Adjuvant bevacizumab for melanoma patients at high risk of recurrence: survival analysis of the AVAST-M trial.

Background: Bevacizumab is a recombinant humanised monoclonal antibody to vascular endothelial growth factor shown to improve survival in advanced solid cancers. We evaluated the role of adjuvant bevacizumab in melanoma patients at high risk of recurrence. Patients and methods: Patients with resected AJCC stage IIB, IIC and III cutaneous melanoma were randomised to receive either adjuvant bevacizumab (7.5 mg/kg i.v. 3 weekly for 1 year) or standard observation. The primary end point was detection of an 8% difference in 5-year overall survival (OS) rate; secondary end points included disease-free interval (DFI) and distant metastasis-free interval (DMFI). Tumour and blood were analysed for prognostic and predictive markers. Results: Patients (n=1343) recruited between 2007 and 2012 were predominantly stage III (73%), with median age 56 years (range 18-88 years). With 6.4-year median follow-up, 515 (38%) patients had died [254 (38%) bevacizumab; 261 (39%) observation]; 707 (53%) patients had disease recurrence [336 (50%) bevacizumab, 371 (55%) observation]. OS at 5 years was 64% for both groups [hazard ratio (HR) 0.98; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.82-1.16, P = 0.78). At 5 years, 51% were disease free on bevacizumab versus 45% on observation (HR 0.85; 95% CI 0.74-0.99, P = 0.03), 58% were distant metastasis free on bevacizumab versus 54% on observation (HR 0.91; 95% CI 0.78-1.07, P = 0.25). Forty four percent of 682 melanomas assessed had a BRAFV600 mutation. In the observation arm, BRAF mutant patients had a trend towards poorer OS compared with BRAF wild-type patients (P = 0.06). BRAF mutation positivity trended towards better OS with bevacizumab (P = 0.21). Conclusions: Adjuvant bevacizumab after resection of high-risk melanoma improves DFI, but not OS. BRAF mutation status may predict for poorer OS untreated and potential benefit from bevacizumab. Clinical Trial Information: ISRCTN 81261306; EudraCT Number: 2006-005505-64.

Prolonged survival after surgical management of metastases in malignant melanoma: three case reports.

The incidence of malignant melanoma is increasing and the management of metastatic disease remains a challenge to clinicians. We describe three cases where surgical management of metastases has resulted in prolonged survival.

Safety of zoledronic acid and incidence of osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) during adjuvant therapy in a randomised phase III trial (AZURE: BIG 01-04) for women with stage II/III breast cancer.

The AZURE trial is an ongoing phase III, academic, multi-centre, randomised trial designed to evaluate the role of zoledronic acid (ZOL) in the adjuvant therapy of women with stage II/III breast cancer. Here, we report the safety and tolerability profile of ZOL in this setting. Eligible patients received (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy and/or endocrine therapy and were randomised to receive neither additional treatment nor intravenous ZOL 4 mg. ZOL was administered after each chemotherapy cycle to exploit potential sequence-dependent synergy. ZOL was continued for 60 months post-randomisation (six doses in the first 6 months, eight doses in the following 24 months and five doses in the final 30 months). Serious (SAE) and non-serious adverse event (AE) data generated during the first 36 months on study were analysed for the safety population. 3,360 patients were recruited to the AZURE trial. The safety population comprised 3,340 patients (ZOL 1,665; control 1,675). The addition of ZOL to standard treatment did not significantly impact on chemotherapy delivery. SAE were similar in both treatment arms. No significant safety differences were seen apart from the occurrence of osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) in the ZOL group (11 confirmed cases; 0.7%; 95% confidence interval 0.3-1.1%). ZOL in the adjuvant setting is well tolerated, and can be safely administered in addition to adjuvant therapy including chemotherapy. The adverse events were consistent with the known safety profile of ZOL, with a low incidence of ONJ.

Bisphosphonates' use in metastatic bone disease.

Bisphosphonates already have an established role in the management of the skeletal complications of metastatic bone disease. The development of new, highly potent compounds has led to investigation into their use as preventive agents in the adjuvant setting. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the evidence for their use in prevention and treatment.

Impact of tamoxifen on the pharmacokinetics and endocrine effects of the aromatase inhibitor letrozole in postmenopausal women with breast cancer.

