Integrating immunotherapy into chemoradiation regimens for medically inoperable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Anlotinib Hydrochloride and PD-1 Blockade as a Salvage Second-Line Treatment in Patients with Progress of Local Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in Half a Year After Standard Treatment

Purpose

As for local advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), synchronous radiotherapy and chemotherapy is the standard treatment mode. But for patients with progress in half a year, which means the second-line chemotherapy effect is not ideal for them. We observed the efficacy and safety of anlotinib hydrochloride combined with PD-1 blockade as the second-line treatment for those patients in this trial.

Patients and Methods

From January 2018 to December 2019, 57 patients with the progress of local advanced NSCLC treated with anlotinib plus PD-1 blockade until disease progression or intolerance as a result of adverse events. Patients have been assessed using computed tomography prior to treatment and during follow-up every 2 months until disease progression or death. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR). The secondary endpoints included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and safety. Survival curves were created using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results

57 patients were enrolled. The median age was 64 years, and 61.4% of the patients were men. The ORR was 50.9% with a median OS time of 14 months and the 1-year OS rates and PFS rates were 81.8% and 33.3%, respectively. The patients with squamous cell carcinoma, no brain or liver metastases had longer PFS than patients with liver metastasis. When the PFS was calculated from the time of second treatment, the median PFS was 9 months. Most adverse events (AEs) were grade 1-3, one drug-related death was noted.

Conclusion

The expected outcome of this study is that anlotinib combined with PD-1 blockade has tolerable toxicity and better ORR, OS than second-line chemotherapy. The results may indicate additional treatment options for patients with progress of local advance NSCLC in half a year after standard treatment.

The utilization of immunotherapy with radiation therapy in lung cancer: a narrative review

Despite decreasing smoking rates, lung cancer remains the leading cause of death from cancer in the United States. Radiation therapy has been established as an effective locoregional therapy for both early stage and locally advanced disease and is known to stimulate local immune response. Past treatment paradigms have established the role of combining cytotoxic chemotherapy regimens and radiation therapy to help address the local and systemic nature of lung cancer. However, these regimens have limitations in their tolerability due to toxicity. Additionally, cytotoxic chemotherapy has limited efficacy in preventing systemic spread of lung cancer. Newer systemic agents such as immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown improved survival in metastatic and locally advanced lung cancer and have the advantage of more limited toxicity profiles compared to cytotoxic chemotherapy. Furthermore, improved overall response rates and systemic tumor responses have been observed with the combination of radiation therapy and immunotherapy, leading to numerous active clinical trials evaluating the combination of immune checkpoint inhibition with radiotherapy. This comprehensive review discusses the current clinical data and ongoing studies evaluating the combination of radiation therapy and immunotherapy in both non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

Phase 1 Trial of Pembrolizumab Administered Concurrently With Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Nonrandomized Controlled Trial

Importance

Consolidative programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L) inhibition after chemoradiotherapy improves overall survival and progression-free survival (PFS) for stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and requires safety evaluation for incorporation of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibition at the onset of chemoradiotherapy.

Objective

To determine the safety and tolerability of PD-1 inhibition concurrently with definitive chemoradiotherapy for NSCLC.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This phase 1 prospective multicenter nonrandomized controlled trial using a 3 plus 3 design was performed from August 30, 2016, to October 24, 2018, with a median follow-up of 16.0 (95% CI, 12.0-22.6) months and data locked on July 25, 2019. Twenty-one participants had locally advanced, unresectable, stage III NSCLC as determined by multidisciplinary review, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0 or 1, and adequate hematologic, renal, and hepatic function. Data were analyzed from October 17, 2016, to July 19, 2019.

