Apixaban and dalteparin in active malignancy-associated venous thromboembolism: The ADAM VTE trial

BACKGROUND

Low-molecular-weight heparin is the guideline-endorsed treatment for cancer-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE). While apixaban is approved for the treatment of acute VTE, limited data support its use in cancer patients.

OBJECTIVES

The primary outcome was major bleeding. Secondary outcomes included VTE recurrence and a composite of major plus clinically relevant non-major bleeding (CRNMB).

PATIENTS/METHODS

Patients with cancer-associated VTE were randomly assigned to receive either apixaban 10 mg twice daily for seven days followed by 5 mg twice daily for six months or subcutaneous dalteparin (200 IU/kg for one month followed by 150 IU/kg once daily).

RESULTS

Of 300 patients randomized, 287 were included in the primary analysis. Metastatic disease was present in 66% of subjects; 74% were receiving concurrent chemotherapy. Major bleeding occurred in 0% of 145 patients receiving apixaban, compared with 1.4% of 142 patients receiving dalteparin [P = .138; hazard ratio (HR) not estimable because of 0 bleeding event in apixaban group]. Recurrent VTE occurred in 0.7% of apixaban, compared to 6.3% of dalteparin patients [HR 0.099, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.013-0.780, P = .0281). Major bleeding or CRNMB rates were 6% for both groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Oral apixaban was associated with low major bleeding and VTE recurrence rates for the treatment of VTE in cancer patients.

Male breast cancer in the United States: Treatment patterns and prognostic factors in the 21st century

BACKGROUND

Male breast cancer (MBC) is a rare disease for which there is limited understanding of treatment patterns and prognostic factors.

METHODS

Men with TNM stage I to stage III breast cancer diagnosed between 2004 and 2014 in the National Cancer Data Base were included. Trends in treatment modalities were described using the average annual percentage change (AAPC) and estimated using Joinpoint software for the analysis of trends. Kaplan-Meier curves and the multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to compare survival between subgroups and to identify prognostic factors.

RESULTS

A total of 10,873 MBC cases were included, with a median age at diagnosis of 64 years. Breast-conserving surgery was performed in 24% of patients, and 70% of patients undergoing breast conservation received radiotherapy. Approximately 44% of patients received chemotherapy, and 62% of patients with estrogen receptor-positive disease received endocrine therapy. Oncotype DX was ordered in 35% of patients with lymph node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative tumors. During the study period, there was a significant increase in the rates of total mastectomy, contralateral prophylactic mastectomy, radiotherapy after breast conservation, ordering of Oncotype DX, and the use of endocrine therapy (P < .05). On multivariate analysis, factors found to be associated with worse overall survival were older age, black race, higher Charlson Comorbidity Index, high tumor grade and stage of disease, and undergoing total mastectomy. Residing in a higher income area; having progesterone receptor-positive tumors; and receipt of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and endocrine therapy were associated with better overall survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite the lack of prospective randomized trials in patients with MBC, the results of the current study demonstrated that the treatment of this disease has evolved over the years. These findings further the understanding of the modern treatment and prognosis of MBC, and identify several areas for further research.

Apixaban and dalteparin in active malignancy associated venous thromboembolism. The ADAM VTE Trial

Currently, low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) is the guideline endorsed treatment of patients with cancer associated venous thromboembolism (VTE). While apixaban is approved for the treatment of acute VTE, there are limited data supporting its use in cancer patients. The rationale and design of this investigator initiated Phase IV, multicenter, randomized, open label, superiority trial assessing the safety of apixaban versus dalteparin for cancer associated VTE is provided (ADAM-VTE; NCT02585713). The main aim of the ADAM-VTE trial is to test the hypothesis that apixaban is associated with a significantly lower rate of major bleeding compared to dalteparin in the treatment of cancer patients with acute VTE. The primary safety outcome is rate of major bleeding. Secondary efficacy objective is to assess the rates of recurrent VTE or arterial thromboembolism. Cancer patients with acute VTE (n=300) are randomized to receive apixaban (10 mg twice daily for 7 days followed by 5 mg twice daily thereafter) or dalteparin (200 IU/Kg daily for 30 days followed by 150 IU/kg daily thereafter) for 6 months. Stratification factors used for randomization include cancer stage and cancer specific risk of venous thromboembolism using the Khorana score. Participating centers are chosen from the Academic and Community Cancer Research United (ACCRU) consortium comprised of 90 oncology practices in the United States and Canada. Based on the hypothesis to be tested, we anticipate that these trial results will provide evidence supporting apixaban as an effective treatment of cancer associated VTE at lower rates of major bleeding compared to LMWH.