This study examined whether the addition of tamoxifen to the treatment regimen of patients with advanced breast cancer being treated with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole led to any pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic interaction. Twelve of 17 patients completed the core period of the trial in which 2.5 mg/day letrozole was administered alone for 6 weeks and in combination with 20 mg/day tamoxifen for the subsequent 6 weeks. Patients responding to treatment continued on the combination until progression of disease or any other reason for discontinuation. Plasma levels of letrozole were measured at the end of the 6-week periods of treatment with letrozole alone and the combination and once more between 4 and 8 months on combination therapy. No further measurements were done thereafter. Hormone levels were measured at 2-week intervals throughout the core period. Marked suppression of estradiol, estrone, and estrone sulfate occurred with letrozole treatment, and this was not significantly affected by the addition of tamoxifen. However, plasma levels of letrozole were reduced by a mean 37.6% during combination therapy (P<0.0001), and this reduction persisted after 4-8 months of combination therapy. Letrozole is the first drug to be described in which this pharmacokinetic interaction occurs with tamoxifen. The mechanism is likely to be a consequence of an induction of letrozole-metabolizing enzymes by tamoxifen but was not further addressed in this study. It is possible that the antitumor efficacy of letrozole may be affected. Thus, sequential therapy may be preferable with these two drugs. It is not known whether tamoxifen interacts with other members of this class of drugs or with other drugs in combination.

Overexpression of c-erbB2 is an independent marker of resistance to endocrine therapy in advanced breast cancer.

The present study investigated the interaction between c-erbB2 overexpression and the response to first-line endocrine therapy in patients with advanced breast cancer. The primary tumours of 241 patients who were treated at first relapse with endocrine therapy were assessed for overexpression of c-erbB2 by immunohistochemistry. c-erbB2 was overexpressed in 76 (32%) of primary breast cancers and did not correlate with any other prognostic factor. The overall response to treatment and time to progression were significantly lower in patients with c-erbB2-positive tumours compared to those that were c-erbB2-negative (38% vs 56%, P = 0.02; and 4.1 months vs 8.7 months, P < 0.001, respectively). In multivariate analysis, c-erbB2 status was the most significant predictive factor for a short time to progression (P = 0.0009). In patients with ER-positive primary tumours treated at relapse with tamoxifen (n = 170), overexpression of c-erbB2 was associated with a significantly shorter time to progression (5.5 months vs 11.2 months, P < 0.001). In conclusion, overexpression of c-erbB2 in the primary tumour is an independent marker of relative resistance to first-line endocrine therapy in patients with advanced breast cancer. In patients with ER-positive primary tumours, the overexpression of c-erbB2 defines a subgroup less likely to respond to endocrine therapy.

Palliation of pain associated with metastatic bone cancer using samarium-153 lexidronam: a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of samarium-153 (153Sm) lexidronam (EDTMP) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with painful bone metastases secondary to a variety of primary malignancies were randomized to receive 153Sm-EDTMP 0.5 or 1.0 mCi/kg, or placebo. Treatment was unblinded for patients who did not respond by week 4, with those who had received placebo eligible to receive 1.0 mCi/kg of active drug in an open-label manner. Patient and physician evaluations were used to assess pain relief, as was concurrent change in opioid analgesia. RESULTS: One hundred eighteen patients were enrolled onto the study. Patients who received 1.0 mCi/kg of active drug had significant reductions in pain during each of the first 4 weeks in both patient-rated and physician-rated evaluations. Pain relief was observed in 62% to 72% of those who received the 1.O-mCi/kg dose during the first 4 weeks, with marked or complete relief noted in 31% by week 4. Persistence of pain relief was seen through week 16 in 43% of patients who received 1.0 mCi/kg, of active drug. A significant correlation (P = .01) was observed between reductions in opioid analgesic use and pain scores only for those patients who received 1.0 mCi/kg 153Sm-EDTMP. Bone marrow suppression was mild, reversible, and not associated with grade 4 toxicity. CONCLUSION: A single dose of 1.0 mCi/kg of 153Sm-EDTMP provided relief from pain associated with bone metastases. Pain relief was observed within 1 week of administration and persisted until at least week 16 in the majority of patients who responded.

Vorozole (Rivizor): an active and well tolerated new aromatase inhibitor for the treatment of advanced breast cancer patients with prior tamoxifen exposure. Investigational Drug Branch of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Breast Cancer Cooperative Group.

Vorozole (Rivizor) is a potent and stereospecific inhibitor of aromatase having shown promising endocrine effects in phase I studies. In the present trial, 27 postmenopausal patients with advanced breast cancer, measurable lesions, presumably hormone responsive (ER or PR+, or ER? with disease-free survival longer than 1 year, or prior documented response to tamoxifen), were treated with vorozole one tablet 2.5 mg daily. All had been previously treated with tamoxifen as adjuvant (two patients) or for advanced disease (24 patients), or both (one patient). Objective remissions were observed in eight patients (30%) with two complete responses (CR) and six partial responses (PR) lasting for a median of 14.3 months (range 6.8-40.6); nine stabilizations were also recorded (median 7.9 months; range 3.7-40.1). Median time to progression for the 27 patients was 5.9 months. Sites of response were skin (three patients), lymph nodes (two patients), lung (two patients) and chest wall plus lymph nodes (one patient). Treatment was very well tolerated: mild hot flushes (four patients), gastrointestinal complaints (four patients) and no significant toxicity (common toxicity criteria grade above 2) or drug-related severe adverse event. It is concluded that vorozole is an active second-line endocrine treatment, deserving consideration for randomized comparison with other agents such as aminoglutethimide, megestrol acetate or medroxyprogesterone acetate.

