Prospective comparison of various radiological response criteria and pathological response to preoperative chemotherapy and survival in operable high-grade soft tissue sarcomas in the Japan Clinical Oncology Group study JCOG0304

Efficacy and safety of different cycles of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in resectable non-small cell lung cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

There is no standard consensus on the optimal number of cycles of neoadjuvant immunotherapy prior to surgery for patients with locoregionally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We carried out a systematic review to evaluate the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant immunotherapy with different treatment cycles in order to provide valuable information for clinical decision-making.

Methods

PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library and ClinicalTrials.gov were systematically searched before May 2023. The included studies were categorized based on different treatment cycles of neoadjuvant immunotherapy to assess their respective efficacy and safety in patients with resectable NSCLC.

Results

Incorporating data from 29 studies with 1331 patients, we found major pathological response rates of 43 % (95%CI, 34-52 %) with two cycles and 33 % (95%CI, 22-45 %) with three cycles of neoadjuvant immunotherapy. Radiological response rates were 39 % (95%CI, 28-50 %) and 56 % (95%CI, 44-68 %) for two and three cycles, respectively, with higher incidence rates of severe adverse events (SAEs) in the three-cycle group (32 %; 95%CI, 21-50 %). Despite similar rates of R0 resection between two and three cycles, the latter showed a slightly higher surgical delay rate (1 % vs. 7 %). Neoadjuvant treatment modes significantly affected outcomes, with the combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy demonstrating superiority in improving pathological and radiological response rates, while the incidence of SAEs in patients receiving combination therapy remained within an acceptable range (23 %; 95%CI, 15-35 %). However, regardless of the treatment mode administered, an increase in the number of treatment cycles did not result in substantial improvement in pathological response rates.

Conclusion

There are clear advantages of combining immunotherapy and chemotherapy in neoadjuvant settings. Increasing the number of cycles of neoadjuvant immunotherapy from two to three primarily may not substantially improve the overall efficacy, while increasing the risk of adverse events. Further analysis of the outcomes of four cycles of neoadjuvant immunotherapy is necessary.

Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Transformation of Oncology: Musculoskeletal Cancers

The past 25 years have seen significant growth in the role of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in musculoskeletal oncology. Substantiative advances in technical capability and image quality have been paralleled by increasingly widespread clinical adoption and implementation. It is now recognized that PET/CT is useful in diagnosis, staging, prognostication, response assessment, and surveillance of bone and soft tissue sarcomas, often providing critical information in addition to conventional imaging assessment. As individualized, precision medicine continues to evolve for patients with sarcoma, PET/CT is uniquely positioned to offer additional insight into the biology and management of these tumors.

Current stand on systemic therapy in localized soft tissue sarcomas: a clinician's perspective

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare heterogenous tumors derived from mesenchymal tissue. While surgery represents the primary treatment modality, the high recurrence rates following surgery alone necessitate consideration for systemic therapy in high-risk sarcomas. Despite multiple trials and meta-analyses over the last 3 decades, the role of chemotherapy remains controversial. It is crucial to accurately identify patients with high-risk diseases who may benefit the most from adjuvant and/or neoadjuvant chemotherapy. There is renewed interest in the potential to improve outcomes in localized resectable STSs with the addition of targeted and immunotherapeutic strategies. The review presented here is a summary of current evidence on systemic therapy in resectable localized STSs of the trunk and extremities to facilitate clinician decision-making.

Predicting pathological complete response of neoadjuvant radiotherapy and targeted therapy for soft tissue sarcoma by whole-tumor texture analysis of multisequence MRI imaging

OBJECTIVES

To construct effective prediction models for neoadjuvant radiotherapy (RT) and targeted therapy based on whole-tumor texture analysis of multisequence MRI for soft tissue sarcoma (STS) patients.

METHODS

Thirty patients with STS of the extremities or trunk from a prospective phase II trial were enrolled for this analysis. All patients underwent pre- and post-neoadjuvant RT MRI examinations from which whole-tumor texture features were extracted, including T₁-weighted with fat saturation and contrast enhancement (T₁FSGd), T₂-weighted with fat saturation (T₂FS), and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequences and their corresponding apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps. According to the postoperative pathological results, the patients were divided into pathological complete response (pCR) and non-pCR (N-pCR) groups. pCR was defined as less than 5% of residual tumor cells by postoperative pathology. Delta features were defined as the percentage change in a texture feature from pre- to post-neoadjuvant RT MRI. After data reduction and feature selection, logistic regression was used to build prediction models. ROC analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic performance.

