the therapeutic targets, agents and strategies with the most potential for treating SCLC, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T therapy, immunomodulating antibodies, traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), and the microbiota, which have been found recently to improve the clinical outcomes and prognosis of SCLC. Multiomics technologies can be integrated to develop effective diagnostic methods and identify new targets for new drug discovery in SCLC. We discussed in depth the feasibility, potential, and challenges of these new strategies, as well as their combinational treatments, which may provide promising alternatives for enhancing the clinical efficacy of SCLC in the future.

Clinical predictors of survival in patients with relapsed/refractory small-cell lung cancer treated with checkpoint inhibitors: a German multicentric real-world analysis

Objectives:

Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a lung malignancy with high relapse rates and poor survival outcomes. Treatment-resistant disease relapse occurs frequently and effective salvage therapies are urgently needed.

Materials and Methods:

We aimed to define efficacy and safety of checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) in a heterogeneous population of relapsed and refractory SCLC patients in a large retrospective multicentric real-world cohort across German tertiary care centers.

Results:

A total of 111 patients from 11 treatment centers were included. Median age of all patients was 64 years, and 63% were male. Approximately one-third of all patients had poor performance status [Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) ⩾ 2], and 37% had known brain metastases. Patients were heavily pretreated with a median number of prior therapy lines of 2 (range, 1–8). Median follow-up of the entire cohort was 21.7 months. Nivolumab and Nivolumab/Ipilimumab were the most common regimens. Overall disease control rate was 27.2% in all patients and was numerically higher in CPI combination regimens compared with single-agent CPI (31.8% versus 23.8%; p = 0.16). Median overall survival (OS) was 5.8 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.7–9.9 months]. The 12- and 24-month survival rates were 31.8% and 12.7%, respectively. The 12-week death rate was 27.9%. Disease control and response rate were significantly lower in patients with liver metastases. Platinum sensitivity (to first-line treatment), metastatic burden, and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) showed prognostic impact on survival in univariate analysis. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was a significant and independent predictor of survival in univariate (p = 0.01) and multivariate analyses [hazard ratio (HR), 2.1; 95% CI = 1.1–4.1; p = 0.03].

Conclusion:

CPI in patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) SCLC is of limited value in an overall patient cohort; however, long-term survival, in particular with CPI combination strategies, is possible. Clinical characteristics allow a more differentiated subgroup selection, in particular patients with low NLR showed less benefit from CPI in R/R SCLC.

Radiation therapy for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer in the era of immunotherapy

Unlike non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the progression of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is slow. Extensive-stage SCLC (ES-SCLC) is a serious threat to human health, with a 5-year survival rate of <7%. Chemotherapy has been the first-line treatment for the past 30 years. The anti-PD-L1 checkpoint blockades durvalumab and atezolizumab have greatly prolonged overall survival and have become the standard first-line therapy for ES-SCLC since the CASPIAN and IMpower133 trials. In the era of chemotherapy, radiation therapy (RT), including thoracic radiation therapy (TRT) and brain radiation therapy (BRT), has shown clinical effects in randomized and retrospective studies on ES-SCLC. RT-immunotherapy has shown exciting synergistic effects in NSCLC. For ES-SCLC, the clinical effects of combining TRT/BRT with immunotherapy have not yet been systematically explored. In this review, we found that studies on RT-immunotherapy in ES-SCLC are relatively few and limited to early phase studies focusing on toxicity. The efficacy and safety profiles of early phase studies encourage prospective clinical trials. In this review, we discuss the best population, optimum TRT dose, proper TRT time, and strategies for reducing radiation-induced neurotoxicity. Furthermore, we suggest that biomarkers and patient performance status should be fully assessed before RT-immunotherapy treatment. Prospective trials are needed to provide more evidence for RT-immunotherapy applications in ES-SCLC.

Long Non-coding RNA HOXA11-AS Facilitates Proliferation of Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells via Targeting the Let-7c-5p/IGF2BP1 Axis

Objective: This study investigates the relationship between the HOXA11-AS/let-7c-5p/IGF2BP1 regulatory axis and lung adenocarcinoma.

Methods: The expression levels of HOXA11-AS, let-7c-5p, and IGF2BP1 were evaluated in LUAD tissue and cell lines. Subcellular fractionation detection assay was adopted to verify the HOXA11-AS distribution in LUAD cells. The interaction relationship between let-7c-5p and HOXA11-AS or IGF2BP1 was validated by dual-luciferase reporter detection. In RNA binding protein immunoprecipitation assay, the binding relationship between HOXA11-AS and let-7c-5p was identified. The cell viability of transfected cells was tested by the Cell Counting Kit-8 assay. The mouse xenograft model was used to identify the effect of HOXA11-AS on tumor growth in vivo.

