Cancer management during the COVID-19 world pandemic.

Since 2019, the world has been experiencing an outbreak of a novel beta-coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2. The worldwide spread of this virus has been a severe challenge for public health, and the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. As of June 8, 2023, the virus' rapid spread had caused over 767 million infections and more than 6.94 million deaths worldwide. Unlike previous SARS-CoV-1 and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreaks, the COVID-19 outbreak has led to a high death rate in infected patients; this has been caused by multiorgan failure, which might be due to the widespread presence of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors-functional receptors of SARS-CoV-2-in multiple organs. Patients with cancer may be particularly susceptible to COVID-19 because cancer treatments (e.g., chemotherapy, immunotherapy) suppress the immune system. Thus, patients with cancer and COVID-19 may have a poor prognosis. Knowing how to manage the treatment of patients with cancer who may be infected with SARS-CoV-2 is essential. Treatment decisions must be made on a case-by-case basis, and patient stratification is necessary during COVID-19 outbreaks. Here, we review the management of COVID-19 in patients with cancer and focus on the measures that should be adopted for these patients on the basis of the organs or tissues affected by cancer and by the tumor stage.

Cell-Free DNA Fragmentomics: A Promising Biomarker for Diagnosis, Prognosis and Prediction of Response in Breast Cancer.

Identifying novel circulating biomarkers predictive of response and informative about the mechanisms of resistance, is the new challenge for breast cancer (BC) management. The integration of omics information will gradually revolutionize the clinical approach. Liquid biopsy is being incorporated into the diagnostic and decision-making process for the treatment of BC, in particular with the analysis of circulating tumor DNA, although with some relevant limitations, including costs. Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragmentomics and its integrity index may become a cheaper, noninvasive biomarker that could provide significant additional information for monitoring response to systemic treatments in BC. The purpose of our review is to focus on the available research on cfDNA integrity and its features as a biomarker of diagnosis, prognosis and response to treatments in BC, highlighting new perspectives and critical issues for future applications.

Advances in anti-BRAF therapies for lung cancer.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most frequent causes of mortality in the western world. v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B (BRAF) is a member of the Raf kinase family and plays a critical role in cellular growth, proliferation, and differentiation through the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. The incidence of BRAF mutations in NSCLC is low, accounting for 0-3% of all cases of lung cancer. Given the results obtained in metastatic melanoma, several studies have reported the efficacy of anti-BRAF therapies in NSCLC treatment. In this review, we describe changes in the landscape of BRAF-mutated lung cancer treatment and analyze insights from major clinical trials in the context of future therapeutic prospects.

Moving beyond PARP Inhibition: Current State and Future Perspectives in Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer is the most frequent and lethal tumor in women and finding the best therapeutic strategy for each patient is an important challenge. PARP inhibitors (PARPis) are the first, clinically approved drugs designed to exploit synthetic lethality in tumors harboring BRCA1/2 mutations. Recent evidence indicates that PARPis have the potential to be used both in monotherapy and combination strategies in breast cancer treatment. In this review, we show the mechanism of action of PARPis and discuss the latest clinical applications in different breast cancer treatment settings, including the use as neoadjuvant and adjuvant approaches. Furthermore, as a class, PARPis show many similarities but also certain critical differences which can have essential clinical implications. Finally, we report the current knowledge about the resistance mechanisms to PARPis. A systematic PubMed search, using the entry terms "PARP inhibitors" and "breast cancer", was performed to identify all published clinical trials (Phase I-II-III) and ongoing trials (ClinicalTrials.gov), that have been reported and discussed in this review.

AR-V7 in Metastatic Prostate Cancer: A Strategy beyond Redemption.