Therapeutic effects of the aromatase inhibitor fadrozole hydrochloride in advanced breast cancer.

The endocrine and therapeutic effects of the aromatase inhibitor fadrozole hydrochloride have been assessed in 80 post-menopausal patients with recurrent breast cancer after tamoxifen failure. Treatment allocation was randomly 0.5, 1.0 or 2.0 mg orally b.d. Eight patients were not assessable for response. All patients were evaluated for toxicity (intent-to-treat analysis). In general, the patients' characteristics were well balanced between the three randomised groups. The endocrine data from this study previously reported suggest a dose-related suppression of oestrone, but not oestradiol or oestrone sulphate. The objective response rate was 17% (95% CI 8.9-27.3%) with no complete responders. Fifteen patients (21%) had stable disease (NC) and 45 patients (63%) had progressive disease (PD). The median duration of objective response was 36 weeks. The median time to treatment failure was 12.7 weeks. The log-rank test showed no statistical difference between the dosage groups. The main adverse events reported were mild to moderate severity: nausea in 11 patients (15%), hot flashes in four (5%) and somnolence in three (4%). No serious adverse events were reported. In conclusion, fadrozole is a clinically active aromatase inhibitor with a low incidence of side-effects and phase III clinical trials in post-menopausal women are currently under way.

The systemic treatment of bone metastases.

Bone metastases are a major source of morbidity in patients with metastatic cancer. There are effective systemic treatments available for patients with breast and prostate cancers, who are the majority of patients with bone metastases. Unfortunately, < 50% of patients benefit from currently available endocrine or cytotoxic chemotherapy, although problems of response assessment often lead to under reporting of true response rates. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development of osteolytic bone metastases and the crucial role of increased osteoclastic activation provided the rationale for the use of the bisphosphonates. They reduce hypercalcemic episodes, pain, and pathologic fractures, and can induce radiologic healing of skeletal metastases. The development of potent, easily tolerated oral preparations will lead to their increased use by patients with osteolytic bone metastases. Radioisotopes used either alone or with external beam radiotherapy are effective in palliating the pain of skeletal metastases in patients with breast and prostate cancer and result in little associated subjective toxicity. Most studies have lacked placebo-treated controls, and the results of multicenter studies evaluating the benefits of radioisotopes with respect to pain relief and quality of life are awaited. These treatments combined with local treatments such as radiotherapy, surgery, and analgesia can provide effective palliation of symptoms for the majority of patients.

Combination chemotherapy with epirubicin, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil for the palliation of advanced gastric and oesophageal adenocarcinoma.

The palliative efficacy of laser therapy with combination chemotherapy (cisplatin, epirubicin and continuous infusion of 5-fluorouracil) was assessed in 34 patients with inoperable gastro-oesophageal cancer. Comparison was made with a group of 30 patients treated previously by laser alone. Twenty patients responded to chemotherapy. There was a significant improvement in dysphagia, as measured by a decreased laser requirement to maintain satisfactory swallowing. In this non-randomized prospective phase II trial, palliation was attained and some responses were long-lasting (median duration of response 8.7 (range 2.3 to more than 29.2) months).

The influence of adjuvant chemotherapy on outcome after relapse for patients with breast cancer.

This study examines the outcome following relapse for 176 patients who had been entered into a randomised trial comparing adjuvant cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil (CMF) with no adjuvant therapy (controls). Relapse has occurred in 65/144 (45%) of the CMF group and 111/158 (70%) of controls (P < 0.0001). 123/176 patients received endocrine treatment after relapse with higher response rates (38 vs. 18%, P < 0.05) and longer time to progression (23 vs. 19 weeks, P = 0.03) for controls. 94/176 received chemotherapy after relapse again with higher response rates (47 vs. 23%, P = 0.05) and longer time to progression (17 vs. 9 weeks, P = 0.03) for controls. Despite this, survival after relapse was the same for the two groups (median 16 months). However, on subgroup analysis, postmenopausal patients who had received adjuvant CMF had shorter survival (P = 0.03). These results suggest that prior adjuvant therapy should be a stratification factor in clinical trials in advanced disease.

Psychosocial implications of lung cancer.

Patients with lung cancer who are encouraged and permitted to verbalize their feelings by a staff that is interested, empathetic, and nonjudgmental are better able to overcome feelings of anxiety and fear, and they progress through the stages of the grieving process more easily. Communications between the lung cancer patient and the multidisciplinary staff should occur freely and without restraint. Unrealistic expectations made of the patient who is struggling to cope will almost certainly increase anxiety. Interventions must address coping responses of the patient and family living with lung cancer. Caregivers working with patients whose diagnoses are not favorable must examine their own feelings regarding terminal disease states and death before the entire cancer experience can be discussed openly and comfortably by the patient, family members, and health care team. The focus of care for families and patients living with lung cancer should be on care rather than cure.