Results: Upregulation of lncRNA HOXA11-AS was found in LUAD, and suppression of HOXA11-AS could suppress the proliferative ability of LUAD cells. The let-7c-5p was expressed to be downregulated, which played an inhibitory role in LUAD cell proliferation. Let-7c-5p was negatively regulated by HOXA11-AS. HOXA11-AS promoted LUAD cell proliferation, while let-7c-5p had an inverse effect. Besides, IGF2BP1, regulated by let-7c-5p, had a positive relation with HOXA11-AS, while overexpression of IGF2BP1 could suppress the inhibition of silencing HOXA11-AS on LUAD cell proliferation. Experiments on mice confirmed that HOXA11-AS facilitated LUAD cell growth in vivo through regulating the let-7c-5p/IGF2BP1 axis.

Conclusion: HOXA11-AS promoted LUAD cell proliferation by targeting let-7c-5p/IGF2BP1, which could be potential molecular targets for LUAD.

A phase II, open-label, single-arm trial of carboplatin plus etoposide with bevacizumab and atezolizumab in patients with extended-stage small-cell lung cancer (CeLEBrATE study): background, design and rationale

Based on improved survival from the addition of PD-L1 inhibitors in phase III trials, the combination of immunotherapy and platinum-doublet chemotherapy has become the new standard treatment for extended-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). Furthermore, the antiangiogenetic agent bevacizumab showed a longer progression-free survival by targeting VEGF that has pleiotropic effects, including immunosuppressive ones. We, therefore, hypothesized that targeting angiogenesis would improve the efficacy of chemoimmunotherapy. The CeLEBrATE trial is an open-label, multicenter, phase II study designed to assess the efficacy and safety of the combination of carboplatin and etoposide plus bevacizumab and atezolizumab in treatment-naive patients with ES-SCLC. The primary end point is overall survival rate at 1 year, while secondary end points include overall response rate, progression-free survival and toxicity.

Application of Noninvasive Imaging to Combined Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors for Breast Cancer: Facts and Future

With the application of mono-immunotherapy in cancer, particularly immune checkpoint inhibitors, improved outcomes have been achieved. However, there are several limitations to immunotherapy, such as a poor response to the drugs, immune resistance, and immune-related adverse events. In recent years, studies of preclinical animal models and clinical trials have demonstrated that immune checkpoint inhibitors for breast cancer can significantly prolong the overall survival and quality of patients' lives. Meanwhile, combined immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment has attracted researchers' attention and showed great potential in the comprehensive treatment of breast cancer patients. Additionally, noninvasive imaging enables physicians to predict response to combined immunotherapeutic drugs, achieve treatment efficacy, and lead to better clinical management. Herein, we review the background of combined immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy and summarize its targeted imaging as well as progress in noninvasive imaging aimed at evaluating therapeutic outcomes. Finally, we describe several factors that may influence the outcome of this combined immunotherapy, the future direction of medical imaging, and the potential application of artificial intelligence in breast cancer. With further development of noninvasive imaging for the guidance of combined immune checkpoint inhibitors, cures for this disease may be achieved.

Notch pathway inhibition mediated by arsenic trioxide depletes tumor initiating cells in small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is the most malignant type of lung cancer. We previously reported that arsenic trioxide (As₂O₃) inhibited tumor initiating cells (TICs) of SCLC in vitro. In the present study, we aimed to identify the above effect in vivo and shed light on its underlying mechanism.

METHODS AND RESULTS

TICs were enriched by culturing human SCLC cell line as sphere cells in specified serum-free medium. The expression of stem cell markers, CD133 and CD44, and the in vivo tumorigenicity of both TICs and their parental cells were examined. To demonstrate the inhibitory effect of As₂O₃ on TICs, cell proliferation, clone formation and sphere formation assays were performed. CD133 and Notch pathway-related factors were also measured after As₂O₃ treatment. Xenograft models were established by injecting TICs into nude mice. Mice were treated with As₂O₃ for 14 days. Afterwards, the tumor volume and the expression of CD133 and Notch1 were evaluated. TICs obtained by the above-mentioned method showed elevated levels of stem cell markers and increased tumorigenicity compared with their parental cells. As₂O₃ treatment largely inhibited TICs proliferation, sphere formation and clonogenic capacity. As₂O₃ also reduced the expression of CD133 and down-regulated Notch pathway in TICs. Furthermore, As₂O₃ potently inhibited tumor growth, decreased the expression of CD133 and down-regulated Notch1 in tumors originating from TICs.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data demonstrate that As₂O₃ has a remarkable inhibitory effect on TICs of SCLC both in vitro and in vivo, and the mechanism might involve the down-regulation of Notch pathway.

Small-Cell Lung Cancer Long-Term Survivor Patients: How to Find a Needle in a Haystack?

Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive malignancy characterized by a rapid progression and a high resistance to treatments. Unlike other solid tumors, there has been a scarce improvement in emerging treatments and survival during the last years. A better understanding of SCLC biology has allowed for the establishment of a molecular classification based on four transcription factors, and certain therapeutic vulnerabilities have been proposed. The universal inactivation of TP53 and RB1, along with the absence of mutations in known targetable oncogenes, has hampered the development of targeted therapies. On the other hand, the immunosuppressive microenvironment makes the success of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), which have achieved a modest improvement in overall survival in patients with extensive disease, difficult. Currently, atezolizumab or durvalumab, in combination with platinum–etoposide chemotherapy, is the standard of care in first-line setting. However, the magnitude of the benefit is scarce and no predictive biomarkers of response have yet been established. In this review, we describe SCLC biology and molecular classification, examine the SCLC tumor microenvironment and the challenges of predictive biomarkers of response to new treatments, and, finally, assess clinical and molecular characteristics of long-term survivor patients in order to identify possible prognostic factors and treatment vulnerabilities.

Advances in Treatment of Recurrent Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC): Insights for Optimizing Patient Outcomes from an Expert Roundtable Discussion

Second-line treatment options for patients with relapsed, extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) are limited, and even with currently available treatments, prognosis remains poor. Until recently, topotecan (a topoisomerase I inhibitor) was the only drug approved by the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the management of ES-SCLC following progression after first-line treatment with etoposide plus a platinum derivative (EP; carboplatin preferred). With the most recent approval of EP plus a programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor, there are now more therapeutic options for managing ES-SCLC. A number of novel agents have emerging data for activity in relapsed ES-SCLC, and single-agent lurbinectedin (an alkylating drug and selective inhibitor of oncogenic transcription and DNA repair machinery in tumor cells) has conditional FDA approval for use in this patient population. Trilaciclib, a short-acting cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK 4/6) inhibitor, has also been recently approved as a supportive intervention for use prior to an EP or a topotecan-containing regimen to diminish the incidence of chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression. The current review is based on a recent expert roundtable discussion and summarizes current therapeutic agents and emerging data on newer agents and biomarkers. It also provides evidence-based clinical considerations and a treatment decision tool for oncologists treating patients with relapsed ES-SCLC. This paper discusses the importance of various factors to consider when selecting a second-line treatment option, including prior first-line treatment, available second-line treatment options, tumor platinum sensitivity, and patient characteristics (such as performance status, comorbidities, and patient-expressed and perceived values).

Lysophosphatidic Acid Receptor 6 (LPAR6) Is a Potential Biomarker Associated with Lung Adenocarcinoma

LPAR6 is the most recently determined G-protein-coupled receptor of the lysophosphatidic acid receptor, and very few of studies have demonstrated the performance of LPAR6 in cancers. Moreover, the relationship of LPAR6 to the potential of prognosis and tumor infiltration immune cells in different types of cancer are still unclarified. In this study, the mRNA expression of LPAR6 and its clinical characteristics were evaluated on various databases. The association between LPAR6 and immune infiltrates of various types of cancer were investigated via TIMER. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for LPAR6 in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) tissue microarray with patients’ information was detected. We constructed a systematic prognostic landscape in a variety of types of cancer base on the expression level of mRNA. We enclosed that higher LPAR6 mRNA expression level was associated with better overall survival in some types of malignancy. Moreover, LPAR6 significantly affects the prognostic potential of various cancers in The Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA), especially in lung cancer. Tissue microarrays of lung cancer patient cohorts demonstrated that a higher protein level of LPAR6 was correlated to better overall survival of LUAD rather than LUSC cohorts. Further research indicated that the underlying mechanism of this phenome might be the mRNA expression level of LPAR6 was positively associated to infiltrating statuses of devious immunocytes in LUAD rather than in LUSC, that is, LPAR6 expression potentially contributes to the activation and recruiting of T cells (CD8+ T, naive T, effector T cell) and NK cells and inactivates Tregs, decreases T cell exhaustion and regulates T-helper (Th) cells in LUAD. Our discovery implies that LPAR6 is associated with prognostic potential and immune-infiltrating levels in LUAD. These discoveries imply that LPAR6 could be a promising novel biomarker for indicating the prognosis potential of LUAD patients.

Association of the advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI) with immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

Background

The advanced lung cancer inflammation index [ALI: body mass index × serum albumin/neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR)] reflects systemic host inflammation, and is easily reproducible. We hypothesized that ALI could assist guidance of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).

Patients and methods

This retrospective study included 672 stage IV NSCLC patients treated with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors alone or in combination with chemotherapy in 25 centers in Greece and Germany, and a control cohort of 444 stage IV NSCLC patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy without subsequent targeted or immunotherapy drugs. The association of clinical outcomes with biomarkers was analyzed with Cox regression models, including cross-validation by calculation of the Harrell's C-index.

