Use of Natural Language Processing to Infer Sites of Metastatic Disease From Radiology Reports at Scale.

PURPOSE: To evaluate natural language processing (NLP) methods to infer metastatic sites from radiology reports. METHODS: A set of 4,522 computed tomography (CT) reports of 550 patients with 14 types of cancer was used to fine-tune four clinical large language models (LLMs) for multilabel classification of metastatic sites. We also developed an NLP information extraction (IE) system (on the basis of named entity recognition, assertion status detection, and relation extraction) for comparison. Model performances were measured by F1 scores on test and three external validation sets. The best model was used to facilitate analysis of metastatic frequencies in a cohort study of 6,555 patients with 53,838 CT reports. RESULTS: The RadBERT, BioBERT, GatorTron-base, and GatorTron-medium LLMs achieved F1 scores of 0.84, 0.87, 0.89, and 0.91, respectively, on the test set. The IE system performed best, achieving an F1 score of 0.93. F1 scores of the IE system by individual cancer type ranged from 0.89 to 0.96. The IE system attained F1 scores of 0.89, 0.83, and 0.81, respectively, on external validation sets including additional cancer types, positron emission tomography-CT ,and magnetic resonance imaging scans, respectively. In our cohort study, we found that for colorectal cancer, liver-only metastases were higher in de novo stage IV versus recurrent patients (29.7% v 12.2%; P < .001). Conversely, lung-only metastases were more frequent in recurrent versus de novo stage IV patients (17.2% v 7.3%; P < .001). CONCLUSION: We developed an IE system that accurately infers metastatic sites in multiple primary cancers from radiology reports. It has explainable methods and performs better than some clinical LLMs. The inferred metastatic phenotypes could enhance cancer research databases and clinical trial matching, and identify potential patients for oligometastatic interventions.

Bioengineered hydrogels enhance ex vivo preservation of patient-derived tumor explants for drug evaluation.

Ex vivo patient-derived tumor slices (PDTS) are currently limited by short-term viability in culture. Here, we show how bioengineered hydrogels enable the identification of key matrix parameters that significantly enhance PDTS viability compared to conventional culture systems. As demonstrated using single-cell RNA sequencing and high-dimensional flow cytometry, hydrogel-embedded PDTS tightly preserved cancer, cancer-associated fibroblast, and various immune cell populations and subpopulations in the corresponding original tumor. Cell-cell communication networks within the tumor microenvironment, including immune checkpoint ligand-receptor interactions, were also maintained. Remarkably, our results from a co-clinical trial suggest hydrogel-embedded PDTS may predict sensitivity to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in head and neck cancer patients. Further, we show how these longer term-cultured tumor explants uniquely enable the sampling and detection of temporal evolution in molecular readouts when treated with ICIs. By preserving the compositional heterogeneity and complexity of patient tumors, hydrogel-embedded PDTS provide a valuable tool to facilitate experiments targeting the tumor microenvironment.

Combinatorial Hypofractionated Radiotherapy and Pembrolizumab in Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer.

Objectives Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is an aggressive disease associated with poor outcomes and resistance to therapies. Our study aim was to evaluate the activity of a combinatorial regimen of sandwich sequencing of pembrolizumab immunotherapy and hypofractionated radiotherapy (RT). Methods In this case series, patients with ATC received hypofractionated RT (QUAD-shot) and intravenous pembrolizumab 200mg every 3-4 weeks. Pembrolizumab was continued until disease progression or up till 24 months. Concurrent Lenvatinib treatment was allowed. Primary endpoint was best overall response (BOR) and progression-free survival (PFS). Additionally, we performed immune profiling of circulating T cells in a responder to investigate the immune response to our combinatorial treatment. Results At median follow-up of 32.6 months (IQR: 26.4-38.8), of a cohort of 5 patients, BOR was 80%; with 2 complete responses (CR) and 2 partial responses (PR). Patients who achieved CR remained disease-free at last follow-up. Median PFS was 7.6 months (IQR: 6.2-NR), and 1-year PFS and overall survival rate was 40% (95% CI: 13.7-100) for both. Treatment was well-tolerated, with mostly grade 1-2 adverse events. Immune profiling of one partial responder revealed an increase in activated CD4 and CD8 T cells post-QUAD-shot RT, which was further enhanced during the maintenance phase of pembrolizumab. Conclusions Herein, we reported a case series of 5 patients with ATC, with 2 long-term survivors who were treated with surgical debulking followed by QUAD-shot RT and pembrolizumab, possibly due to synergy of local and systemic treatments in activating anti-tumour immunogenic cytotoxicity. This regimen warrants further investigation in a larger cohort of patients.