Interventions

Pembrolizumab was combined with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (weekly carboplatin and paclitaxel with 60 Gy of radiation in 2 Gy per d). Dose cohorts evaluated included full-dose pembrolizumab (200 mg intravenously every 3 weeks) 2 to 6 weeks after chemoradiotherapy (cohort 1); reduced-dose pembrolizumab (100 mg intravenously every 3 weeks) starting day 29 of chemoradiotherapy (cohort 2); full-dose pembrolizumab starting day 29 of chemoradiotherapy (cohort 3); reduced-dose pembrolizumab starting day 1 of chemoradiotherapy (cohort 4); and full-dose pembrolizumab starting day 1 of chemoradiotherapy (cohort 5). A safety expansion cohort of 6 patients was planned based on the maximum tolerated dose of pembrolizumab. Dose-limiting toxic effects were defined as pneumonitis of at least grade 4 within cycle 1 of pembrolizumab treatment.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Safety and tolerability of PD-1 inhibition with chemoradiotherapy for NSCLC. Secondary outcomes included PFS and pneumonitis rates.

Results

Among the 21 patients included in the analysis (11 female [52%]; median age, 69.5 [range, 53.0-85.0] years), no dose-limiting toxic effects in any cohort were observed. One case of grade 5 pneumonitis occurred in the safety expansion cohort with the cohort 5 regimen. Immune-related adverse events of at least grade 3 occurred in 4 patients (18%). Median PFS for patients who received at least 1 dose of pembrolizumab (n = 21) was 18.7 (95% CI, 11.8-29.4) months, and 6- and 12-month PFS were 81.0% (95% CI, 64.1%-97.7%) and 69.7% (95% CI, 49.3%-90.2%), respectively. Median PFS for patients who received at least 2 doses of pembrolizumab (n = 19) was 21.0 (95% CI, 15.3 to infinity) months.

Conclusions and Relevance

These findings suggest that combined treatment with PD-1 inhibitors and chemoradiotherapy for stage III NSCLC is tolerable, with promising PFS of 69.7% at 12 months, and requires further study.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02621398.

Targeting NPM1 in irradiated cells inhibits NPM1 binding to RAD51, RAD51 foci formation and radiosensitizes NSCLC

The ability of chemo-radiation therapy to control locally advanced stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is poor. While addition of consolidation immunotherapy has improved outcomes in subsets of patients there is still an urgent need for new therapeutic targets. Emerging research indicates that nucleophosmin1 (NPM1) is over-expressed in NSCLC, promotes tumor growth and that over-expression correlates with a lower survival probability. NPM1 is critical for APE1 base excision activity and for RAD51-mediated repair of DNA double strand breaks (DSBs). YTR107 is a small molecule radiation sensitizer that has been shown to bind to NPM1, suppressing pentamer formation. Here we show that in irradiated cells YTR107 inhibits SUMOylated NPM1 from associating with RAD51, RAD51 foci formation and repair of DSBs. YTR107 acts synergistically with the PARP1/2 inhibitor ABT 888 to increase replication stress and radiation-induced cell lethality. YTR107 was found to radiosensitize tumor initiating cells. Congruent with this knowledge, adding YTR107 to a fractionated irradiation regimen diminished NSCLC xenograft growth and increased overall survival. These data support the hypothesis that YTR107 represents a therapeutic target for control of NSCLC.

An individualized immune signature of pretreatment biopsies predicts pathological complete response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and outcomes in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

No clinically available biomarkers can predict pathological complete response (pCR) for esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs) with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT). Considering that antitumor immunity status is an important determinant for nCRT, we performed an integrative analysis of immune-related gene profiles from pretreatment biopsies and constructed the first individualized immune signature for pCR and outcome prediction of ESCCs through a multicenter analysis. During the discovery phase, 14 differentially expressed immune-related genes (DEIGs) with greater than a twofold change between pCRs and less than pCRs (<pCRs) were revealed from 28 pretreatment tumors in a Guangzhou cohort using microarray data. Ten DEIGs were verified by qPCR from 30 cases in a Beijing discovery cohort. Then, a four-gene-based immune signature (SERPINE1, MMP12, PLAUR, and EPS8) was built based on the verified DEIGs from 71 cases in a Beijing training cohort, and achieved a high accuracy with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.970. The signature was further validated in an internal validation cohort and an integrated external cohort (Zhengzhou and Anyang cohorts) with AUCs of 0.890 and 0.859, respectively. Importantly, a multivariate analysis showed that the signature was the only independent predictor for pCR. In addition, patients with high predictive scores showed significantly longer overall and relapse-free survival across multiple centers (P < 0.05). This is the first, validated, and clinically applicable individualized immune signature of pCR and outcome prediction for ESCCs with nCRT. Further prospective validation may facilitate the combination of nCRT and immunotherapy.

