Obesity is associated with worse overall survival in women with low-grade papillary serous epithelial ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate prognostic risk factors for survival in women with low-grade serous epithelial ovarian cancer (LGSC). METHODS: A multicenter retrospective analysis of patients with LGSC was conducted. Potential epidemiologic risk factors evaluated included obesity, age, parity, race, smoking, oral contraceptive pill and/or hormonal replacement therapy use, and previous hysterectomy or surgery on fallopian tubes and/or ovaries. Additional factors included stage, extent of debulking, residual disease, and disease status. RESULTS: Eighty-one patients were identified, and pathologic diagnosis was independently confirmed. Median age at diagnosis was 56 years (range, 21-86 years). Thirty-four percent were obese, and 80% had optimally debulked disease. Forty-six percent were alive, 14% with disease, whereas 25% were dead of disease, 2% died of intercurrent disease, and 27% had an unknown status. In a univariate analysis, optimal surgical debulking was associated with improved progression-free survival (P = 0.01), disease-specific survival (P = 0.03), and overall survival (OS) (P < 0.001) and body mass index with worse OS (P = 0.05). On multivariate analysis, obesity (hazard ratio, 2.8; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-7.3; P = 0.04) and optimal tumor debulking (hazard ratio, 0.05; 95% confidence interval, 0.008-0.29; P = 0.001) were a significant predictor of OS. CONCLUSIONS: In a multivariate analysis, obesity and optimal tumor cytoreduction were significant predictors of OS. However, obesity was not associated with worse disease-specific survival, suggesting that mortality of obese patients with LGSC may result from other comorbidities. Interventions addressing obesity may improve survival for women diagnosed with LGSC, and further study is warranted to address the role of obesity in LGSC.

Immunologic Factors Associated with Differential Response to Neoadjuvant Chemoimmunotherapy in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer.

Background: KEYNOTE-522 resulted in FDA approval of the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab in combination with neoadjuvant chemotherapy for patients with early-stage, high-risk, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Unfortunately, pembrolizumab is associated with several immune-related adverse events (irAEs). We aimed to identify potential tumor microenvironment (TME) biomarkers which could predict patients who may attain pathological complete response (pCR) with chemotherapy alone and be spared the use of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy. Methods: Comprehensive immune profiling, including RNA-seq gene expression assessment of 395 immune genes, was performed on matched FFPE tumor samples from 22 stage I-III TNBC patients (14 patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy alone (NAC) and 8 treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with pembrolizumab (NAC+I)). Results: Differential gene expression analysis revealed that in the NAC group, IL12B and IL13 were both significantly associated with pCR. In the NAC+I group, LCK and TP63 were significantly associated with pCR. Patients in both treatment groups exhibiting pCR tended to have greater tumor inflammation than non-pCR patients. In the NAC+I group, patients with pCR tended to have greater cell proliferation and higher PD-L1 expression, while in the NAC group, patients with pCR tended to have lower cancer testis antigen expression. Additionally, the NAC+I group trended toward a lower relative dose intensity averaged across all chemotherapy drugs, suggesting that more dose reductions or treatment delays occurred in the NAC+I group than the NAC group. Conclusions: A comprehensive understanding of immunologic factors could potentially predict pCR to chemotherapy alone, enabling the avoidance of the unnecessary treatment of these patients with checkpoint inhibitors.

CAR-T-Cell Therapy in Multiple Myeloma: B-Cell Maturation Antigen (BCMA) and Beyond.

Significant progress has been achieved in the realm of therapeutic interventions for multiple myeloma (MM), leading to transformative shifts in its clinical management. While conventional modalities such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy have improved the clinical outcomes, the overarching challenge of effecting a comprehensive cure for patients afflicted with relapsed and refractory MM (RRMM) endures. Notably, adoptive cellular therapy, especially chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, has exhibited efficacy in patients with refractory or resistant B-cell malignancies and is now also being tested in patients with MM. Within this context, the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) has emerged as a promising candidate for CAR-T-cell antigen targeting in MM. Alternative targets include SLAMF7, CD38, CD19, the signaling lymphocyte activation molecule CS1, NKG2D, and CD138. Numerous clinical studies have demonstrated the clinical efficacy of these CAR-T-cell therapies, although longitudinal follow-up reveals some degree of antigenic escape. The widespread implementation of CAR-T-cell therapy is encumbered by several barriers, including antigenic evasion, uneven intratumoral infiltration in solid cancers, cytokine release syndrome, neurotoxicity, logistical implementation, and financial burden. This article provides an overview of CAR-T-cell therapy in MM and the utilization of BCMA as the target antigen, as well as an overview of other potential target moieties.

Ovarian Cancer: Clinical Trial Breakthroughs and Impact on Management.

Ovarian cancer treatment continues to evolve. Despite aggressive surgery and chemotherapy, most women will ultimately die from disease. Improvement in disease control are due to the incorporation of molecular targeted agents and the adoption of maintenance therapy. Maintenance therapy has been shown to enhance progression-free survival. Recent surgical trials have evaluated the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy versus primary debulking at the time of diagnosis in advanced stage ovarian cancer. The role of lymph node dissection and secondary cytoreductive surgeries have also been evaluated. This article reviews contemporary trials of maintenance therapy and novel drug development.