Comparison of an amplicon-based large panel next generation sequencing (NGS) assay with conventional testing methods for MET and HER2 amplification in lung and breast cancers.

The frequency of MET and HER2 amplification being detected by next generation sequencing (NGS) is increasing due to NGS being increasingly adopted for molecular profiling of cancers. However, the accuracy of NGS in detecting these gene amplifications remains uncertain due to conflicting reports in the scientific literature. We studied the accuracy of an amplicon-based large panel NGS assay in detecting MET and HER2 amplification in lung and breast cancers, respectively, by comparing it against conventional testing methods. Amongst 48 lung cancers, four of five cancers that were MET amplified on fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) were classified as amplified on NGS while 42 of the remaining 43 non-amplified cancers were classified as non-amplified on NGS, giving a sensitivity of 80%, specificity of 97.7% and overall concordance of 95.8%. Of the 46 breast cancers tested, only six of the nine cancers that were HER2-positive on immunohistochemistry (IHC)/FISH were HER2-positive on NGS, while all the remaining HER2-negative cases were negative on NGS, giving a sensitivity of 66.7%, specificity of 100% and overall concordance of 93.5%. All the false-negative cases had low level gene amplification (MET:CEP7 or HER2:CEP17 FISH ratio of <3). The low sensitivity for HER2 amplification may be confounded by the small sample size and disproportionate number of cases with low level amplification. In summary, the NGS assay has good concordance with conventional testing methods but may be less sensitive in detecting low level gene amplification.

ENABLE-SG (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends for Singapore) as a proactive palliative care model: protocol for a hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation randomized wait-list controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Specialist palliative care is often provided late in the patient's disease trajectory in response to uncontrolled symptoms. Shifting from this reactionary illness-stress paradigm to a proactive health-wellness approach, the ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends) telehealth model aims to enhance the coping, stress and symptom management, self-care, and advance care planning skills of patients with advanced cancers and their caregivers. The ENABLE model has been culturally adapted to Singapore (ENABLE-SG) and pilot-tested. A hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation design will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of ENABLE-SG while collecting real-world implementation data. METHODS: This single-centre, assessor-blind, wait-list (immediately vs. 6 months) randomized controlled trial will recruit 300 adult patients within 60 days of an advanced cancer diagnosis and their family caregivers from the National Cancer Centre of Singapore. ENABLE-SG comprises structured psychoeducational sessions with a telehealth coach, covering essential topics of early palliative care. Participants will be assessed at baseline and every 3 months until patient's death, 12 months (caregivers), or end of study (patients). The primary outcome is patient quality of life 6 months after baseline. Secondary patient-reported outcomes include mood, coping, palliative care concerns, and health status. Secondary caregiver-reported outcomes include caregiver quality of life, mood, coping, and care satisfaction. Mixed-effects regression modelling for repeated measurements will be used. To assess the effectiveness of ENABLE-SG versus usual care, patient and caregiver outcomes at 6 months will be compared. To compare earlier versus delayed ENABLE-SG, patient and caregiver outcomes at 12 months will be compared. Within the hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation design, implementation outcomes will be evaluated in both the early and delayed groups. Acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, and feasibility will be assessed using a feedback survey and semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. Transcribed interviews will be analysed thematically. Other implementation outcomes of penetration, fidelity, and cost will be assessed using records of study-related processes and summarized using descriptive statistics. A cost-effectiveness analysis will also be conducted. DISCUSSION: This study will assess both effectiveness and implementation of ENABLE-SG. Insights into implementation processes can facilitate model expansion and upscaling. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Registered prospectively on ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06044441. Registered on 21/09/2023.

Prevalence and clinico-genomic characteristics of patients with TRK fusion cancer in China.

Neurotrophic tyrosine kinase (NTRK) fusions involving NTRK1, NTRK2, and NTRK3 were found in a broad range of solid tumors as driver gene variants. However, the prevalence of NTRK fusions in Chinese solid tumor patients is rarely reported. Based on the next-generation sequencing data from 10,194 Chinese solid tumor patients, we identified approximately 0.4% (40/10,194) of Chinese solid tumor patients with NTRK fusion. NTRK fusions were most frequently detected in soft tissue sarcoma (3.0%), especially in the fibrosarcoma subtype (12.7%). A total of 29 NTRK fusion patterns were identified, of which 11 were rarely reported. NTRK fusion mostly co-occurred with TP53 (38%), CDKN2A (23%), and ACVR2A (18%) and rarely with NTRK amplification (5.0%) and single nucleotide variants (2.5%). DNA-based NTRK fusion sequencing exhibited a higher detection rate than pan-TRK immunohistochemistry (100% vs. 87.5%). Two patients with NTRK fusions showed clinical responses to larotrectinib, supporting the effective response of NTRK fusion patients to TRK inhibitors.