Real-world outcomes of chemoradiotherapy for unresectable Stage III non-small cell lung cancer: The SOLUTION study

There are limited real‐world data on the treatment practices, outcomes, and safety of chemoradiotherapy (CRT) alone in potential candidates for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) for unresectable non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In this study, we analyzed the safety and efficacy of CRT in patients who underwent CRT and would satisfy the key eligibility criteria for maintenance therapy with durvalumab (eg, no progression after CRT) in real‐world settings (m‐sub) for unresectable Stage III NSCLC between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2015 at 12 sites in Japan. The m‐sub comprised 214 patients with a median follow‐up of 31.6 months (range 1.9‐65.8 months). Median overall survival (OS) and progression‐free survival (PFS) from completing CRT were 36.4 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 28.1 months to not reached) and 9.5 months (95% CI 7.7‐11.7 months), respectively. Consolidation chemotherapy did not influence OS or PFS. Median PFS was 16.9 vs 9.1 months in patients with vs without epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations, with PFS rates of ~20% at 3‐4 years. Pneumonitis was the most common adverse event (according to MedDRA version 21.0J), and about half of events were grade 1. Pneumonitis mostly occurred 10‐24 weeks after starting CRT, peaking at 18‐20 weeks. Esophagitis and dermatitis generally occurred from 0 to 4 weeks, peaking at 2‐4 weeks after starting CRT. Pericarditis was rare and occurred sporadically. In conclusion, the results of the m‐sub provide real‐world insight into the outcomes of CRT, and will be useful for future evaluations of ICI maintenance therapy after CRT.

Combining Immunotherapy with Radiation Therapy in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have recently been demonstrated to improve survival in metastatic and locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Radiation therapy has a well-established role in the treatment of NSCLC and has more recently been shown to be immunostimulatory, with the potential to enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy. This comprehensive review details the current roles of radiation therapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors in NSCLC, discusses the intersection of these two modalities and their potential to have combined synergistic responses, and highlights existing preclinical and clinical data and ongoing clinical trials of combined immunotherapy and radiotherapy across all NSCLC stages.

Clinical significance of pretreatment tumor growth rate for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Background

Locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) may exhibit significant tumor growth before the initiation of definitive chemoradiation therapy (CRT). We thus investigated the prognostic value of pretreatment tumor growth rate as measured by specific growth rate (SGR).

Methods

We conducted a retrospective review of 42 patients with locally advanced NSCLC treated with definitive concurrent CRT. For each patient, we contoured the primary gross tumor volume (GTV) on the pretreatment diagnostic chest computed tomography (CT) scan and the radiation therapy (RT) planning CT scan. We then calculated SGR based on the primary GTV from each scan and the time interval between scans. We used log-rank tests and univariate Cox regression models to quantify differences in progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and recurrence based on SGR.

Results

We divided patients into two groups for analysis: those with an SGR greater than or equal to the upper tercile value of 0.94%/day (high SGR) and those with SGR less than 0.94%/day (low SGR). Patients with high SGRs versus low SGRs experienced inferior PFS (median, 5.6 vs. 13.6 months, P=0.016), without a significant difference in OS. The inferior PFS in the high SGR group persisted on multivariate analysis [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 2.37, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.07-5.25, P=0.034]. The risk of distant recurrence was higher in the high SGR group (HR 2.62, 95% CI: 1.08-6.38, P=0.033), but there was no difference in the risk of locoregional recurrence between groups.

Conclusions

Pretreatment SGR was associated with inferior PFS and distant control among patients with locally advanced NSCLC treated with concurrent CRT. Further studies in larger populations may aid in elucidating optimal SGR cut-off points for risk stratification.