Metastatic prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males and the fifth cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Despite the major progress in this field, leading to the approval of novel anti-androgens, the prognosis is still poor. A significant number of patients acquire an androgen receptor splice variant 7 (AR-V7), which is constitutively activated and lacks the ligand-binding domain (LBD) while maintaining the nuclear localization signal and DNA-binding domain (DBD). This conformational change, even in the absence of the ligand, allows its retention within the nucleus, where it acts as a transcription factor repressing crucial tumor suppressor genes. AR-V7 is an important oncogenic driver and plays a role as an early diagnostic and prognostic marker, as well as a therapeutic target for antagonists such as niclosamide and TAS3681. Anti-AR-V7 drugs have shown promise in recent clinical investigations on this subset of patients. This mini-review focuses on the relevance of AR-V7 in the clinical manifestations of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and summarizes redemptive therapeutic strategies.

Immune system and angiogenesis-related potential surrogate biomarkers of response to everolimus-based treatment in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer: an exploratory study.

PURPOSE: mTOR inhibitor everolimus is used for hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer (mBC). No reliable predictive biomarker of response is available. Following evidences from other solid tumors, we aimed to assess the association between treatment-associated immune system features and everolimus activity. METHODS: We retrospectively explored a correlation with the therapeutic activity of everolimus and tumor-associated immune pathways with ingenuity pathway analysis (IPA), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), circulating lymphocytes, and endothelial cells (CECs) in 3 different HR+ mBC studies, including the BALLET phase IIIb study. RESULTS: The circulating levels of CD3+/CD8+, CD3+/CD4+, and overall T lymphocytes were higher in responders versus non-responders at baseline (p = 0.017, p < 0.001, p = 0.034) and after treatment (p = 0.01, p = 0.003, p = 0.023). Reduced CECs, a tumor neoangiogenesis marker, were observed in responders after treatment (p < 0.001). Patients with low NLR (≤ 4.4) showed a better progression-free survival compared to patients with high NLR (> 4.4) (p = 0.01). IPA showed that the majority of immunity-related genes were found upregulated in responders compared to non-responders before treatment, but not after. CONCLUSIONS: Lymphocytes subpopulations, CECs and NLR could be interesting biomarkers predictive of response to everolimus-based regimens, potentially useful in daily clinical practice to select/monitor everolimus-based treatment in mBC. Further studies to confirm such hypotheses are warranted.

Current State and Future Challenges for PI3K Inhibitors in Cancer Therapy.

The phosphoinositide 3 kinase (PI3K)-protein kinase B (PKB/AKT)-mammalian target of the rapamycin (mTOR) axis is a key signal transduction system that links oncogenes and multiple receptor classes which are involved in many essential cellular functions. Aberrant PI3K signalling is one of the most commonly mutated pathways in cancer. Consequently, more than 40 compounds targeting key components of this signalling network have been tested in clinical trials among various types of cancer. As the oncogenic activation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway often occurs alongside mutations in other signalling networks, combination therapy should be considered. In this review, we highlight recent advances in the knowledge of the PI3K pathway and discuss the current state and future challenges of targeting this pathway in clinical practice.

Locoregional treatment of de novo stage IV breast cancer in the era of modern oncology.

Approximately 6% of metastatic breast cancers arise de novo. While systemic therapy (ST) remains the treatment backbone as for patients with metachronous metastases, locoregional treatment (LRT) of the primary tumor remains a controversial method. The removal of the primary has an established role for palliative purposes, but it is unclear if it could also determine a survival benefit. Retrospective evidence and pre-clinical studies seem to support the removal of the primary as an effective approach to improve survival. On the other hand, most randomized evidence suggests avoiding LRT. Both retrospective and prospective studies suffer several limitations, ranging from selection bias and outdated ST to a small sample of patients. In this review we discuss available data and try to identify subgroups of patients which could benefit the most from LRT of the primary, to facilitate clinical practice decisions, and to hypothesize future studies design on this topic.

Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy for luminal breast tumors: State of the art, challenges and future perspectives.

