The role of infiltrating lymphocytes in the neo-adjuvant treatment of women with HER2-positive breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Pre-treatment tumour-associated lymphocytes (TILs) and stromal lymphocytes (SLs) are independent predictive markers of future pathological complete response (pCR) in HER2-positive breast cancer. Whilst studies have correlated baseline lymphocyte levels with subsequent pCR, few have studied the impact of neoadjuvant therapy on the immune environment. METHODS: We performed TIL analysis and T-cell analysis by IHC on the pretreatment and 'On-treatment' samples from patients recruited on the Phase-II TCHL (NCT01485926) clinical trial. Data were analysed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Spearman rank correlation. RESULTS: In our sample cohort (n = 66), patients who achieved a pCR at surgery, post-chemotherapy, had significantly higher counts of TILs (p = 0.05) but not SLs (p = 0.08) in their pre-treatment tumour samples. Patients who achieved a subsequent pCR after completing neo-adjuvant chemotherapy had significantly higher SLs (p = 9.09 × 10-3) but not TILs (p = 0.1) in their 'On-treatment' tumour biopsies. In a small cohort of samples (n = 16), infiltrating lymphocyte counts increased after 1 cycle of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy only in those tumours of patients who did not achieve a subsequent pCR. Finally, reduced CD3 + (p = 0.04, rho = 0.60) and CD4 + (p = 0.01, rho = 0.72) T-cell counts in 'On-treatment' biopsies were associated with decreased residual tumour content post-1 cycle of treatment; the latter being significantly associated with increased likelihood of subsequent pCR (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The immune system may be 'primed' prior to neoadjuvant treatment in those patients who subsequently achieve a pCR. In those patients who achieve a pCR, their immune response may return to baseline after only 1 cycle of treatment. However, in those who did not achieve a pCR, neo-adjuvant treatment may stimulate lymphocyte influx into the tumour.

Kinase inhibitor screening identifies CDK4 as a potential therapeutic target for melanoma.

Despite recent advances in targeted therapies and immunotherapies metastatic melanoma remains only rarely curable. The objective of the present study was to identify novel therapeutic targets for metastatic melanoma. A library of 160 well-characterised and potent protein kinase inhibitors was screened in the BRAF mutant cell line Sk-Mel-28, and the NRAS mutant Sk-Mel-2, using proliferation assays. Of the 160 inhibitors tested, 20 achieved >50% growth inhibition in both cell lines. Six of the 20 were cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors, including two CDK4 inhibitors. Fascaplysin, a synthetic CDK4 inhibitor, was further tested in 8 melanoma cell lines. The concentration of fascaplysin required to inhibit growth by 50% (IC50 value) ranged from 0.03 to 0.22 µM. Fascaplysin also inhibited clonogenic growth and induced apoptosis. Sensitivity to PD0332991, a therapeutic CDK4/6 inhibitor was also evaluated in the melanoma cell lines. PD0332991 IC50 values ranged from 0.13 to 2.29 µM. Similar to fascaplysin, PD0332991 inhibited clonogenic growth of melanoma cells and induced apoptosis. Higher levels of CDK4 protein correlated with lower sensitivity to PD0332991 in the cell lines. Combined treatment with PD0332991 and the BRAF inhibitor PLX4032, showed additive anti-proliferative effects in the BRAF mutant cell line Malme-3M. In summary, targeting CDK4 inhibits growth and induces apoptosis in melanoma cells in vitro, suggesting that CDK4 may be a rational therapeutic target for metastatic melanoma.

HER2-family signalling mechanisms, clinical implications and targeting in breast cancer.

Approximately 20 % of human breast cancers (BC) overexpress HER2 protein, and HER2-positivity is associated with a worse prognosis. Although HER2-targeted therapies have significantly improved outcomes for HER2-positive BC patients, resistance to trastuzumab-based therapy remains a clinical problem. In order to better understand resistance to HER2-targeted therapies in HER2-positive BC, it is necessary to examine HER family signalling as a whole. An extensive literature search was carried out to critically assess the current knowledge of HER family signalling in HER2-positive BC and response to HER2-targeted therapy. Known mechanisms of trastuzumab resistance include reduced receptor-antibody binding (MUC4, p95HER2), increased signalling through alternative HER family receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK), altered intracellular signalling involving loss of PTEN, reduced p27kip1, or increased PI3K/AKT activity and altered signalling via non-HER family RTKs such as IGF1R. Emerging strategies to circumvent resistance to HER2-targeted therapies in HER2-positive BC include co-targeting HER2/PI3K, pan-HER family inhibition, and novel therapies such as T-DM1. There is evidence that immunity plays a key role in the efficacy of HER-targeted therapy, and efforts are being made to exploit the immune system in order to improve the efficacy of current anti-HER therapies. With our rapidly expanding understanding of HER2 signalling mechanisms along with the repertoire of HER family and other targeted therapies, it is likely that the near future holds further dramatic improvements to the prognosis of women with HER2-positive BC.

A preclinical evaluation of the PI3K alpha/delta dominant inhibitor BAY 80-6946 in HER2-positive breast cancer models with acquired resistance to the HER2-targeted therapies trastuzumab and lapatinib.

