Randomized phase II BGOG/ENGOT-cx1 study of paclitaxel-carboplatin with or without nintedanib in first-line recurrent or advanced cervical cancer

OBJECTIVE

Nintedanib is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting, among others, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor. The aim was to establish the role of nintedanib in addition to paclitaxel and carboplatin in first-line recurrent/metastatic cervical cancer.

METHODS

Double-blind phase II randomized study in patients with first-line recurrent or primary advanced (FIGO stage IVB) cervical cancer. Patients received carboplatin-paclitaxel with oral nintedanib 200 mg BID/placebo. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS) at 1.5 years and α = 0.15, β = 80%, one sided.

RESULTS

120 patients (62 N, 58C) were randomized. Median follow-up was 35 months. Baseline characteristics were similar in both groups (total population: squamous cell carcinoma 62%, prior radiotherapy 64%, primary advanced 25%, recurrent 75%). The primary endpoint was met with a PFS at 1.5 years of 15.1% versus 12.8% in favor of the nintedanib arm (p = 0.057). Median overall survival (OS) was 21.7 and 16.4 months for N and C, respectively. Confirmed RECIST response rate was 48% for N and 39% for C. No new adverse events were noted for N. However, N was associated with numerically more serious adverse events for anemia and febrile neutropenia. Global health status during and at the end of the study was similar in both arms.

CONCLUSION

The study met its primary endpoint with a prolonged PFS in the N arm. No new safety signals were observed.

Incomplete surgical staging in clinical early-stage ovarian cancer: guidelines versus daily practice

Background

Incomplete surgical staging of patients with early-stage epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) has been reported in up to 98% of cases, when based on the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FIGO) staging procedure. The aim of the present retrospective study was to clarify the reasons for incomplete staging.

Methods

The PRISMA (Prevention Recovery Information System for Monitoring and Analysis) technique was used to evaluate cases with FIGO I-IIa EOC based on incomplete staging from five gynecologic oncologic center hospitals in the Netherlands in the period 2010-2014.

Results

Fifty cases with an incomplete surgical staging of EOC according to national guidelines were included. The most common reasons for incomplete staging were insufficient random biopsies of the peritoneum (n = 34, 68%), and less than ten lymph nodes being resected and/or found at pathology (n = 16, 32%). The most mentioned reason for not performing biopsies was, besides forgetting to do so, believing that after careful inspection and palpation, taking biopsies is irrelevant and/or already are being taken while performing a hysterectomy (peritoneum of cul-de-sac, bladder). The value of contralateral pelvic lymph node dissection in case of a unilateral ovarian malignancy was also doubted, influencing the number of lymph nodes resected.

Conclusions

The most important reasons for incomplete staging in EOC are, besides omitting elements by accident, questioning the importance of obligatory elements of the staging procedure. A structured list of staging steps during surgery and more evidence-based consensus concerning these obligatory elements might increase the number of complete staging procedures in EOC.

Features of durable response and treatment efficacy for capecitabine monotherapy in advanced breast cancer: real-world evidence from a large single-centre cohort

PURPOSE

In metastatic breast cancer (MBC) population treated with capecitabine monotherapy, we investigated clinical-pathological features as possible biomarkers for the oncological outcome.

METHODS

Retrospective study of consecutive MBC patients treated at University Hospitals Leuven starting capecitabine between 1999 and 2017. The primary endpoint was the durable response (DR), defined as non-progressive disease for > 52 weeks. Other main endpoints were objective response rate (ORR), time to progression (TTP) and overall survival (OS).

RESULTS

We included 506 patients; mean age at primary breast cancer diagnosis was 51.2 years; 18.2% had de novo MBC; 98.8% were pre-treated with taxanes and/or anthracycline. DR was reached in 11.6%. Patients with DR, as compared to those without DR, were more likely oestrogen receptor (ER) positive (91.5% vs. 76.8%, p = 0.010) at first diagnosis, had a lower incidence of lymph node (LN) involvement (35.6% vs. 49.9%, p = 0.039) before starting capecitabine, were more likely to present with metastases limited to ≤ 2 involved sites (54.2% vs. 38.5%, p = 0.020) and time from metastasis to start of capecitabine was longer (mean 3.5 vs. 2.7 years, p = 0.020). ORR was 22%. Median TTP and OS were 28 and 58 weeks, respectively. In multivariate analysis (only performed for TTP), ER positivity (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.529, p < 0.0001), HER2 negativity (HR = 0.582, p = 0.024), absence of LN (HR = 0.751, p = 0.008) and liver involvement (HR = 0.746, p = 0.013), older age at capecitabine start (HR = 0.925, p < 0.0001) and younger age at diagnosis of MBC (HR = 0.935, p = 0.001) were significant features of longer TTP.

