Efficacy and safety of programmed death 1 inhibitors in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis

Efficacy and Safety of Nanoadministration in the Treatment of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Is Good to Some Extent: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a nanodrug delivery regimen compared with conventional drug administration for the treatment of lung cancer. Materials and Methods. Studies were retrieved through PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect. Primary and secondary outcome measures, including overall response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and adverse events, were extracted from the retrieved literature and systematically evaluated. Results. Six trials, including 4806 advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients, were included in this study. Compared with conventional drug administration in the treatment of lung cancer, the nanodrug delivery regimen improved the ORR (risk ratio = 1.43, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.25–1.63, $p\le 0.001$ ), prolonged PFS (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.76–0.92, $p\le 0.001$ ), and obtained superior OS (HR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.83–0.99, $p\le 0.001$ ). Regarding safety, the incidence of neutropenia, alopecia, sensory neuropathy, myalgia, and arthralgia was lower in the nanoadministration group, but the risk of thrombocytopenia, anaemia, and nausea was increased. Conclusion. Nanodrug administration is safe and effective in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer to some extent.

ARL14 as a Prognostic Biomarker in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Purpose

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The mechanisms underlying NSCLC initiation and progression require further investigation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of ADP ribosylation factor-like GTPase 14 (ARL14) related to the progression of NSCLC.

Patients and Methods

We analyzed the correlation between clinical characteristics and ARL14 expression using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Kaplan–Meier analysis was conducted to evaluate the prognostic value of ARL14 in NSCLC. Functions of ARL14 were identified by enrichment analysis. The relationship between ARL14 expression and immune cell infiltration was also studied. Furthermore, ARL14 expression was examined using immunohistochemistry, and its clinical significance was analyzed in 120 patients with NSCLC.

Results

Our study revealed that the expression level of ARL14 in patients with NSCLC was higher than that in normal tissues. Using TCGA data, higher ARL14 expression in lung adenocarcinoma was associated with residual tumor (P = 0.017), while it was associated with age (P = 0.003) and N stage (P = 0.009) in lung squamous cell carcinoma. Similar results were obtained from 120 patients with NSCLC. High ARL14 expression was associated with poor overall survival and progression-free survival in NSCLC. Multivariate analysis revealed that ARL14 was an independent risk factor for patients with NSCLC. Functional enrichment analysis indicated that ARL14 was related to the occurrence and development of tumors.

Conclusion

Increased ARL14 expression was considerably correlated with poor survival in NSCLC, and it might be a promising prognostic biomarker for NSCLC.

Seven autophagy-related lncRNAs are associated with the tumor immune microenvironment in predicting survival risk of nonsmall cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND

Nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) ranks first among global cancer-related deaths. Despite the emergence of various immunological and targeted therapies, immune tolerance remains a barrier to treatment.

METHODS

It has been found that this obstacle can be overcome by targeting autophagy-related genes (ATGs). ATGs were screened by coexpression analysis and the genes related to the prognosis of lung cancer were screened using Kaplan-Meier (K-M) survival analysis, univariate Cox regression and multivariate Cox regression. The prognostic risk model of ATGs was constructed and verified using K-M survival analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

RESULTS

The prognostic risk model of ATGs was constructed. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) showed that the function and pathway of ATG enrichment were closely related to immune cell function. CIBERSORT, LM22 matrix and Pearson correlation analysis showed that risk signals were significantly correlated with immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoint genes.

CONCLUSIONS

We identified and independently verified the ATG (AL691432.2, MMP2-AS1, AC124067.2, CRNDE, ABALON, AL161431.1, NKILA) in NSCLC patients and found that immune regulation in the tumor microenvironment is closely related to this gene.

Nivolumab monotherapy or combination therapy with ipilimumab for lung cancer: a systemic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The high incidence and mortality of lung cancer have seriously affected human life and health. Nivolumab is a monoclonal antibody that can inhibit programmed death 1 (PD-1) and Ipilimumab is a monoclonal antibody against CTLA-4(cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4), both of which can prevent the immune escape of tumor cells. Our goal was to synthesize evidence from published randomized controlled trials involving the safety and efficacy of either Nivolumab alone or in combination for the treatment of unresectable lung cancer.

METHODS

We searched the following electronic databases: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane libraries, and screened the retrieved records for eligibility. We used the Stata16 software for the analyses. The results of the analysis are expressed as hazard ratios (HRs) or risk ratios (RRs) and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI).

RESULTS

The final analysis included seven trials involving 3817 patients. Among patients with advanced lung cancer, patients using immunotherapy had better overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and an objective response rate (ORR) than patients receiving chemotherapy. The HR of Nivolumab monotherapy or combination therapy with OS was compared with that of chemotherapy (HR: 0.73, 95% CI 0.64-0.83; HR: 0.67, 95% CI 0.55-0.81), and the HR of PFS was (HR: 0.81, 95% CI 0.69-0.94; HR: 0.67, 95% CI 0.55-0.82).

CONCLUSIONS

Immunotherapy has been shown to have more clinically meaningful survival benefits for patients with lung cancer, whether monotherapy or combination immunotherapy. CRD42020213440.

A novel immune-related long non-coding RNA signature improves the prognosis prediction in the context of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

The tumor immune microenvironment plays an important role in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Reliable prognostic signatures able to accurately predict the immune landscape and survival rate of HNSCC patients are crucial to ensure an individualized/effective treatment. Here, we used HNSCC transcriptomic and clinical data retrieved from The Cancer Genome Atlas and identified differentially expressed immune-related long non-coding RNAs (DEirlncRNAs). DEirlncRNA pairs were recognized using univariate analysis. Cox and Lasso regression analyses were used to determine the association between DEirlncRNA pairs and the patients’ overall survival and build the prediction model. Receiver operating characteristic curves and Kaplan–Meier survival curves were used to validate the prediction model. We then reevaluated the model based on the clinical factors, tumor-infiltrating immune cells, chemotherapeutic efficacy, and immunosuppression biomarkers. We built a risk score model based on 18 DEirlncRNA pairs, closely related to the overall survival of patients (hazard ratio: 1.376; 95% confidence interval: 1.302–1.453; P < 0.0001). Compared with two recently published lncRNA signatures, our DEirlncRNA pair signature had a higher area under the curve, indicating better prognostic performance. Additionally, the signature score positively correlated with aggressive HNSCC outcomes (low immunity score, significantly reduced CD8 + T cell infiltration, and low expression of immunosuppression biomarkers). However, high-risk patients might have high chemosensitivity. Overall, the lncRNAs signature established here shows promising clinical prediction and the effective disclosure of the tumor immune microenvironment in HNSCC patients; therefore, such signature might help distinguish patients that could benefit from immunotherapy.