The PI3K pathway is a key mechanism of trastuzumab resistance, but early attempts to indirectly target this pathway with mTOR inhibitors have had limited success. We present the results of a preclinical study of the selective alpha/delta isoform dominant PI3K inhibitor BAY 80-6946 tested alone and in combination with HER2-targeted therapies in HER2-positive cell lines, including models with acquired resistance to trastuzumab and/or lapatinib. A panel of HER2-positive breast cancer cells were profiled for their mutational status using Sequenom MassARRAY, PTEN status by Western blot, and anti-proliferative response to BAY 80-6946 alone and in combination with the HER2-targeted therapies trastuzumab, lapatinib and afatinib. Reverse phase protein array was used to determine the effect of BAY 80-6946 on expression and phosphorylation of 68 proteins including members of the PI3K and MAPK pathways. The Boyden chamber method was used to determine if BAY 80-6946 affected cellular invasion and migration. BAY 80-6946 has anti-proliferative and anti-invasive effects when used alone in our panel of cell lines (IC50s 3.9-29.4 nM). BAY 80-6946 inhibited PI3K signalling and was effective in cells regardless of their PI3K, P53 or PTEN status. The combination of HER2-targeted therapies and BAY 80-6946 inhibited growth more effectively than either therapy used alone (with clear synergism in many cases), and can restore sensitivity to trastuzumab and lapatinib in cells with acquired resistance to either trastuzumab and/or lapatinib. The addition of BAY 80-6946 to HER2-targeted therapy could represent an improved treatment strategy for patients with refractory metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer, and should be considered for clinical trial evaluation.

Artificial neural networks for classification in metabolomic studies of whole cells using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance.

We report the successful classification, by artificial neural networks (ANNs), of (1)H NMR spectroscopic data recorded on whole-cell culture samples of four different lung carcinoma cell lines, which display different drug resistance patterns. The robustness of the approach was demonstrated by its ability to classify the cell line correctly in 100% of cases, despite the demonstrated presence of operator-induced sources of variation, and irrespective of which spectra are used for training and for validation. The study demonstrates the potential of ANN for lung carcinoma classification in realistic situations.

Prospects for non-immunological molecular therapeutics in melanoma.

In 2006 there were 60,000 new cases of cutaneous melanoma in the European Union and 13,000 deaths (www.europeancancerleagues. org). Currently available systemic treatment options for metastatic melanoma, including both cytotoxic and immunologic therapies, produce low rates of response and have modest survival impact. Therefore, there is an urgent need for effective novel therapies. Molecularly targeted treatments have demonstrated efficacy in certain cancers e.g. in HER2- positive breast cancer and in chronic myeloid leukaemia. Several pathways are currently being investigated as potential molecular targets in melanoma. The best studied is BRAF which is frequently mutated in melanoma. A multi tyrosine kinase inhibitor, sorafenib, which targets BRAF, has shown promising activity in preclinical studies and is currently being tested in combination with chemotherapy in patients with metastatic disease. In addition to BRAF, therapies which target other components of the Raf/Ras/MAPK pathway are being investigated. Other novel targets currently being investigated include the PI3/AKT pathway, tyrosine kinases, angiogenesis, poly (ADP ribose) polymerases, survivin and heat shock protein 90. Progress on preclinical and clinical evaluation of these novel targets in melanoma will be reviewed.

Membrane transport proteins in human melanoma: associations with tumour aggressiveness and metastasis.

BACKGROUND: Malignant melanoma, generally described as incurable, is notoriously refractory to chemotherapy. The mechanisms contributing to this have not yet been defined and the contributions of drug efflux pumps, implicated in chemo-resistance of many other cancer types, have not been extensively investigated in melanoma. METHODS: In this study, expression of multi-drug resistant (MDR1/P-gp and MRP-1) proteins was examined, by immunohistochemistry, in archival specimens from 134 melanoma patients. This included 92 primary tumours and 42 metastases. RESULTS: On assessing all specimens, MRP-1 and MDR1/P-gp expression was found to be common, with the majority (81%) of melanomas expressing at least one of these efflux pumps. Although there is significant association between expression of these pumps (P=0.007), MRP-1 was found to be the predominant (67% of cases) form detected. chi(2) analysis showed significant associations between expression of MRP-1 and/or MDR1/P-gp and the aggressive nature of this disease specifically increased Breslow's depth, Clark's level and spread to lymph nodes. This association with aggressiveness and spread is further supported by the observation that a significantly higher percentage of metastases, than primary tumours, express MRP-1 (91% vs 57%; P<0.0001) and MDR1/P-gp (74% vs 50%; P=0.010). CONCLUSION: The predominant expression of these pumps and, in particular, MRP-1 suggests that they may be important contributors to the inherent aggressive and resistant nature of malignant melanoma.

Contribution of HIF-1 and drug penetrance to oxaliplatin resistance in hypoxic colorectal cancer cells.

BACKGROUND: Hypoxia is as an indicator of poor treatment outcome. Consistently, hypoxic HCT116 colorectal cancer cells are resistant to oxaliplatin, although the mechanistic basis is unclear. This study sought to investigate the relative contribution of HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor-1)-mediated gene expression and drug penetrance to oxaliplatin resistance using three-dimensional spheroids. METHODS: Hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha function was suppressed by the stable expression of a dominant-negative form in HCT116 cells (DN). Cells were drug exposed as monolayer or multicellular spheroid cultures. Cells residing at differing oxygenation status were isolated from Hoechst 33342-treated spheroids using flow cytometry. Sub-populations were subjected to clonogenic survival assays and to Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy to determine oxaliplatin uptake. RESULTS: In spheroids, a sensitivity gradient (hypoxic