CONCLUSION

Our data display relevant clinical-pathological features associated with DR and TTP in patients receiving capecitabine monotherapy for MBC.

Assessment of protein biomarkers for preoperative differential diagnosis between benign and malignant ovarian tumors

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the diagnostic value of tumor and immune related proteins in the discrimination between benign and malignant adnexal masses, and between different subgroups of tumors.

METHODS

In this exploratory diagnostic study, 254 patients with an adnexal mass scheduled for surgery were consecutively enrolled at the University Hospitals Leuven (128 benign, 42 borderline, 22 stage I, 55 stage II-IV, and 7 secondary metastatic tumors). The quantification of 33 serum proteins was done preoperatively, using multiplex high throughput immunoassays (Luminex) and electrochemiluminescence immuno-assay (ECLIA). We calculated univariable areas under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves (AUCs). To discriminate malignant from benign tumors, multivariable ridge logistic regression with backward elimination was performed, using bootstrapping to validate the resulting AUCs.

RESULTS

CA125 had the highest univariable AUC to discriminate malignant from benign tumors (0.85, 95% confidence interval 0.79-0.89). Combining CA125 with CA72.4 and HE4 increased the AUC to 0.87. For benign vs borderline tumors, CA125 had the highest univariable AUC (0.74). For borderline vs stage I malignancy, no proteins were promising. For stage I vs II-IV malignancy, CA125, HE4, CA72.4, CA15.3 and LAP had univariable AUCs ≥0.80.

CONCLUSIONS

The results confirm the dominant role of CA125 for identifying malignancy, and suggest that other markers (HE4, CA72.4, CA15.3 and LAP) may help to distinguish between stage I and stage II-IV malignancies. However, further research is needed, also to investigate the added value over clinical and ultrasound predictors of malignancy, focusing on the differentiation between subtypes of malignancy.

Estimating risk of malignancy in adnexal masses: external validation of the ADNEX model and comparison with other frequently used ultrasound methods

OBJECTIVES

To validate externally the performance of the Assessment of Different NEoplasias in the adneXa (ADNEX) model and compare this model with other frequently used models in the differentiation between benign and malignant adnexal masses.

METHODS

In this retrospective diagnostic accuracy study, we assessed data collected prospectively from patients with adnexal pathology who underwent real-time transvaginal or transrectal ultrasound by a single expert ultrasonographer in a tertiary care hospital between July 2011 and July 2015. The presence of a malignancy was determined by subjective assessment and use of four prediction models: the ADNEX model, simple ultrasound-based rules (simple rules), Logistic Regression model 2 (LR2) and the Risk of Malignancy Index (RMI), of which three different variants were assessed. Pathology was the clinical reference standard.

RESULTS

In total, 851 consecutive patients underwent ultrasound examination for an adnexal mass. For 326 patients (128 premenopausal and 198 postmenopausal), pathology results were available (211 (64.7%) benign; 115 (35.3%) malignant) and these were included in the analysis. The area under the receiver-operating characteristics curve (AUC) of the ADNEX model for the discrimination between benign and malignant tumors was 0.93 (95% CI, 0.89-0.95). AUCs for the subtypes of malignancy (i.e. borderline, Stage I-IV and metastatic adnexal tumors) ranged between 0.60 and 0.90. Only subjective assessment (AUC, 0.96 (95% CI, 0.93-0.98)) was superior to the ADNEX model (P = 0.01) in differentiating malignant from benign tumors. AUCs for the other models were 0.92 (95% CI, 0.89-0.95) for LR2, 0.85 (95% CI, 0.81-0.89) for RMI-I, 0.82 (95% CI, 0.77-0.86) for RMI-II and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.80-0.88) for RMI-III. At the proposed cut-off of ≥ 10%, the ADNEX model had the highest sensitivity (0.98 (95% CI, 0.93-1.00)) but the lowest specificity (0.62 (95% CI, 0.55-0.68)) compared with the other models. Both subjective assessment (sensitivity, 0.90 (95% CI, 0.83-0.95); specificity 0.91 (95% CI, 0.86-0.94)) and the simple rules model with inconclusive cases classified by subjective assessment (sensitivity, 0.89 (95% CI, 0.81-0.94); specificity, 0.90 (95% CI, 0.85-0.94)) had lower sensitivity, but their sensitivity and specificity were better balanced.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the test performance of subjective assessment by an expert remains superior, the ADNEX model can help in the differentiation between benign and malignant ovarian tumors. The advantage of the ADNEX model as a polytomous model remains to be shown. © 2016 The Authors. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

