Treatment outcomes and safety of afatinib in advanced squamous cell lung cancer progressed after platinum-based doublet chemotherapy and immunotherapy (SPACE study)

Detection and Characterization of Methylated Circulating Tumor DNA in Gastric Cancer

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common disease in the world and the fourth most common cause of death. It is diagnosed through esophagogastroduodenoscopy with biopsy; however, there are limitations in finding lesions in the early stages. Recently, research has been actively conducted to use liquid biopsy to diagnose various cancers, including gastric cancer. Various substances derived from cancer are reflected in the blood. By analyzing these substances, it was expected that not only the presence or absence of cancer but also the type of cancer can be diagnosed. However, the amount of these substances is extremely small, and even these have various variables depending on the characteristics of the individual or the characteristics of the cancer. To overcome these, we collected methylated DNA fragments using MeDIP and compared them with normal plasma to characterize gastric cancer tissue or patients' plasma. We attempted to diagnose gastric cancer using the characteristics of cancer reflected in the blood through the cancer tissue and patients' plasma. As a result, we confirmed that the consistency of common methylated fragments between tissue and plasma was approximately 41.2% and we found the possibility of diagnosing and characterizing cancer using the characteristics of the fragments through SFR and 5'end-motif analysis.

Treatment outcomes and safety of afatinib in advanced squamous cell lung cancer progressed after platinum-based doublet chemotherapy and immunotherapy (SPACE study)

Afatinib is an ErbB family blocker approved for the treatment of epidermal growth factor receptor mutation‐positive nonsmall‐cell lung cancer. A pivotal trial demonstrated significant clinical benefits with manageable toxicity of afatinib as a second‐line treatment option in squamous cell carcinoma of the lung (SCC) which led to approval in >60 countries. However, these results were derived from a controlled study conducted in selected patients and are not necessarily representative of the real‐world use of this drug. In addition, data on afatinib use after immunotherapy in this clinical setting are lacking. The aim of this study is to evaluate the treatment outcomes and safety of afatinib as a second‐ or later‐line treatment for SCC and to identify potential predictive biomarkers. As a real‐world observational study, 130 eligible patients with advanced SCC, who progressed after platinum‐based chemo‐ and immunotherapy, will be enrolled. Treatment outcomes and safety data will be collected for both the retrospective and prospective cohorts, and molecular profiling using tissue and plasma will be performed for the prospective cohort. The primary endpoint is time to treatment failure, and the secondary endpoints are objective response rate, progression‐free survival, overall survival, and safety. Comparison of clinical outcomes with respect to the different programmed death‐ligand 1 expression and molecular characteristics will also be carried out. This study will provide additional evidence on the usefulness of afatinib as a subsequent treatment, as well as feasible molecular biomarkers to predict its efficacy in this clinical setting.