Protein structure-based design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of 5-thia-2,6-diamino-4(3H)-oxopyrimidines: potent inhibitors of glycinamide ribonucleotide transformylase with potent cell growth inhibition

The design, synthesis, biochemical, and biological evaluation of a novel series of 5-thia-2,6-diamino-4(3H)-oxopyrimidine inhibitors of glycinamide ribonucleotide transformylase (GART) are described. The compounds were designed using the X-ray crystal structure of human GART. The monocyclic 5-thiapyrimidinones were synthesized by coupling an alkyl thiol with 5-bromo-2, 6-diamino-4(3H)-pyrimidinone, 20. The bicyclic compounds were prepared in both racemic and diastereomerically pure forms using two distinct synthetic routes. The compounds were found to have human GART KiS ranging from 30 microM to 2 nM. The compounds inhibited the growth of both L1210 and CCRF-CEM cells in culture with potencies down to the low nanomolar range and were found to be selective for the de novo purine biosynthesis pathway. The most potent inhibitors had 2,5-disubstituted thiophene rings attached to the glutamate moiety. Placement of a methyl substituent at the 4-position of the thiophene ring to give compounds 10, 18, and 19 resulted in inhibitors with significantly decreased mFBP affinity.

Primary peritonitis due to Streptococcus A: laparoscopic treatment

Primary peritonitis is defined as peritoneal infection without an evident intraperitoneal septic focus. This is a rare condition and few cases are reported in the literature. We report a case of primary peritonitis in a 23-year-old female that was diagnosed and treated laparoscopically. The challenge for the surgeon is to consider the possibility of this diagnosis, and to avoid conversion to laparotomy in search of a hypothetical septic focus when none is apparent on laparoscopy.

Stereoscopic digital mammogram: Usefulness in daily practice

OBJECTIVES

To assess the benefit of stereoscopic digital mammography in daily practice.

METHODS

Stereoscopic digital (SD) mammography allows a fused 3D view of mammogram. A 4-degree cranio-caudal (CC) angle view matched with a regular CC view allows generating a stereoscopic view. Three breast radiologists reviewed retrospectively 1110 stereoscopic digital mammograms (1075 women) performed between November 2011 and February 2013 with the following sequence: each evaluated firstly conventional mammogram alone, and then integrated SD mammograms. The benefit was quoted in 3-grade scale: 0 for no benefit, 1 moderate and 2 excellent. The concordance between radiologists was evaluated by the W Randall coefficient. Subgroup analysis according to the BI-RADS classification, breast density and type of abnormalities were performed by calculating odds-ratio.

RESULTS

The readers had the same opinion regarding the value of stereoscopic digital mammograms in 87% of cases (962/1110). Benefit was null, moderate and excellent in 8, 52 and 26% respectively. The concordance of radiologists was excellent with a W coefficient above 0.89.

CONCLUSIONS

SD mammogram improved interpretation of abnormal mammograms. This potentially interesting and promising complementary tool might be beneficial in daily breast imaging practice.

Abstract 3119: Comparison of circulating tumor cell (CTC) derived DNA and circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from simultaneous blood sampling of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC)

Purpose: Blood-based candidate biomarkers of disease can be monitored by analyzing CTCs and/or circulating cfDNA isolated from the peripheral blood. Our primary objective is to understand the relative contributions of these circulating factors (i.e., CTCs and cfDNA) to the overall disease profile in MBC.

Methods: Clinically archived FFPE tumor tissue and prospective blood samples are collected through a minimal risk protocol approved by the Mayo Clinic IRB (#16-001540) from patients with MBC and objective evidence of disease progression. Blood samples include 20 mL whole blood in Streck blood collection tubes (BCTs) for platelet poor plasma (PPP); 20 mL whole blood in AccuCyte BCTs for CTCs, WBCs, and PPP; and 10 mL whole blood in EDTA BCTs for PPP. Nucleated, EpCAM+/cytokeratin+/CD45- CTCs are identified, assessed for ER/HER2 status, and isolated using a centrifugation and direct imaging platform that allows for single cell retrieval (RareCyte). DNA is extracted from PPP, CTCs, WBCs, and FFPE tumor tissue using established methods. Targeted sequencing for SNVs/indels is performed on paired WBCs and CTC-DNA, AccuCyte-cfDNA, Streck-cfDNA, EDTA-cfDNA, and tumor tissue derived DNA using the same NGS panel and informatics pipeline (65 genes; CleanPlex OncoZoom; Paragon Genomics).