Neoadjuvant endocrine treatment (NET) associates to satisfactory rates of breast conservative surgery and conversions from inoperable to operable hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/HER2-negative breast cancer (BC), with less toxicities than neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) and similar outcomes. Hence, it has been proposed as a logical alternative to NACT in patients with HR+/HER2- BC candidate to a neoadjuvant approach. Nevertheless, potential barriers to the widespread use of NET include the heterogeneous nature of patient response coupled with the long duration needed to achieve a clinical response. However, interest in NET has significantly increased in the last decade, owing to more in-depth investigation of several biomarkers for a more adequate patient selection and on-treatment benefit monitoring, such as PEPI score, Ki67 and genomic assays. This review is intended to describe the state-of-the-art regarding NET, its future perspectives and potential integration with molecular biomarkers for the optimal selection of patients, regimen and duration of (neo)adjuvant treatments.

Oligometastatic breast cancer and metastasis-directed treatment: an aggressive multimodal approach to reach the cure.

Metastatic breast cancer (BC) is considered an incurable disease and is usually treated with palliative intent. However, about 50% of metastatic BCs present with only a few metastatic lesions and are characterized by longer overall survival. These patients, defined as oligometastatic, could benefit from a multimodal approach, which combines systemic therapy with metastasis-directed treatment (stereotactic ablative therapy or surgery). The current definition of oligometastatic seems incomplete since it is based only on imaging findings and does not include biological features, and the majority of relevant data supporting this strategy comes from retrospective or non-randomized studies. However, the chance of reaching long-term complete remission or even a cure has led to the development of randomized trials investigating the impact of combined treatment in oligometastatic BC (OMBC). The SABR-COMET trial, the first randomized study to include BC patients, showed promising results from a combination of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy and systemic therapy. Considering the randomized trial's results, multidisciplinary teams should be set up to select OMBC patients who could achieve long-term survival with aggressive multimodal treatment.

Real-world clinical outcomes of patients with stage I HER2-positive breast cancer treated with adjuvant paclitaxel and trastuzumab.

Up to 20% of breast cancer overexpress HER2 protein, making it a reliable target for antibody-based treatments. In early HER2-positive breast cancer avoiding anthracycline-based chemotherapy is a challenge. Based on the single-arm phase II APT trial results, adjuvant paclitaxel/trastuzumab is an accepted regimen for patients with stage I HER2-positive disease. In our retrospective study of 240 patients, the median tumor size was 12.0 mm (IQR 9 -15), and 204 (85%) had estrogen receptor-positive disease. After a median follow-up of 4.6 years, 3-year real-world disease-free survival, distant DFS, and overall survival were 98.8% (95% confidence interval (CI), 96.2-99.6), 99.2% (95% CI, 96.7-99.8), and 98.3% (95% CI, 96.2-99.6), respectively. In a real-world setting, an adjuvant paclitaxel/trastuzumab regimen was associated with low recurrence rates among women with stage I, HER2-positive breast cancer. Additionally, we reviewed other treatment optimization strategies attempted or ongoing in HER2-positive breast cancer.

Prognostic significance of HER2-low status in HR-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer treated with CDK4/6 inhibitors.

Whether Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER2)-low status has prognostic significance in HR + /HER2- advanced Breast Cancer (aBC) patients treated with first-line Endocrine Therapy plus CDK 4/6 inhibitors remains unclear. In 428 patients evaluated, HER2-low status was independently associated with significantly worse PFS and OS when compared with HER2-0 status. Based on our findings, HER2-low status could become a new prognostic biomarker in this clinical setting.

Peripheral blood lymphocytes predict clinical outcomes in hormone receptor-positive HER2-negative advanced breast cancer patients treated with CDK4/6 inhibitors.