RESULTS

Five of 30 patients (16.7%) achieved pCR. The Delta_Model (AUC 0.92) had a better predictive ability than the Pre_Model (AUC 0.78) and Post_Model (AUC 0.76) and was better than AJCC staging (AUC 0.52) and RECIST 1.1 criteria (AUC 0.52). The Combined_Model (pre, post, and delta features) had the best predictive performance (AUC 0.95).

CONCLUSION

Whole-tumor texture analysis of multisequence MRI can well predict pCR status after neoadjuvant RT and targeted therapy in STS patients, with better performance than RECIST 1.1 and AJCC staging.

KEY POINTS

• MRI multisequence texture analysis could predict the efficacy of neoadjuvant RT and targeted therapy for STS patients. • Texture features showed incremental value beyond routine clinical factors. • The Combined_Model with features at multiple time points showed the best performance.

PET-CT in the Evaluation of Neoadjuvant/Adjuvant Treatment Response of Soft-tissue Sarcomas: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature

➢

In soft-tissue sarcomas (STSs), the use of positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) through a standardized uptake value reduction rate correlates well with histopathological response to neoadjuvant treatment and survival.

➢

PET-CT has shown a better sensitivity to diagnose systemic involvement compared with magnetic resonance imaging and CT; therefore, it has an important role in detecting recurrent systemic disease. However, delaying the use of PET-CT scan, to differentiate tumor recurrence from benign fluorodeoxyglucose uptake changes after surgical treatment and radiotherapy, is essential.

➢

PET-CT limitations such as difficult differentiation between benign inflammatory and malignant processes, inefficient discrimination between benign soft-tissue tumors and STSs, and low sensitivity when evaluating small pulmonary metastases must be of special consideration.

Exploratory analysis of tumor imaging in a Phase 2 trial with cabozantinib in gastrointestinal stromal tumor: lessons learned from study EORTC STBSG 1317 'CaboGIST'

BACKGROUND

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are malignant mesenchymal tumors arising in the gastrointestinal tract. Their systemic treatment is based on the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) with imatinib, sunitinib, and regorafenib being the preferred agents. Assessment of tumor response to TKI treatment in GISTs is traditionally done according the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST), while Choi criteria have also been proposed as alternative tool assessing both volumetric and density changes on computer tomography (CT) scans. EORTC STBSG 1317 'CaboGIST' was a single-arm prospective Phase 2 trial which met its primary endpoint, as 60% of patients previously treated with imatinib and sunitinib were progression-free at 12 weeks (95% CI 45-74%) based on local RECIST assessment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We report here an exploratory analysis of local versus central RECIST version 1.1 assessment and a comparison of RECIST version 1.1 versus Choi criteria.

RESULTS

Comparisons between local and central RECIST version 1.1 at week 12 revealed discrepancies in 17/43 evaluable cases (39.5%). When comparing Choi with local and central RECIST version 1.1, discrepancies were observed in 27/43 (62.8%) and 21/43 (48.8%) cases, respectively. A total of 68% of evaluable patients were progression-free and alive at week 12 based on local RECIST, 84% according to central RECIST analysis and 81% when applying Choi criteria. Central assessment upgraded the treatment response both with RECIST version 1.1 and Choi.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this exploratory analysis support the conclusion that cabozantinib is active in patients with metastatic or recurrent GIST after treatment with imatinib and sunitinib and confirm once again the limitations of RECIST to capture response to TKI in GIST, and the importance to include density changes in the response evaluation in this setting. Clinical trial number: EORTC 1317, NCT02216578.