Results: Tissue and blood samples were collected from 40 patients with metastatic breast cancer. 10 cases were selected for initial analyses on the basis of CTC yield (range 3-113 per 3.75 mL blood); up to 5 CTCs per subject were isolated and pooled for DNA extraction. Plasma cfDNA yields and variant allele frequencies were highly comparable between AccuCyte and Streck collected blood samples. Mutations (range 1-3) were identified in CTC-DNA and/or cfDNA in 9 of 10 cases for a total of 18 detected mutations: 10 in CTC-DNA and cfDNA (BRCA2 N372H, PIK3CA E542K, PIK3CA E545K (x3), PIK3CA H1047R, PTEN R130P, RET G691S, TP53 C135W, TP53 Q192*); 5 in CTC-DNA only (EGFR R521K, EGFR T790M, PIK3CA H1047R, SMAD4 C363Y, TP53 N263D); and 3 in cfDNA only (DNMT3A W893S, DNMT3A S714C, TP53 Q136E). Parallel analyses of samples from 10 more subjects are in progress. Analysis of tumor tissue for all 20 subjects and of EDTA-cfDNA and single CTCs for a subset of cases is ongoing. Updated results will be presented at the meeting.

Conclusions: It is feasible to isolate high quality CTCs and cfDNA from the same blood collection tube to perform targeted sequencing; this streamlines specimen processing, decreases overall costs, and minimizes required blood volumes. Importantly, there is overlap in the majority of mutations identified in CTC-DNA and cfDNA, but actionable mutations (e.g., PIK3CA, EGFR) were detected in CTC-DNA only. The clinical and theranostic relevance of these findings is unclear and warrants further investigation.

Citation Format: Minetta C. Liu, Karthik V. Giridhar, Roberto A. Leon Ferre, Jamie L. Carroll, Matthew P. Goetz, Tufia C. Haddad, Deanne R. Smith, Siddhartha Yadav, Vidushi Kapoor, Guoying Liu, Tad George, Nolan Ericson, Arturo B. Ramirez, Eric Kaldjian, Keegan E. Haselkorn. Comparison of circulating tumor cell (CTC) derived DNA and circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from simultaneous blood sampling of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 3119.

Abstract PS16-01: Intra-epithelial tumor immune landscapes are associated with clinical outcomes in early-stage triple-negative breast cancer