Results

High ALI values (>18) were significantly associated with longer overall survival (OS) for patients receiving ICI monotherapy [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.402, P < 0.0001, n = 460], but not chemo-immunotherapy (HR = 0.624, P = 0.111, n = 212). Similar positive correlations for ALI were observed for objective response rate (36% versus 24%, P = 0.008) and time-on-treatment (HR = 0.52, P < 0.001), in case of ICI monotherapy only. In the control cohort of chemotherapy, the association between ALI and OS was weaker (HR = 0.694, P = 0.0002), and showed a significant interaction with the type of treatment (ICI monotherapy versus chemotherapy, P < 0.0001) upon combined analysis of the two cohorts. In multivariate analysis, ALI had a stronger predictive effect than NLR, PD-L1 tumor proportion score, lung immune prognostic index, and EPSILoN scores. Among patients with PD-L1 tumor proportion score ≥50% receiving first-line ICI monotherapy, a high ALI score >18 identified a subset with longer OS and time-on-treatment (median 35 and 16 months, respectively), similar to these under chemo-immunotherapy.

Conclusions

The ALI score is a powerful prognostic and predictive biomarker for patients with advanced NSCLC treated with PD-L1 inhibitors alone, but not in combination with chemotherapy. Its association with outcomes appears to be stronger than that of other widely used parameters. For PD-L1-high patients, an ALI score >18 could assist the selection of cases that do not need addition of chemotherapy.

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ALI is prognostic and predictive for patients with advanced NSCLC treated with immunotherapy monotherapy, but not chemo-immunotherapy.

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Its association with outcomes is stronger than that of other parameters (PD-L1 TPS, NLR, lung immune prognostic index, EPSILoN).

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For PD-L1-high patients, an ALI score >18 could assist the selection of cases that do not need addition of chemotherapy.

Human leukocyte antigen class II-based immune risk model for recurrence evaluation in stage I-III small cell lung cancer

Background

Immunotherapy has revolutionized therapeutic patterns of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Human leukocyte antigen class II (HLA class II) is related to antitumor immunity. However, the implications of HLA class II in SCLC remain incompletely understood.

Materials and methods

We investigated the expression patterns of HLA class II on tumor cells and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) by immunohistochemistry staining and its association with clinical parameters, immune markers, and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in 102 patients with stage I–III SCLC with radical surgery. Additionally, an HLA class II-based immune risk model was established by least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression. With bioinformatics methods, we investigated HLA class II-related enrichment pathways and immune infiltration landscape in SCLC.

Results

HLA class II on tumor cells and TILs was positively expressed in 9 (8.8%) and 45 (44.1%) patients with SCLC, respectively. HLA class II on TILs was negatively associated with lymph node metastasis and positively correlated with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) on TILs (p<0.001) and multiple immune markers (CD3, CD4, CD8, FOXP3; p<0.001). Lymph node metastasis (OR 0.314, 95% CI 0.118 to 0.838, p=0.021) and PD-L1 on TILs (OR 3.233, 95% CI 1.051 to 9.95, p=0.041) were independent predictive factors of HLA class II on TILs. HLA class II positivity on TILs prompted a longer RFS (40.2 months, 95% CI 31.7 to 48.7 vs 28.8 months, 95% CI 21.4 to 36.3, p=0.014). HLA class II on TILs, PD-L1 on TILs, CD4, and FOXP3 were enrolled in the immune risk model, which categorized patients into high-risk and low-risk groups and had better power for predicting the recurrence than tumor stage. Pathway enrichment analyses showed that patients with high HLA class II expression demonstrated signatures of transmembrane transportation, channel activity, and neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction. High-risk SCLC patients had a higher proportion of T follicular helper cells (p=0.034) and a lower proportion of activated memory CD4-positive T cells (p=0.040) and resting dendritic cells (p=0.045) versus low-risk patients.

Conclusions

HLA class II plays a crucial role in tumor immune microenvironment and recurrence prediction. This work demonstrates the prognostic and clinical values of HLA class II in patients with SCLC.

Antitumor effects of 3-bromoascochlorin on small cell lung cancer via inhibiting MAPK pathway

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) was defined as a recalcitrant cancer, and novel therapies are urgently needed. Marine natural products (MNPs) may bring continuing hope for treatment of SCLC. In this study, 3-bromoascochlorin (BAS), an MNP isolated from the coral-derived fungus Acremonium sclerotigenum GXIMD 02501, was primarily screened out with antiproliferative activity towards SCLC cell lines. Then western blot analysis (WB) and flow cytometry were conducted, and we found BAS could induce the apoptosis of H446 and H69AR cells. Besides, BAS could suppress the invasion and migration of H446. In an SCLC xenograft mice model, BAS inhibited the growth of tumor without affecting the body weight of mice. Finally, the underlying mechanisms were preliminarily explored. According to the results of RNA-seq, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and WB, our results revealed that BAS exerted antitumor activity via inhibiting mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK) pathway. Collectively, these results indicated that BAS can be used as a promising compound for the treatment of human SCLC.

Are Molecular Alterations Linked to Genetic Instability Worth to Be Included as Biomarkers for Directing or Excluding Melanoma Patients to Immunotherapy?