TOPical Imiquimod treatment of high-grade Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (TOPIC trial): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background

Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) is the premalignant condition of cervical cancer. Whereas not all high grade CIN lesions progress to cervical cancer, the natural history and risk of progression of individual lesions remain unpredictable. Therefore, high-grade CIN is currently treated by surgical excision: large loop excision of the transformation zone (LLETZ). This procedure has potential complications, such as acute haemorrhage, prolonged bleeding, infection and preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies. These complications could be prevented by development of a non-invasive treatment modality, such as topical imiquimod treatment.

The primary study objective is to investigate the efficacy of topical imiquimod 5 % cream for the treatment of high-grade CIN and to develop a biomarker profile to predict clinical response to imiquimod treatment. Secondary study objectives are to assess treatment side-effects, disease recurrence and quality of life during and after different treatment modalities.

Methods/design

The study design is a randomized controlled trial. One hundred forty women with a histological diagnosis of high-grade CIN (CIN 2–3) will be randomized into two arms: imiquimod treatment during 16 weeks (experimental arm) or immediate LLETZ (standard care arm). Treatment efficacy will be evaluated by colposcopy with diagnostic biopsies at 20 weeks for the experimental arm. Successful imiquimod treatment is defined as regression to CIN 1 or less, successful LLETZ treatment is defined as PAP 1 after 6 months. Disease recurrence will be evaluated by cytology at 6, 12 and 24 months after treatment. Side-effects will be evaluated using a standardized report form. Quality of life will be evaluated using validated questionnaires at baseline, 20 weeks and 1 year after treatment. Biomarkers, reflecting both host and viral factors in the pathophysiology of CIN, will be tested at baseline with the aim of developing a predictive biomarker profile for the clinical response to imiquimod treatment.

Discussion

Treatment of high-grade CIN lesions with imiquimod in a selected patient population may diminish complications as a result of surgical intervention. More knowledge on treatment efficacy, side effects and long-term recurrence rates after treatment is necessary.

Trial registration

EU Clinical Trials Register EU-CTR2013-001260-34. Registered 18 March 2013.

Medical Ethical Committee approval number: NL44336.068.13 (Medical Ethical Committee Maastricht University Hospital, University of Maastricht).

Affiliation: Maastricht University Hospital.

Registration number ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02329171.

Lymph-node metastasis in stage I and II sex cord stromal and malignant germ cell tumours of the ovary: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this systematic review is to determine the incidence of lymph-node metastasis in clinical stage I and II sex cord stromal tumours and germ cell tumours of the ovary.

METHODS

Relevant articles were identified from MEDLINE and EMBASE and supplemented with citations from the reference lists of the primary studies. Eligibility was determined by two authors. Included studies were prospective or retrospective cohort and cross-sectional studies analysing at least ten patients with clinical early-stage non-epithelial ovarian cancer who underwent lymphadenectomy or lymph-node sampling as part of a staging laparotomy.

RESULTS

For sex cord stromal tumours, five articles including 578 patients were analysed and lymph-node metastasis was not detected in the 86 patients who underwent lymph-node removal. The median number of removed lymph nodes was 13 (range 9-29). For malignant germ cell tumours, three articles were eligible including 2436 patients of whom 946 patients underwent lymph-node resection. The mean number of removed nodes was 10 (range 2-14) with a mean incidence of lymph-node metastasis of 10.9% (range 10.5-11.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

The incidence of lymph-node metastasis in patients with clinical stage I and II sex cord stromal tumours is low, whereas the incidence in patients with clinical stage I-II germ cell tumours is considerable, although limited data are available.

Are serum HE4 or ROMA scores useful to experienced examiners for improving characterization of adnexal masses after transvaginal ultrasonography?

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether serum human-epididymis protein-4 (HE4) levels or Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA) scores are useful second-stage tests for tumors thought to be difficult to characterize as benign or malignant on the basis of ultrasound findings by experienced examiners, and to investigate whether adding information on serum HE4 levels or ROMA scores to ultrasound findings improves diagnostic performance.