Background: Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 4/6 inhibitors (CDK4/6i) combined with Endocrine Therapy (ET) are the standard treatment for patients with Hormone Receptor-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer (HR+/HER2- aBC). Objectives: While CDK4/6i are known to reduce several peripheral blood cells, such as neutrophils, lymphocytes and platelets, the impact of these modulations on clinical outcomes is unknown. Design: A multicenter, retrospective-prospective Italian study. Methods: We investigated the association between baseline peripheral blood cells, or their early modifications (i.e. 2 weeks after treatment initiation), and the progression-free survival (PFS) of HR+/HER2- aBC patients treated with ETs plus CDK4/6i. Random Forest models were used to select covariates associated with patient PFS among a large list of patient- and tumor-related variables. Results: We evaluated 638 HR+/HER2- aBC patients treated with ET plus CDK4/6i at six Italian Institutions between January 2017 and May 2021. High baseline lymphocyte counts were independently associated with longer PFS [median PFS (mPFS) 20.1 versus 13.2 months in high versus low lymphocyte patients, respectively; adjusted Hazard Ratio (aHR): 0.78; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.66-0.92; p = 0.0144]. Moreover, patients experiencing a lower early reduction of lymphocyte counts had significantly longer PFS when compared to patients undergoing higher lymphocyte decrease (mPFS 18.1 versus 14.5 months; aHR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.73-0.93; p = 0.0037). Patients with high baseline lymphocytes and undergoing a lower reduction, or even an increase, of lymphocyte counts during CDK4/6i therapy experienced the longest PFS, while patients with lower baseline lymphocytes and undergoing a higher decrease of lymphocytes had the lowest PFS (mPFS 21.4 versus 11 months, respectively). Conclusion: Baseline and on-treatment modifications of peripheral blood lymphocytes have independent prognostic value in HR+/HER2- aBC patients. This study supports the implementation of clinical strategies to boost antitumor immunity in patients with HR+/HER2- aBC treated with ETs plus CDK4/6i.

An update on antibody-drug conjugates in urothelial carcinoma: state of the art strategies and what comes next.

In recent years, considerable progress has been made in increasing the knowledge of tumour biology and drug resistance mechanisms in urothelial cancer. Therapeutic strategies have significantly advanced with the introduction of novel approaches such as immune checkpoint inhibitors and Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor inhibitors. However, despite these novel agents, advanced urothelial cancer is often still progressive in spite of treatment and correlates with a poor prognosis. The introduction of antibody-drug conjugates consisting of a target-specific monoclonal antibody covalently linked to a payload (cytotoxic agent) is a novel and promising therapeutic strategy. In December 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the nectin-4-targeting antibody-drug conjugate, enfortumab vedotin, for the treatment of advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinomas that are refractory to both immune checkpoint inhibitors and platinum-based treatment. Heavily pre-treated urothelial cancer patients reported a significant, 40% response to enfortumab vedotin while other antibody-drug conjugates are currently still under investigation in several clinical trials. We have comprehensively reviewed the available treatment strategies for advanced urothelial carcinoma and outlined the mechanism of action of antibody-drug conjugate agents, their clinical applications, resistance mechanisms and future strategies for urothelial cancer.

Circulating inflammatory cells in patients with metastatic breast cancer: Implications for treatment.

Adaptive and innate immune cells play a crucial role as regulators of cancer development. Inflammatory cells in blood flow seem to be involved in pro-tumor activities and contribute to breast cancer progression. Circulating lymphocyte ratios such as the platelet-lymphocytes ratio (PLR), the monocyte-lymphocyte ratio (MLR) and the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) are new reproducible, routinely feasible and cheap biomarkers of immune response. These indexes have been correlated to prognosis in many solid tumors and there is growing evidence on their clinical applicability as independent prognostic markers also for breast cancer. In this review we give an overview of the possible value of lymphocytic indexes in advanced breast cancer prognosis and prediction of outcome. Furthermore, targeting the immune system appear to be a promising therapeutic strategy for breast cancer, especially macrophage-targeted therapies. Herein we present an overview of the ongoing clinical trials testing systemic inflammatory cells as therapeutic targets in breast cancer.

Potential Impact of Preoperative Circulating Biomarkers on Individual Escalating/de-Escalating Strategies in Early Breast Cancer.

The research on non-invasive circulating biomarkers to guide clinical decision is in wide expansion, including the earliest disease settings. Several new intensification/de-intensification strategies are approaching clinical practice, personalizing the treatment for each patient. Moreover, liquid biopsy is revealing its potential with multiple techniques and studies available on circulating biomarkers in the preoperative phase. Inflammatory circulating cells, circulating tumor cells (CTCs), cell-free DNA (cfDNA), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), and other biological biomarkers are improving the armamentarium for treatment selection. Defining the escalation and de-escalation of treatments is a mainstay of personalized medicine in early breast cancer. In this review, we delineate the studies investigating the possible application of these non-invasive tools to give a more enlightened approach to escalating/de-escalating strategies in early breast cancer.