The improvement of the immunotherapeutic potential in most human cancers, including melanoma, requires the identification of increasingly detailed molecular features underlying the tumor immune responsiveness and acting as disease-associated biomarkers. In recent past years, the complexity of the immune landscape in cancer tissues is being steadily unveiled with a progressive better understanding of the plethora of actors playing in such a scenario, resulting in histopathology diversification, distinct molecular subtypes, and biological heterogeneity. Actually, it is widely recognized that the intracellular patterns of alterations in driver genes and loci may also concur to interfere with the homeostasis of the tumor microenvironment components, deeply affecting the immune response against the tumor. Among others, the different events linked to genetic instability—aneuploidy/somatic copy number alteration (SCNA) or microsatellite instability (MSI)—may exhibit opposite behaviors in terms of immune exclusion or responsiveness. In this review, we focused on both prevalence and impact of such different types of genetic instability in melanoma in order to evaluate whether their use as biomarkers in an integrated analysis of the molecular profile of such a malignancy may allow defining any potential predictive value for response/resistance to immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy for the treatment of metastatic small cell lung cancer: Focus on pembrolizumab

AREAS COVERED

The current evidence on the role of pembrolizumab for patients with extensive SCLC is reviewed in this article. Particularly, preclinical and clinical data from phase I/II and III clinical trials, which evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of pembrolizumab for these patients, are summarized based on PubMed/MEDLINE search and relevant articles. In addition, future perspectives on the emerging role of immunotherapy for SCLC are highlighted in light of potentially useful biomarkers.

EXPERT COMMENTARY

Pembrolizumab shows an excellent toxicity profile in recent studies, and significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) but not overall survival (OS) in the phase III clinical trial KN604, in contrast to atezolizumab and durvalumab. The latter two agents have already been approved and incorporated in the daily clinical practice. Further research should be conducted so that phase III clinical trials can validate the potential clinical benefit of this checkpoint inhibitor in combination with other active agents and establish its role in the metastatic setting of SCLC.

Identifying Genomic Alterations in Small Cell Lung Cancer Using the Liquid Biopsy of Bronchial Washing Fluid

Objective: With the rapid development of cancer genomics and immunomics, some new treatments of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) are emerging. However, there are limitations to the clinical use of tumor tissue. Our study aimed to evaluate the potential use of bronchial washing fluid (BWF) in the liquid biopsy of SCLC. Methods: Twenty-one extensive SCLC (ES-SCLC) patients were enrolled in this study. For all patients, four sample types, BWF supernatant (BWFs), BWF precipitate (BWFp), plasma and tumor tissue, were collected before receiving chemotherapy, and one type, plasma, was collected after chemotherapy. All samples were conducted to NGS using the 1021-gene panel. The concordance rates of genomic profiling using NGS in the four types of samples were evaluated. Multiple clinical information was analyzed for correlation. Results: We successfully tested 20 BWFs samples, 21 BWFp samples, 21 tumor tissue samples, 20 pre-treatment plasma, and 13 post-treatment plasma of these 21 patients. The detectability of somatic mutations was 100% for BWFs, BWFp, tumor tissues, and post-treatment plasma, and only one pre-treatment plasma was absent with any mutation. Matched tumor tissue, BWFs, BWFp, and pre-treatment plasma samples were subsistent for 19 patients. For these patients, 204 genomic alterations were identified in tissue samples, while 189 (92.6%), 175 (85.5%), and 163 (79.9%) alterations were detected in the matched BWFs, BWFp, and pre-treatment plasma, respectively. Moreover, we found that the three tumor markers associated with SCLC have a lower sensitivity than genomic alterations. The endocrine resistance pathway was found enriched in hyponatremia patients which may be related to the hyponatremia. The TMBs of BWF, BWFp, and pre-treatment plasma samples all had a strong correlation with that of tissue samples. Both the VAF and the MVAF of mutations in post-treatment plasma were less than those in pre-treatment plasma, which was in accordance with the evaluation of curative effect. Conclusions: For ES-SCLC patients, the liquid biopsy of BWF showed a highly potential advantage to identify DNA alterations, which suggested that genomic analysis of BWF liquid biopsy may have clinical value as a supplement for tissue and blood detection. Through the restricted validation, it can be widely used in routine clinical practice.

Differential Expression of PD-L1 in Central and Peripheral and TTF1-Positive and -Negative Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Background: Central and peripheral location as well as thyroid transcription factor-I (TTF-1) expression was reported to be associated with different characteristics and prognosis of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). This study aimed to investigate differential expression of PD-L1 in different SCLC subtypes, and in biopsy and resection specimens.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 142 SCLC tumor samples using immunohistochemistry to correlate PD-L1 (22C3) expression with clinicopathologic features and survival data.