METHODS

This was a prospective cross-sectional diagnostic accuracy study conducted in a tertiary referral center that enrolled consecutive women with a known adnexal mass scheduled for surgery. Experienced level III examiners classified each mass as certainly or probably benign, difficult to classify, or probably or certainly malignant after preoperative ultrasound examination. Serum HE4 and CA 125 levels were measured before surgery.

RESULTS

The final database comprised 360 women, of whom 216 (60%) had benign and 144 (40%) had malignant disease. Examiners were highly confident in 196 cases (54%), moderately confident in 135 (38%) and completely uncertain about their diagnosis in 29 (8%) cases. With a sensitivity of 67% and specificity of 70%, subjective assessment outperformed HE4 and ROMA in the subgroup of difficult tumors. Both tests had low discriminatory capacity with poor areas under the receiver-operating characteristics curve of 0.536 (95% CI, 0.302-0.771) and 0.565 (95% CI, 0.294-0.836), respectively. A strategy that incorporates sequential testing of serum HE4 or ROMA scores after transvaginal ultrasonography resulted in a deterioration in overall test performance.

CONCLUSION

Measurement of serum HE4 or calculating scores using the ROMA as secondary tests does not seem useful for classifying adnexal tumors after subjective assessment with transvaginal ultrasonography.

The value of imaging of the lungs in the diagnostic workup of patients with endometrial cancer

OBJECTIVE

Imaging of the lungs is part of the routine diagnostic workup of patients with endometrial cancer. The present study aimed to determine the incidence of lung metastases in patients with endometrial cancer and to evaluate the clinical relevance of preoperative chest imaging in this population.

METHODS

A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed in four regional and one university hospital in the southeastern part of the Netherlands. A total of 784 patients with epithelial endometrial cancer diagnosed between 2002 and 2010 in five hospitals were included. Patients were followed up for at least 1 year.

RESULTS

Of 784 patients, 541 (69.0%) underwent thoracic imaging and 11 showed findings suspicious for metastases perioperatively or during the 1-year follow-up period. In eight patients, the thoracic metastases were related to their endometrial cancer, resulting in an overall incidence of 1.0% (8/784, 95% CI=0.3-1.7%). These eight patients had high-risk subtypes of endometrial cancer (serous, clear cell or poorly differentiated endometrioid), and the incidence was 4.1% (8/193, 95% CI=1.9-8.3%) for these subtypes. Lung metastases were not detected in any of the patients with low-risk subtypes of endometrial cancer (n=566) at the time of diagnosis (95% CI=0-0.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

The probability of detecting thoracic metastases during the diagnostic workup of patients with endometrial cancer is low. The present data suggest that thoracic imaging could be omitted from the diagnostic workup of patients with low-risk endometrial cancer.

Role of diaphragmatic surgery in 69 patients with ovarian carcinoma

Diaphragmatic stripping or coagulation is a technique aiming to optimally cytoreduce ovarian cancer. We investigated the complications, the overall survival, and the relapse rate following this procedure. Records of 69 patients with diaphragmatic involvement who underwent debulking surgery between September 1993 and December 2001 were reviewed. A total of 69 patients underwent diaphragmatic surgery as part of cytoreductive surgery for epithelial ovarian cancer. In 17 cases, the diaphragmatic tumors were stripped from the muscle, in 22 cases coagulated, and in 30 cases stripped and coagulated. Postoperative complications were pleural effusion (41 cases, 3 needed a chest drain, 7 needed a pleural puncture, 1 needed both) and pneumothorax (4 cases, 1 needed a chest drain). In one case of bilateral pleural effusion, the patient developed pneumonia. In one case of pleural effusion on the right side, the patient needed a pleural puncture and developed a partial atelectasis of the middle lobe of the right lung. The median overall survival was 66 months in the stripping group compared with 49 months in the coagulation group. In 56 cases (81%), the patient developed a relapse, and the first site of relapse was the diaphragm in 11 cases (20%). We conclude that diaphragmatic resection is an important part of optimal debulking surgery with an acceptable morbidity.