Reirradiation for locoregionally recurrent non-small cell lung cancer

Locoregional failure in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains high, and the management for recurrent disease in the setting of prior radiotherapy is difficult. Retreatment options such as surgery or systemic therapy are typically limited or frequently result in suboptimal outcomes. Reirradiation (reRT) of thoracic malignancies may be an optimal strategy for providing definitive local control and offering a new chance of cure. Yet, retreatment with radiation therapy can be challenging for fear of excessive toxicities and the inability to safely deliver definitive (≥60 Gy) doses of reRT. However, with recent improvements in radiation delivery techniques and image-guidance, dose-escalation with reRT is possible and outcomes are encouraging. Here, we present a review of various radiation techniques, clinical outcomes and associated toxicities in patients with locoregionally recurrent NSCLC treated primarily with reRT.

Approaches to stereotactic body radiation therapy for large (≥5 centimeter) non-small cell lung cancer

Although larger (≥5 cm) node-negative non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) lesions are altogether uncommon, their incidence may increase following the implementation of lung cancer screening. A rigorous assessment of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for these challenging cases is imperative not only owing to concerns of increased risks when delivering ablative doses to large volumes, but also due to lack of prospective data, as these patients were excluded from seminal phase II SBRT trials. In addition to appraising the available institutional or multi-institutional experiences, multiple strategies to reduce toxicities are discussed. These include exploration of several different dose/fractionation schemes and regimens, as well as specialized techniques for SBRT treatment planning and delivery. Because these lesions have a higher rate of occult lymphatic or distant spread, the role of systemic therapies (including chemotherapy and immunotherapy) are also discussed. Altogether, the publication of several key reports, entirely over the last few years, has created a more solid foundation with which to utilize evidence-based management for this unique patient population.

Surgical Management of Stage IIIA Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

According to the eighth edition of the tumor–node–metastasis classification, stage III non-small cell lung cancer is subdivided into stages IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC. They represent a heterogeneous group of bronchogenic carcinomas with locoregional involvement by extension of the primary tumor and/or ipsilateral or contralateral lymph node involvement. Surgical indications have not been definitely established but, in general, long-term survival is only obtained in those patients in whom a complete resection is obtained. This mini-review mainly focusses on stage IIIA disease comprising patients with locoregionally advanced lung cancers. Different subcategories of N2 involvement exist, which range from unexpected N2 disease after thorough preoperative staging or “surprise” N2, to bulky N2 involvement, mostly treated by chemoradiation, and finally, the intermediate category of potentially resectable N2 disease treated with a combined modality regimen. After induction therapy for preoperative N2 involvement, best surgical results are obtained with proven mediastinal downstaging when a lobectomy is feasible to obtain a microscopic complete resection. However, no definite, universally accepted guidelines exist. A relatively new entity is salvage surgery applied for recurrent disease after full-dose chemoradiation when no other therapeutic options exist. Equally, only a small subset of patients with T4N0-1 disease qualify for surgical resection after thorough discussion within a multidisciplinary tumor board on the condition that a complete resection is feasible. Targeted therapies and immunotherapy have recently become part of our therapeutic armamentarium, and it might be expected that they will be incorporated in current regimens after careful evaluation in randomized clinical trials.

Acute and Late Toxicities of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Locally-Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

For patients with unresectable locally-advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC), concurrent chemoradiotherapy improves overall survival as compared to sequential chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but is associated with higher rates of toxicities. Acute, clinically significant esophagitis or pneumonitis can occur in one in five patients. The risks of esophagitis and pneumonitis can impact the decision to deliver concurrent therapy and limit the total dose of radiation therapy that is delivered. Hematologic toxicities and emesis are common toxicities from systemic therapies for LA-NSCLC and can result in delaying chemotherapy dosing or chemotherapy dose reductions. Late treatment morbidities, including pulmonary fibrosis and cardiac toxicities, can also significantly impact quality of life and potentially even survival. Recent advances in radiation therapy treatment delivery, better knowledge of normal tissue radiotherapy tolerances and more widespread and improved uses of supportive care and medical management of systemic therapy toxicities have improved the therapeutic ratio and reduced the rates of chemoradiotherapy-induced toxicities. This review details the acute and late toxicities associated with definitive chemoradiotherapy for LA-NSCLC and discusses toxicity management and strategies to mitigate the risks of treatment-related toxicities.