Results: PD-L1 expression was found in 19.7% SCLCs (28/142) and was more frequent in females than in males (32%, 16/50 vs. 13%, 12/92, p = 0.009), in central type than in peripheral type SCLCs (26%, 26/100 vs. 4.8%, 2/42, p = 0.003), and in TTF-1 positive than in negative SCLCs (23.8%, 25/105 vs. 8.1%, 3/37, p = 0.039). PD-L1 expression was associated with vascular (p = 0.001) and lymphatic invasion (p = 0.001). There was no significant difference in PD-L1 expression between biopsy and resection specimens. On univariate analysis, patients with PD-L1 expression had significantly shorter progression-free survival (PFS; p = 0.026) and overall survival (OS; p = 0.012). Multivariate analysis revealed that PD-L1 expression was an independent prognostic factor for OS (HR, 2.317; 95% CI 1.199–4.478; p = 0.012) and PFS (HR, 1.636; 95% CI 0.990–2.703; p = 0.051) in SCLC.

Conclusions: PD-L1 expression was more frequent in central type, TTF-1 positive SCLCs, and predicted a poor clinical outcome in these patients. Therefore, tumor location and TTF-1 expression could predict expression status of PD-L1, and could potentially serve as clinical response to immunotherapy.

Liquid Biopsy in Small Cell Lung Cancer-A Route to Improved Clinical Care?

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has a particularly poor prognosis despite the high initial response to first-line systemic therapy, and there is a well-recognised lack of meaningful treatments beyond the second line. A number of reasons have been put forward to explain this, including a lack of common, easily-druggable genetic mutations in SCLC and rarity of high-quality tissue samples due to late presentation. Liquid biopsies, including circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) are increasingly used as surrogates for tumour tissue and have the advantage of being easily obtained serially to inform on the biology of disease progression and acquired chemoresistance, and may provide a pathway to improve care in this notoriously refractory disease. Here we discuss the current evidence behind these liquid biopsy methods in SCLC, and how they could be employed in future clinical care.

Immunobiology of Thymic Epithelial Tumors: Implications for Immunotherapy with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are a group of rare thoracic malignancies, including thymic carcinomas (TC) and thymomas (Tm). Autoimmune paraneoplastic diseases are often observed in TETs, especially Tms. To date, chemotherapy is still the standard treatment for advanced disease. Unfortunately, few therapeutic options are available for relapsed/refractory TETs. In the last few years, the deepening of knowledge on thymus' immunobiology and involved altered genetic pathways have laid the foundation for new treatment options in these rare neoplasms. Recently, the immunotherapy revolution has landed in TETs, showing both a dark and light side. Indeed, despite the survival benefit, the occurrence of severe autoimmune treatment-related adverse events has risen crescent uncertainty about the feasibility of immunotherapy in these patients, prone to autoimmunity for their cancer biology. In this review, after summarizing immunobiology and immunopathology of TETs, we discuss available data on immune-checkpoint inhibitors and future perspectives of this therapeutic strategy.

Multiple Immune Features-Based Signature for Predicting Recurrence and Survival of Inoperable LA-NSCLC Patients

Introduction

The immune status of the tumor microenvironment is extremely complex. One single immune feature cannot reflect the integral immune status, and its prognostic value was limited. We postulated that the immune signature based on multiple immuno-features could markedly improve the prediction of post-chemoradiotherapeutic survival in inoperable locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) patients.

Methods

In this study, 100 patients who were diagnosed as having inoperable LA-NSCLC between January 2005 and January 2016 were analyzed. A five immune features-based signature was then constructed using the nested repeat 10-fold cross validation with least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression model. Nomograms were then established for predicting prognosis.

Results

The immune signature combining five immuno-features was significantly associated with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) (P = 0.002 and P = 0.014, respectively) in patients with inoperable LA-NSCLC, and at a cutoff of −0.05 stratified patients into two groups with 5-year OS rates of 39.8 and 8.8%, and 2-year PFS rates of 22.2 and 5.5% for the high- and low-immune signature groups, respectively. Integrating immune signature, we proposed predictive nomograms that were better than the traditional TNM staging system in terms of discriminating ability (OS: 0.692 vs. 0.588; PFS: 0.672 vs. 0.586, respectively) or net weight classification (OS: 32.96%; PFS: 9.22%), suggesting that the immune signature plays a significant role in improving the prognostic value.

Conclusion

Multiple immune features-based immune signature could effectively predict recurrence and survival of inoperable LA-NSCLC patients and complemented the prognostic value of the TNM staging system.

Successful treatment of recurrent small cell carcinoma of urinary bladder with pembrolizumab

INTRODUCTION

Small cell carcinoma of urinary bladder is rare and has an aggressive malignant behavior and poor prognosis. Advanced bladder cancers are treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, however, its efficacy for small cell carcinoma of urinary bladder is unclear.