Metastatic breast cancer: sequencing hormonal therapy and positioning of fulvestrant

Fulvestrant, a novel estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist with no agonist effects, binds, blocks, and degrades the ER, thereby downregulating cellular ER levels, which in turn leads to reduced expression of the progesterone receptor. Due to this specific working mechanism, fulvestrant is an important addition to the armamentarium of endocrine agents in advanced breast cancer (ABC). Fulvestrant has been shown to be equally effective as the third-generation aromatase inhibitor (AI) anastrozole in postmenopausal patients with hormone-sensitive ABC progressing prior to tamoxifen. In another randomized phase III trial, it was shown that fulvestrant had similar efficacy to tamoxifen in the first-line treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive ABC. When comparing the side effects of fulvestrant with tamoxifen and anastrozole, it was shown that fulvestrant is well tolerated compared with these agents and is associated with a lower incidence of joint disorders. Clinical benefit on fulvestrant treatment after AI therapy has been reported in a substantial number of patients (28-46%). On the other hand, it was also shown that sensitivity to further endocrine therapy is retained following progression on first-line or second-line fulvestrant (57% and 46% clinical benefit, respectively). In conclusion, fulvestrant provides us with an additional endocrine treatment option making it possible to prolong the time that patients with ABC can be treated with endocrine therapy.

The position of neoadjuvant chemotherapy within the treatment of ovarian cancer

It is clear that primary debulking remains the standard of care within the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer (International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, FIGO, stage III and IV). Debulking surgery should be performed by a gynaecologic oncologist without any residual tumour load, or so called optimal debulking'. Over the last decades, interest in the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy together with an interval debulking has increased. Open laparoscopy is probably the most valuable tool for evaluating the operability primarily or at the time of interval debulking surgery. Neoadjuvant therapy can be used for patients that are primarily suboptimally debulked due to an extensive tumor load. In this situation, based on the randomized EORTC-GCG trial, interval debulking by an experienced surgeon improves survival in some patients who did not undergo optimal primary debulking surgery. Based on the GOG 152 data, interval debulking surgery does not seem to be indicated in patients who underwent primarily a maximal surgical effort by a gynecological oncologist. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy can also be used as an alternative to primary debulking. In retrospective analyses neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval debulking surgery does not seem to worsen prognosis compared to primary debulking surgery followed by chemotherapy. However, we will have to wait for the results of future randomized trials to know whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval debulking surgery is a good alternative to primary debulking surgery in stage IIIc and IV patients.

Predicting the clinical behavior of ovarian cancer from gene expression profiles

We investigated whether prognostic information is reflected in the expression patterns of ovarian carcinoma samples. RNA obtained from seven FIGO stage I without recurrence, seven platin-sensitive advanced-stage (III or IV), and six platin-resistant advanced-stage ovarian tumors was hybridized on a complementary DNA microarray with 21,372 spotted clones. The results revealed that a considerable number of genes exhibit nonaccidental differential expression between the different tumor classes. Principal component analysis reflected the differences between the three tumor classes and their order of transition. Using a leave-one-out approach together with least squares support vector machines, we obtained an estimated classification test accuracy of 100% for the distinction between stage I and advanced-stage disease and 76.92% for the distinction between platin-resistant versus platin-sensitive disease in FIGO stage III/IV. These results indicate that gene expression patterns could be useful in clinical management of ovarian cancer.

Endometrial carcinosarcoma with osteoclast-like giant cells

We encountered a case of endometrial cancer with a poorly differentiated epithelial component, accompanied by a compact proliferation of atypical spindle cells and osteoclast-like giant cells. Immunohistochemically, the epithelial component was EMA and prekeratin positive with vimentin-positive spindle cells, whereas the osteoclast-like giant cells were strongly immunoreactive for CD68. The description of osteoclast-like giant cells adds to the knowledge of endometrial carcinosarcoma tumor biology.

Predicting the clinical behavior of ovarian cancer from gene expression profiles

We investigated whether prognostic information is reflected in the expression patterns of ovarian carcinoma samples. RNA obtained from seven FIGO stage I without recurrence, seven platin-sensitive advanced-stage (III or IV), and six platin-resistant advanced-stage ovarian tumors was hybridized on a complementary DNA microarray with 21,372 spotted clones. The results revealed that a considerable number of genes exhibit nonaccidental differential expression between the different tumor classes. Principal component analysis reflected the differences between the three tumor classes and their order of transition. Using a leave-one-out approach together with least squares support vector machines, we obtained an estimated classification test accuracy of 100% for the distinction between stage I and advanced-stage disease and 76.92% for the distinction between platin-resistant versus platin-sensitive disease in FIGO stage III/IV. These results indicate that gene expression patterns could be useful in clinical management of ovarian cancer.