Role of the IGF-1 Axis in Overcoming Resistance in Breast Cancer.

Over the last two decades, many studies have demonstrated that the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) is involved in a number of patho-physiological processes, as well as in the development of different types of solid tumors, including breast cancer (BC). Preclinical and clinical data showed that IGF-1 receptor (R) is overexpressed and hyper-phosphorylated in several subtypes of BCs. The central implications of this pathway in tumor cell proliferation and metastasis make it an important therapeutic target. Moreover, the IGF-1 axis has shown strong interconnection with estrogen regulation and endocrine therapy, suggesting a possible solution to anti-estrogen resistance. IGF-1R might also interfere with other pivotal therapeutic strategies, such as anti HER2 treatments and mTOR inhibitors; several clinical trials are ongoing evaluating the role of IGF-1R inhibition in modulating resistance mechanisms to target therapies. Our aim is to offer an overview of the most recent and significant field of application of IGF-1 inhibitors and relevant therapeutic strategies, weighing their possible future impact on clinical practice.

Immunotherapeutic treatments in hepatocellular carcinoma; achievements, challenges and future prospects.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common and fatal malignancies with an alarming trend all around the world. Common therapeutic approaches in the early stage of disease are surgical resection, ablation, and liver transplantation. Due to the insidious identity of HCC, the majority of the patients are diagnosed at advanced stages, where tumor spreading, or distant metastasis unfortunately have already occurred. Immunotherapeutic options have elicited a promising approach in some malignancies with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approving the first checkpoint inhibitor anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) ipilimumab for the treatment of melanoma ten years ago. In the past decade, many clinical trials have been investigating anti-CTLA-4 as well as anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) therapies in various solid tumors, including HCC. In this mini-review we will discuss the latest clinical data from clinical trials for immune-checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of HCC.

Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors in solid tumours: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-inhibitors (PARPis) showed antitumour activity in BRCA1/2-mutated cancers, with more heterogeneous outcomes in tumours harbouring mutations that impair other genes involved in the DNA homologous recombination repair (HRR) or wild-type (wt). METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to better assess the role of PARPis in the treatment of metastatic solid tumours, with and without BRCA1/2 mutations. The primary end-point was progression-free survival (PFS). The secondary end-points were overall response rate (ORR) and overall survival (OS). A random-effects model was applied. RESULTS: Twenty-nine studies (8,839 patients) were included. PFS was significantly improved (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.59, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.51-0.68, p < 0.001), without being affected by BRCA mutational status (p = 0.65). Significant subgroup differences were observed with regard to the tumour site (p = 0.001), line of therapy (p = 0.002), control arm (p < 0.001), type of PARPi (p < 0.001) and trials' phase (p = 0.006). PARPis were associated with ORR (relative risk: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.16-1.56, p < 0.001), with significant subgroup differences observed with regard to treatment line (p = 0.03), control arm (p = 0.04) and PARPis (p < 0.001) and independent of mutational status (p = 0.44), tumour site (p = 0.86) and trials' phase (p = 0.09). OS was significantly improved by PARPis (HR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.80-0.92, p < 0.001), regardless of mutational status (p = 0.57), tumour site (p = 0.82), treatment line (p = 0.22), control arm (p = 0.21), PARPis (p = 0.30) and trials' phase (p = 0.26). Finally, an exploratory subgroup analysis showed a significant PFS improvement (HR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.43-0.60, p < 0.001) with PARPis in BRCA-wt/HRR-deficient tumours. CONCLUSION: Our results confirm the efficacy of already approved PARPi-based treatments in BRCA1/2-mutant solid tumours, support their role also in BRCA-independent HRR-deficient tumours and suggest a potentially broader efficacy in some wt tumours, perhaps with appropriate therapeutic partners. Prospective studies are warranted.