Introduction: Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) have established prognostic and predictive significance in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, the roles of other immune cells in TNBC are less well-established. We performed high-plex quantitative spatial profiling in a cohort of early-stage TNBC to 1) apply spatial context to tumoral immune landscapes and 2) identify immune proteins associated with clinical outcomes, independently of TILs and other established prognostic clinicopathologic variables, in patients (pts) treated with or without adjuvant chemotherapy (CTX). Methods: The Mayo TNBC cohort comprises pts with centrally-verified, CTX-naive tumors resected from 1985-2012. Using a cohort-based TMA, with Nanostring GeoMX DSP, we quantitated 58 proteins within spatially-distinct intra-epithelial, cytokeratin-positive tumor segments and adjacent cytokeratin-negative/nuclei-positive stromal segments. Differentially-expressed (DE) proteins were identified using a negative binomial generalized linear model (SNR&gt;2, p&lt; 0.05) and a target DE protein set was dichotomized (80th percentile). After adjusting for prognostic clinicopathologic variables, proteins associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS, defined as time from surgery to either local, regional, and distant recurrence, or death by any cause) were identified by performing variable selection using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) obtained from fitting all possible Cox proportional hazards regression models (performed separately for intra-epithelial/stromal segments, and in groups +/- adjuvant CTX. Results: From the TNBC TMA, DSP data (N=250 tumors) included 169 pts who received adjuvant CTX+ and 81 who did not (CTX-). Overall, 85/250 developed recurrent disease. In the CTX+ group, intra-epithelial tumor segments from pts without recurrent disease were enriched in 10 immune proteins, including CD8, markers involved in antigen presentation/dendritic cells (CD11c, CD40, HLA-DR) or NK cells (CD56) (FC: 1.4-2.1, p&lt;0.05); CD14 was increased in stroma (FC: 1.5, p&lt;0.05). In contrast, in the CTX- group, both the intra-epithelial tumor and stromal segments from pts without recurrences were enriched in immune proteins (N= 12 and 15 respectively; FC 1.6-5.5, p&lt; 0.05) most markedly CD40, IDO1 and HLA-DR (FC: 3.2-5.5, p&lt; 0.05). Overall, CD3, CD4, CD27, CD44, and ICOS among others were enriched only in the CTX- group; CD14 and CD56 were enriched only in the CTX+ group. Based on these spatial data, biologic function and DSP data from another set of TNBC (FinXX trial), CD11c, CD14, CD27, CD40, CD56, and IDO1 were selected for RFS analysis. After applying our model selection criterion and adjusting for pt age at surgery, tumor size, lymph node status, and sTILs, intra-epithelial CD56 was independently associated with improved RFS in the CTX+ group (HR: 0.31[0.12, 0.81]). In the CTX- group, intra-epithelial CD11c was independently associated with improved RFS (0.10 [0.01, 0.81]). Conclusion: In this early-stage TNBC cohort, spatially-distinct tumor immune landscapes were associated with RFS but differed according to receipt of CTX after surgical resection. In the patients who received CTX, the intra-epithelial compartment, rather than stromal compartment, was immune-enriched in pts without recurrences. Among a targeted protein set, intra-epithelial CD56 remained associated with improved outcomes, independent of sTILs and other clinicopathologic features. In the CTX- group, spatial landscapes were more balanced, and intra-epithelial CD11c was independently associated with improved outcomes. These data provide insight into the spatial context of intrinsic immune landscapes in TNBC, and identify candidate prognostic immune biomarkers which may inform therapeutic strategies.

Citation Format: Jodi M Carter, Saranya Chumsri, David W Hillman, David M Zahrieh, Yaohua Ma, Xue Wang, Jennifer M Kachergus, Judy C Boughey, Minetta C Liu, Krishna R Kalari, JC Villasboas, Roberto A Leon Ferre, Fergus J Couch, Matthew P Goetz, E. Aubrey Thompson. Intra-epithelial tumor immune landscapes are associated with clinical outcomes in early-stage triple-negative breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Virtual Symposium; 2020 Dec 8-11; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PS16-01.

The impact of coadministration of venlafaxine, citalopram or gabapentin on the metabolic activation of tamoxifen

PURPOSE

Tamoxifen undergoes metabolic activation by cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes to metabolites with more potent anti-estrogenic effects. Numerous studies demonstrate decreased tamoxifen efficacy associated with reduced CYP2D6 activity or lower Z-endoxifen concentrations. Women taking tamoxifen frequently experience vasomotor symptoms (VMS) that may require medical treatment. Many medications used for VMS or depression are CYP substrates that may reduce Z-endoxifen concentrations. While the drug-drug interactions (DDI) from potent CYP2D6 inhibitors (CYPi) on tamoxifen metabolism has been studied, the impact of less potent CYPi including drugs used to treat VMS remains largely unknown.

METHODS

We performed a prospective trial to evaluate the impact of gabapentin or non-potent CYPi (venlafaxine citalopram) on plasma concentrations of tamoxifen and its metabolites (Z-endoxifen, N-desmethyl-tamoxifen (NDMT) and 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen (4HT).

RESULTS

Patients enrolled were intermediate to extensive metabolizers by CYP2D6 genotyping. While tamoxifen and NDMT plasma concentrations were not significantly altered, the percent decrease in plasma Z-endoxifen concentration was statistically significant with the addition of venlafaxine (n = 22) or citalopram (n = 18) (median - 14.7 and - 14.4%, respectively) but not with gabapentin (n = 14) (median - 2.3%). A reduction in Z-endoxifen concentrations below the 5.9 ng/ml threshold associated with tamoxifen efficacy was observed in 12% of patients.

CONCLUSION

The addition of venlafaxine and citalopram but not gabapentin during tamoxifen treatment decreases plasma Z-endoxifen concentrations. SSRIs/SNRIs affecting tamoxifen biotransformation pathways, but with less potent CYPi potential, should be used cautiously in tamoxifen-treated patients and non-CYP inhibiting medications considered when possible.