Clinical Prognostic Factors in Patients With Metastatic Adrenocortical Carcinoma Treated With Second Line Gemcitabine Plus Capecitabine Chemotherapy

Advanced Adrenocortical Carcinoma: From Symptoms Control to Palliative Care

The prognosis of patients with advanced adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is often poor: in the case of metastatic disease, five-year survival is reduced. Advanced disease is not a non-curable disease and, in referral centers, the multidisciplinary approach is the standard of care: if a shared decision regarding several treatments is available, including the correct timing for the performance of each one, overall survival is increased. However, many patients with advanced ACC experience severe psychological and physical symptoms secondary to the disease and the cancer treatments. These symptoms, combined with existential issues, debase the quality of the remaining life. Recent strong evidence from cancer research supports the early integration of palliative care principles and skills into the advanced cancer patient's trajectory, even when asymptomatic. A patient with ACC risks quickly suffering from symptoms/effects alongside the disease; therefore, early palliative care, in some cases concurrent with oncological treatment (simultaneous care), is suggested. The aims of this paper are to review current, advanced ACC approaches, highlight appropriate forms of ACC symptom management and suggest when and how palliative care can be incorporated into the ACC standard of care.

Supportive therapies in patients with advanced adrenocortical carcinoma submitted to standard EDP-M regimen

PURPOSE

The management of patients with advanced/metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is challenging, EDP-M (etoposide, doxorubicin, cisplatin combined with mitotane) is the standard regimen. However, it is quite toxic, so an adequate supportive therapy is crucial to reduce as much as possible the side effects and maintain the dose intensity of cytotoxic agents.

METHODS

We describe the main side effects of the EDP-M scheme and the best way to manage them based on the experience of the Medical Oncology Unit of the Spedali Civili of Brescia. We also deal with the administration of EDP-M in specific frail patients, such as those with huge disease extent and poor performance status (PS) and those with mild renal insufficiency.

RESULTS

In patients with hormone secreting ACC the rapid control of Cushing syndrome using adrenal steroidogenesis inhibitors such as metyrapone or osilodrostat is mandatory before starting EDP-M. Primary prophylaxis of neutropenia with Granulocyte-Colony Stimulating Factors is crucial and should be introduced at the first chemotherapy cycle. Possible mitotane induced hypoadrenalism should be always considered in case of persistent nausea and vomiting and asthenia in the interval between one cycle to another. In case of poor PS. A 24 h continuous infusion schedule of cisplatin could be an initial option in patients with poor PS as well as to reduce the risk of nefrotoxocity in patients with mild renal impairment.

CONCLUSION

A careful and accurate supportive care is essential to mitigate EDP-M side effects as much as possible and avoid that, due to toxicity, patients have to reduce doses and or postpone cytotoxic treatment with a negative impact on efficacy of this chemotherapy regimen.

Advances in adrenocortical carcinoma pharmacotherapy: what is the current state of the art?

INTRODUCTION

Surgery, followed or not by adjuvant mitotane, is the current mainstay of therapy for patients with early-stage adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). Mitotane, either alone or in association with EDP (Etoposide-Doxorubicin-Cisplatin) combination chemotherapy, is the standard approach for patients with metastatic ACC.

AREAS COVERED

The activity of newer cytotoxic drugs, radioligands, targeted therapies and immunotherapy, both in preclinical and in clinical studies, will be reviewed in this paper.

EXPERT OPINION

ADIUVO trial revealed that the administration of adjuvant mitotane is not advantageous in patients with good prognosis. Future strategies are to intensify efforts in adjuvant setting in patients with high risk of relapse. In patients with advanced/metastatic disease, modern targeted therapies have shown significant cytotoxicity in preclinical studies, however, studies in ACC patients reported disappointing results so far. The absence of targeted agents specifically inhibiting the major molecular pathways of ACC growth is the main cause of the failure of these drugs. Since ACC is often antigenic but poorly immunogenic, the results of immunotherapy trials appeared inferior to those achieved in the management of patients with other malignancies. Radioligand therapy may also be a promising approach. Combination of chemotherapy plus immunotherapy could be interesting to be tested in the future.