Clinical Perspectives for 18F-FDG PET Imaging in Pediatric Oncology: Μetabolic Tumor Volume and Radiomics

Pediatric cancer, although rare, requires the most optimized treatment approach to obtain high survival rates and minimize serious long-term side effects in early adulthood. 18F-FDG PET/CT is most helpful and widely used in staging, recurrence detection, and response assessment in pediatric oncology. The well-known 18F-FDG PET metabolic indices of metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and tumor lesion glycolysis (TLG) have already revealed an independent significant prognostic value for survival in oncologic patients, although the corresponding cut-off values remain study-dependent and not validated for use in clinical practice. Advanced tumor “radiomic” analysis sheds new light into these indices. Numerous patterns of texture 18F-FDG uptake features can be extracted from segmented PET tumor images due to new powerful computational systems supporting complex “deep learning” algorithms. This high number of “quantitative” tumor imaging data, although not decrypted in their majority and once standardized for the different imaging systems and segmentation methods, could be used for the development of new “clinical” models for specific cancer types and, more interestingly, for specific age groups. In addition, data from novel techniques of tumor genome analysis could reveal new genes as biomarkers for prognosis and/or targeted therapies in childhood malignancies. Therefore, this ever-growing information of “radiogenomics”, in which the underlying tumor “genetic profile” could be expressed in the tumor-imaging signature of “radiomics”, possibly represents the next model for precision medicine in pediatric cancer management. This paper reviews 18F-FDG PET image segmentation methods as applied to pediatric sarcomas and lymphomas and summarizes reported findings on the values of metabolic and radiomic features in the assessment of these pediatric tumors.

Standardization of evaluation method and prognostic significance of histological response to preoperative chemotherapy in high-grade non-round cell soft tissue sarcomas

Background

Preoperative chemotherapy is widely applied to high-grade localized soft tissue sarcomas (STSs); however, the prognostic significance of histological response to chemotherapy remains controversial. This study aimed to standardize evaluation method of histological response to chemotherapy with high agreement score among pathologists, and to establish a cut-off value closely related to prognosis.

Methods

Using data and specimens from the patients who had registered in the Japan Clinical Oncology Group study, JCOG0304, a phase II trial evaluating the efficacy of perioperative chemotherapy with doxorubicin (DOX) and ifosfamide (IFO), we evaluated histological response to preoperative chemotherapy at the central review board.

Results

A total of 64 patients were eligible for this study. The percentage of viable tumor area ranged from 0.1% to 97.0%, with median value of 35.7%. Regarding concordance proportion between pathologists, the weighted kappa coefficient (κ) score in all patients was 0.71, indicating that the established evaluation method achieved substantial agreement score. When the cut-off value of the percentage of the residual tumor area was set as 25%, the p-value for the difference in overall survival showed the minimum value. Hazard ratio of the non-responder with percentage of the residual tumor < 25%, to the responder was 4.029 (95% confidence interval 0.893–18.188, p = 0.070).

Conclusion

The standardized evaluation method of pathological response to preoperative chemotherapy showed a substantial agreement in the weighted κ score. The evaluation method established here was useful for estimating of the prognosis in STS patients who were administered perioperative chemotherapy with DOX and IFO.

Trial registration

UMIN Clinical Trials Registry C000000096. Registered 30 August, 2005 (retrospectively registered).

Imaging response evaluation after neoadjuvant treatment in soft tissue sarcomas: Where do we stand?

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) represent a broad family of rare tumours for which surgery with radiotherapy represents first-line treatment. Recently, neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy has been increasingly used in high-risk patients in an effort to reduce surgical morbidity and improve clinical outcomes. An adequate understanding of the efficacy of neoadjuvant therapies would optimise patient care, allowing a tailored approach. Although response evaluation criteria in solid tumours (RECIST) is the most common imaging method to assess tumour response, Choi criteria and functional and molecular imaging (DWI, DCE-MRI and ¹⁸F-FDG-PET) seem to outperform it in the discrimination between responders and non-responders. Moreover, the radiologic-pathology correlation of treatment-related changes remains poorly understood. In this review, we provide an overview of the imaging assessment of tumour response in STS undergoing neoadjuvant treatment, including conventional imaging (CT, MRI, PET) and advanced imaging analysis. Future directions will be presented to shed light on potential advances in pre-surgical imaging assessments that have clinical implications for sarcoma patients.

Complete pathological response to neoadjuvant treatment is associated with better survival outcomes in patients with soft tissue sarcoma: Results of a retrospective multicenter study

BACKGROUND

Locally advanced soft tissue sarcoma (STS) management may include neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment by radiotherapy (RT), chemotherapy (CT) or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by wide surgical excision. While pathological complete response (pCR) to preoperative treatment is prognostic for survival in osteosarcomas, its significance for STS is unclear. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of pCR to pre-operative treatment on 3-year disease-free survival (3y-DFS) in STS patients.