CASE PRESENTATION

A 54-year-old female, diagnosed with clinical stage T2N0M0 small cell carcinoma of urinary bladder, underwent radical cystectomy after three cycles of etoposide-cisplatin neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Despite the fact that pathological examination revealed no residual carcinoma in bladder in her cystectomy specimen, local recurrence of a 60-mm mass detected in the follow-up investigation 7.5 months later. This was completely treated by pembrolizumab without any adverse effects. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that the tumor had no programmed death ligand 1 expression but it showed CD8-positive T-lymphocyte infiltration into the tumor.

CONCLUSION

Immune checkpoint inhibitors might have curative potentials for treatment of small cell carcinoma of urinary bladder.

The combination of pretreatment prognostic nutritional index and neuron-specific enolase enhances prognosis predicting value of small cell lung cancer

INTRODUCTION

Tumor and immune-inflammatory biomarkers have been demonstrated to be closely associated with cancer prognosis.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aims to assess the prognostic value of pretreatment prognostic nutritional index (PNI), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

METHODS

A retrospective analysis of 301 SCLC patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy was performed. Overall survival (OS) was assessed by Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox hazard analyses.

RESULTS

The median OS for total cases was 15.0 months. On univariate analysis, tumor stage (P < 0.001), pretreatment PNI (P < 0.001), CEA (P = 0.039), NSE (P = 0.010), distant metastasis numbers (P < 0.001), and thoracic radiotherapy (P < 0.001) were found to be the predictors of OS. Multivariate analysis showed limited stage, high PNI, NSE < 15 μg/L, and chemoradiotherapy were positive independent prognostic factors (P < 0.05). Low PNI and NSE ≥ 15 μg/L were closely correlated with a high tumor burden status. Three cohorts of SCLC with significant different survival outcomes were divided based on variable PNI and NSE levels. Patients with high PNI and NSE < 15 μg/L showed the best OS of 24.5 months, while patients with low PNI and NSE ≥ 15 μg/L had the worst survival outcome of 10.0 months. Patients with low PNI and NSE < 15 μg/L or high PNI and NSE ≥ 15 μg/L had the similar outcome of 16.5 and 17.0 months, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Pretreatment PNI and NSE were independent prognostic factors of SCLC. The combination of PNI and NSE enhanced the OS predicting ability, and patients with high PNI and NSE < 15 μg/L had the best survival outcome.

Successful treatment of a patient with small cell lung cancer receiving hemodialysis, with concurrent oral etoposide and radiotherapy: A case report

INTRODUCTION

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an aggressive malignancy that progresses rapidly and easily relapses. To the best of our knowledge, advances have been minimal for decades and the first-line treatment is still platinum-etoposide and radiotherapy. However, elderly patients with severe renal failure who suffer from SCLC usually show more serious drug-related side effects. A large proportion of them cannot tolerate the standard treatment, and their prognosis is poorer compared with that of younger patients. Presently, oral etoposide capsules may be accepted as a replaceable option. We report the case of a male patient with SCLC on hemodialysis who was successfully treated with concurrent oral etoposide monotherapy and radiotherapy and achieved excellent outcomes.

PATIENT'S CONCERNS

A 63-year-old man with severe renal failure was diagnosed with SCLC.

PRIMARY DIAGNOSES

SCLC was diagnosed using transbronchial biopsy.

INTERVENTIONS

He received concomitant single-agent oral etoposide (6 cycles) and local radiotherapy. Etoposide 100 mg once daily combined with thoracic radiation treatment (2 Gy/f, total DT: 50 Gy/25 f), was subsequently followed by prophylactic cranial irradiation plus anlotinib.

OUTCOMES

The patient achieved complete response after 1 cycle and the subsequent treatment was effective without any kidney damage and other severe side effects.

CONCLUSION

Though etoposide capsule is an old drug, its use should be considered in SCLC patients with renal insufficiency undergoing hemodialysis. However, treatment guidelines and research data for such patients are still lacking and further studies are needed. Although recent research focuses mainly on new drugs, some old drugs like etoposide which can bring unexpected positive effects should not be neglected.

Immune Oncology Biomarkers in Lung Cancer: an Overview

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Lung cancer is still the first cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The development of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has drastically changed the prognosis of some patients, but the rate of long responders does not exceed 20%. Moreover, ICIs are not adverse events-free and remain expensive. Therefore, predictive biomarkers of long-term benefit to ICI are required.

RECENT FINDINGS

The two main fields being evaluated currently are PD-L1 expression and tumor mutational burden (TMB). The first one is the only one used in routine practice, and the second is being evaluated in phase 3 clinical trials. In addition, other biomarkers are being assessed as complex signatures, tumor-infiltrated lymphocytes, T cell receptor repertoire, or molecular profiling. The aim of this review is to summarize the current validated or promising biomarkers in lung cancer which could help to better select patients who will respond to ICI.

Long Noncoding RNA H19 Facilitates Small Cell Lung Cancer Tumorigenesis Through miR-140-5p/FGF9 Axis

Purpose

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as gene regulators to drive many important cancer phenotypes through interaction with microRNAs. There have been numerous data about upregulation of H19 and its strong oncogenic function in progression of cancers. However, the function and detailed mechanisms of H19 on small cell lung cancer (SCLC) are still unclear.