Targeted Therapy for Adrenocortical Carcinoma: A Genomic-Based Search for Available and Emerging Options

In rare diseases such as adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), in silico analysis can help select promising therapy options. We screened all drugs approved by the FDA and those in current clinical studies to identify drugs that target genomic alterations, also known to be present in patients with ACC. We identified FDA-approved drugs in the My Cancer Genome and National Cancer Institute databases and identified genetic alterations that could predict drug response. In total, 155 FDA-approved drugs and 905 drugs in clinical trials were identified and linked to 375 genes of 89 TCGA patients. The most frequent potentially targetable genetic alterations included TP53 (20%), BRD9 (13%), TERT (13%), CTNNB1 (13%), CDK4 (7%), FLT4 (7%), and MDM2 (7%). We identified TP53-modulating drugs to be possibly effective in 20-26% of patients, followed by the Wnt signaling pathway inhibitors (15%), Telomelysin and INO5401 (13%), FHD-609 (13%), etc. According to our data, 67% of ACC patients exhibited genomic alterations that might be targeted by FDA-approved drugs or drugs being tested in current clinical trials. Although there are not many current therapy options directly targeting reported ACC alterations, this study identifies emerging options that could be tested in clinical trials.

Phase II study of cabazitaxel as second-third line treatment in patients with metastatic adrenocortical carcinoma

Background

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis. No efficacious treatment options are currently available for patients with advanced metastatic disease with disease progression to standard etoposide, doxorubicin, cisplatin and mitotane (EDP-M) therapy. We assessed the activity and tolerability of cabazitaxel as a second/third-line approach in metastatic ACC.

Patients and methods

Patients included in this single-center, phase II study (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03257891) had disease progression to a cisplatin-containing regimen (such as EDP) plus mitotane, plus/minus a further chemotherapy line. Cabazitaxel was administered intravenously at 25 mg/m² on day 1 of a 21-day cycle, for a maximum of six cycles. The primary endpoint was a disease control rate after 4 months.

Results

From March 2018 to September 2019, 25 eligible patients were enrolled. A disease control rate after 4 months was obtained in six patients (24%). No patients attained a disease response according to RECIST 1.1, 9 patients (36%) had stable disease and 16 patients (64%) progressive disease. Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 1.5 months (range 0.3-7 months) and 6 months (range 1-22.2 months), respectively. Cabazitaxel therapy was well tolerated and only three (12%) patients developed grade 3 toxicity which were nausea in one patient (4%) and anemia in two patients (8%).

Conclusions

Cabazitaxel has a manageable toxicity profile but is poorly active as second/third-line treatment in advanced ACC patients. These results do not support further evaluation of cabazitaxel in this setting.

•

Cabazitaxel is well tolerated but poorly active as second/third-line treatment in patients with advanced ACC.

•

Combining RECIST and Choi criteria could be of value in the assessment of disease response to chemotherapy in ACC patients.

•

Older age, elevated cortisol and LDH blood level correlate with a greater risk of death in multivariate analysis.

Ribociclib Cytotoxicity Alone or Combined With Progesterone and/or Mitotane in in Vitro Adrenocortical Carcinoma Cells

Mitotane is the only approved drug for treating adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC). The regimen added to mitotane is chemotherapy with etoposide, doxorubicin, and cisplatin. This pharmacological approach, however, has a limited efficacy and significant toxicity. Target-therapy agents represent a new promising approach to cancer therapy. Among these, a preeminent role is played by agents that interfere with cell-cycle progression, such as CDK4/6-inhibitors. Here, we investigate whether ribociclib could induce a cytotoxic effect both in ACC cell line and patient-derived primary cell cultures, alone or in combined settings. Cell viability was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazol)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide assay, whereas cell proliferation was evaluated by direct count. Binary combination experiments were performed using Chou and Talalay method. Gene expression was analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR, whereas protein expression was evaluated by immunofluorescence. A double staining assay revealed that ribociclib induced a prevalent apoptotic cell death. Cell-cycle analysis was performed to evaluate the effect of ribociclib treatment on cell-cycle progression in ACC cell models. Our results indicate that ribociclib was cytotoxic and reduced the cell proliferation rate. The effect on cell viability was enhanced when ribociclib was combined with progesterone and/or mitotane. The effect of ribociclib on cell-cycle progression revealed a drug-induced cell accumulation in G2 phase. The positive relationship underlined by our results between ribociclib, progesterone, and mitotane strengthen the clinical potential of this combination.