METHODS

This is an observational, retrospective, international, study of adult patients with primary non-metastatic STS of the extremities and trunk wall, any grade, diagnosed between 2008 and 2012, treated with at least neoadjuvant treatment and surgical resection and observed for a minimum of 3 years after diagnosis. The primary objective was to evaluate the effect of pCR. (≤5% viable tumor cells or ≥95% necrosis/fibrosis) on 3y-DFS. Effect on local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), distant recurrence-free survival (MFS) overall survival (OS) at 3 years was also analyzed. Statistical univariate analysis utilized chi-square independence test and odds ratio confidence interval (CI) estimate, multivariate analysis was performed using LASSO.

RESULTS

A total of 330 patients (median age 56 years old, range:19-95) treated by preoperative RT (67%), CT (15%) or CRT (18%) followed by surgery were included. pCR was achieved in 74/330 (22%) of patients, of which 56/74 (76%) had received RT. 3-yr DFS was observed in 76% of patients with pCR vs 61% without pCR (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that pCR is statistically associated with better MFS (95% CI, 1.054-3.417; p = 0.033), LRFS (95% CI, 1.226-5.916; p = 0.014), DFS (95% CI, 1.165-4.040; p = 0.015) and OS at 3 years (95% CI, 1.072-5.210; p = 0.033).

CONCLUSIONS

In a wide, heterogeneous STS population we showed that pCR to preoperative treatment is prognostic for survival.

Functional image in soft tissue sarcomas: An update of the indications of 18F-FDG-PET/CT

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are a rare and heterogeneous group of tumors. They account for 1% of solid malignant tumors in adults and 7% in children and are responsible for 2% of cancer mortality. They require a multidisciplinary approach in centers with experience. This collaboration aims to update the scientific evidence to strengthen, together with clinical experience, the bases for the use and limitations of ¹⁸F-FDG-PET/CT in STSs. The general recommendations for the use of PET/CT in STS at present are summarized as the initial evaluation of soft tissue tumours when conventional image does not establish benignity with certainty and this determines the approach; in biopsy guiding in selected cases; in the initial staging, as additional tool, for rhabdomyosarcoma and STS of extremities or superficial trunk and head and neck tumours; in the suspicion of local recurrence when the CT or MRI are inconclusive and in the presence of osteosynthesis or prosthetic material and in assessment of therapy response to local/systemic therapy in stages ii/iii. In addition, PET/CT has the added value of being a surrogate marker of the histopathological response and it provides prognostic information, both in the baseline study and after treatment.

Ten-year follow-up results of perioperative chemotherapy with doxorubicin and ifosfamide for high-grade soft-tissue sarcoma of the extremities: Japan Clinical Oncology Group study JCOG0304

BACKGROUND

Soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare malignant tumors those are resistant to chemotherapy. We have previously reported the 3-year follow-up result on the efficacy of perioperative chemotherapy with doxorubicin (DXR) and ifosfamide (IFM) for high-risk STS of the extremities (JCOG0304). In the present study, we analyzed the 10-year follow-up results of JCOG0304.

METHODS

Patients with operable, high-risk STS (T2bN0M0, AJCC 6th edition) of the extremities were treated with 3 courses of preoperative and 2 courses of postoperative chemotherapy, which consisted of 60 mg/m2 of DXR plus 10 g/m2 of IFM over a 3-week interval. The primary study endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) estimated by Kaplan-Meier methods. Prognostic factors were evaluated by univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards model.

RESULTS

A total of 72 patients were enrolled between March 2004 and September 2008, with 70 of these patients being eligible. The median follow-up period was 10.0 years for all eligible patients. Local recurrence and distant metastasis were observed in 5 and 19 patients, respectively. The 10-year PFS was 65.7% (95% CI: 53.4-75.5%) with no PFS events being detected during the last 5 years of follow-up. The 10-year overall survival was 78.1% (95% CI: 66.3-86.2%). Secondary malignancy was detected in 6 patients. The subgroup analysis demonstrated that there was significant difference in survival with regard to primary tumor size.

CONCLUSIONS

Only a few long-term results of clinical trials for perioperative chemotherapy treatment of STS have been reported. Our results demonstrate that the 10-year outcome of JCOG0304 for patients with operable, high-risk STS of the extremities was stable and remained favorable during the last 5 years of follow-up.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

This trial was registered at the UMIN Clinical Trials Registry as C000000096 on August 30, 2005.