Prognosis of lung cancer with simple brain metastasis patients and establishment of survival prediction models: a study based on real events

Coordination of anti-CTLA-4 with whole-brain radiation therapy decreases tumor burden during treatment in a novel syngeneic model of lung cancer brain metastasis

Lung cancer is the most common primary tumor to metastasize to the brain. Although advances in lung cancer therapy have increased rates of survival over the past few decades, control and treatment of lung cancer brain metastasis remains an urgent clinical need. Herein, we examine the temporal coordination of α-CTLA-4 administration in combination with whole-brain radiation therapy in a syngeneic preclinical model of lung cancer brain metastasis in both C57Bl/6 and athymic nude mice. Brain tumor burden, survival, and weight loss were monitored. Immunotherapy administration 24 h prior to irradiation resulted in increased brain tumor burden, while administration of immunotherapy 12 h after radiation decreased tumor burden. Neither of the treatments affected survival outcomes or weight loss due to brain tumor recurrence. These findings suggest that the coordination of α-CTLA-4 administration in addition to whole-brain radiation therapy may be a viable strategy for reduction of tumor burden for the management of lung cancer brain metastasis.

Epigenome-wide gene–age interaction study reveals reversed effects of MORN1 DNA methylation on survival between young and elderly oral squamous cell carcinoma patients

DNA methylation serves as a reversible and prognostic biomarker for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. It is unclear whether the effect of DNA methylation on OSCC overall survival varies with age. As a result, we performed a two-phase gene–age interaction study of OSCC prognosis on an epigenome-wide scale using the Cox proportional hazards model. We identified one CpG probe, cg11676291_MORN1, whose effect was significantly modified by age (HR_discovery = 1.018, p = 4.07 × 10⁻⁰⁷, FDR-q = 3.67 × 10⁻⁰²; HR_validation = 1.058, p = 8.09 × 10⁻⁰³; HR_combined = 1.019, p = 7.36 × 10⁻¹⁰). Moreover, there was an antagonistic interaction between hypomethylation of cg11676291_MORN1 and age (HR_interaction = 0.284; 95% CI, 0.135–0.597; p = 9.04 × 10⁻⁰⁴). The prognosis of OSCC patients was well discriminated by the prognostic score incorporating cg11676291_MORN1–age interaction (HR_{high vs. low} = 3.66, 95% CI: 2.40–5.60, p = 1.93 × 10⁻⁰⁹). By adding 24 significant gene–age interactions using a looser criterion, we significantly improved the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the model at 3- and 5-year prognostic prediction (AUC_3-year = 0.80, AUC_5-year = 0.79, C-index = 0.75). Our study identified a significant interaction between cg11676291_MORN1 and age on OSCC survival, providing a potential therapeutic target for OSCC patients.