Methods

In this study, we investigated H19 expression in SCLC and para-carcinoma tissues. We also explored the function and detailed mechanisms of H19 on SCLC cells via RT-PCR, transwell assay, Western blot, dual-luciferase report assay and RNA pull-down experiments.

Results

In this study, we observed that H19 was upregulated in SCLC compared with para-carcinoma tissues or NSCLC tissues. We also uncovered that H19 could promote proliferation and migration of SCLC cells. Functional investigation illustrated that H19 acted as a sponge for miR-140-5p to regulate its expression in SCLC. Interestingly, we further found that H19 upregulated FGF9 expression to promote SCLC progression via sponging miR-140-5p. H19 and FGF9 were also revealed to have similar expression patterns in clinical SCLC samples.

Conclusion

These data demonstrated that H19 might be a promising prognostic and therapeutic target for SCLC.

A promising treatment option for refractory male primary choriocarcinoma: report of two cases

Male primary choriocarcinoma is a rare and invasive malignant neoplasm for which traditional chemotherapy has limited efficacy. Pembrolizumab is a humanized monoclonal anti-programmed death-1 antibody that has antitumor activity in numerous malignancies. The diagnosis and treatment of two cases of advanced male primary choriocarcinoma were retrospectively analyzed and relevant literature was reviewed to discuss the prognosis and the efficacy of different treatments, including pembrolizumab. The first patient, who presented with cough and hemoptysis, was diagnosed with primary mediastinal choriocarcinoma. He initially responded to the first-line chemotherapy of etoposide, methotrexate, actinomycin D, cyclophosphamide and vincristine, but eventually developed brain metastases. The patient did not respond to the second-line chemotherapy comprising paclitaxel and cisplatin, and he died 6.5 months after diagnosis. The second patient experienced repeated episodes of abdominal pain and was diagnosed with primary neck choriocarcinoma. He received chemotherapy regimens similar to those of the first patient. However, imaging showed no significant changes and his clinical symptoms were not improved. Immunohistochemistry showed that the expression of programmed death ligand 1 on the tumor cells was 40%, and he was administered pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy. He achieved complete response and was subsequently switched to pembrolizumab maintenance monotherapy. He is still alive without evidence of disease 36 months after diagnosis. To our knowledge, this is the first case of advanced male primary choriocarcinoma successfully treated with pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy. Advanced male primary choriocarcinoma is highly aggressive and insensitive to chemotherapy. Pembrolizumab may provide a promising treatment option to improve patient outcomes.

Landscape and Future Perspectives of Immunotherapy in Neuroendocrine Neoplasia

BACKGROUND

Neuroendocrine neoplasms are rare entities consisting of a heterogeneous group of tumors that can originate from neuroendocrine cells present in the whole body. Their different behavior, metastatic potential, and prognosis are highly variable, depending on site of origin, grade of differentiation, and proliferative index. The aim of our work is to summarize the current knowledge of immunotherapy in different neuroendocrine neoplasms and its implication in clinical practice.

RESULTS

Several studies evaluated the efficacy and safety of immunotherapy in neuroendocrine neoplasms, in any setting of treatment, alone or in combination. Studies led to approval in neuroendocrine neoplasia of the lung, in combination with chemotherapy as first-line treatment or as a single-agent in a third-line setting, and Merkel cell carcinoma as a single agent. Results in other settings have been disappointing so far.

CONCLUSIONS

Immunotherapy seems a valid treatment option for high grade, poorly differentiated neoplasms. Future trials should explore the combination of immunotherapy with other agents, such as anti-angiogenic or other immunotherapy agents, in order to evaluate potential efficacy in low and intermediate grades, well differentiated tumors.

Histone deacetylase inhibitors dysregulate DNA repair proteins and antagonize metastasis-associated processes

Purpose

We set out to determine whether clinically tested epigenetic drugs against class I histone deacetylases (HDACs) affect hallmarks of the metastatic process.

Methods

We treated permanent and primary renal, lung, and breast cancer cells with the class I histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) entinostat (MS-275) and valproic acid (VPA), the replicative stress inducer hydroxyurea (HU), the DNA-damaging agent cis-platinum (L-OHP), and the cytokine transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ). We used proteomics, quantitative PCR, immunoblot, single cell DNA damage assays, and flow cytometry to analyze cell fate after drug exposure.

Results

We show that HDACi interfere with DNA repair protein expression and trigger DNA damage and apoptosis alone and in combination with established chemotherapeutics. Furthermore, HDACi disrupt the balance of cell adhesion protein expression and abrogate TGFβ-induced cellular plasticity of transformed cells.

Conclusion

HDACi suppress the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) and compromise the DNA integrity of cancer cells. These data encourage further testing of HDACi against tumor cells.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s00432-019-03118-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.