Biomarker-directed, pembrolizumab-based combination therapy in non-small cell lung cancer: phase 2 KEYNOTE-495/KeyImPaCT trial interim results.

Although pembrolizumab confers clinical benefit in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), only a subset of patients will respond due to a heterogenous tumor microenvironment. KEYNOTE-495/KeyImPaCT is an ongoing biomarker-directed, adaptively randomized phase 2 study investigating first-line pembrolizumab (200 mg every 3 weeks) + lenvatinib (20 mg daily), anti-CTLA-4 quavonlimab (25 mg every 6 weeks) or anti-LAG-3 favezelimab (200 mg or 800 mg every 3 weeks) in advanced NSCLC. Patients were categorized by T-cell-inflamed gene expression profile (TcellinfGEP) and tumor mutational burden (TMB) status and randomly assigned 1:1:1 to receive pembrolizumab + lenvatinib, pembrolizumab + quavonlimab or pembrolizumab + favezelimab. The primary outcome was investigator-assessed objective response rate (ORR) per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 using pre-specified efficacy thresholds for each biomarker-defined subgroup (>5% (TcellinfGEPlowTMBnon-high (group I)), >20% (TcellinfGEPlowTMBhigh (group II) and TcellinfGEPnon-lowTMBnon-high (group III)) and >45% (TcellinfGEPnon-lowTMBhigh (group IV))). Secondary outcomes were progression-free survival, overall survival and safety. At data cutoff, ORR ranges were 0-12.0% in group I, 27.3-33.3% in group II, 13.6-40.9% in group III and 50.0-60.0% in group IV. ORR with pembrolizumab + lenvatinib in group III met the pre-specified efficacy threshold. The safety profile of each treatment arm was consistent with the known safety profile of each combination. These data demonstrate the feasibility of prospective TcellinfGEP and TMB assessment to study the clinical activity of first-line pembrolizumab-based combination therapies in advanced NSCLC. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT03516981 .

Inferring cancer disease response from radiology reports using large language models with data augmentation and prompting.

OBJECTIVE: To assess large language models on their ability to accurately infer cancer disease response from free-text radiology reports. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We assembled 10 602 computed tomography reports from cancer patients seen at a single institution. All reports were classified into: no evidence of disease, partial response, stable disease, or progressive disease. We applied transformer models, a bidirectional long short-term memory model, a convolutional neural network model, and conventional machine learning methods to this task. Data augmentation using sentence permutation with consistency loss as well as prompt-based fine-tuning were used on the best-performing models. Models were validated on a hold-out test set and an external validation set based on Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) classifications. RESULTS: The best-performing model was the GatorTron transformer which achieved an accuracy of 0.8916 on the test set and 0.8919 on the RECIST validation set. Data augmentation further improved the accuracy to 0.8976. Prompt-based fine-tuning did not further improve accuracy but was able to reduce the number of training reports to 500 while still achieving good performance. DISCUSSION: These models could be used by researchers to derive progression-free survival in large datasets. It may also serve as a decision support tool by providing clinicians an automated second opinion of disease response. CONCLUSIONS: Large clinical language models demonstrate potential to infer cancer disease response from radiology reports at scale. Data augmentation techniques are useful to further improve performance. Prompt-based fine-tuning can significantly reduce the size of the training dataset.

Safety, Tolerability, and Antitumor Activity of Zipalertinib Among Patients With Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Harboring Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Exon 20 Insertions.

PURPOSE: Although several agents targeting epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertions (ex20ins) have recently been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, toxicities related to the inhibition of wild-type (WT) EGFR are common with these agents and affect overall tolerability. Zipalertinib (CLN-081, TAS6417) is an oral EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) with a novel pyrrolopyrimidine scaffold leading to enhanced selectivity for EGFR ex20ins-mutant versus WT EGFR with potent inhibition of cell growth in EGFR ex20ins-positive cell lines. METHODS: This phase 1/2a study of zipalertinib enrolled patients with recurrent or metastatic EGFR ex20ins-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy. RESULTS: Seventy-three patients were treated with zipalertinib at dose levels including 30, 45, 65, 100, and 150 mg orally twice a day. Patients were predominantly female (56%), had a median age of 64 years, and were heavily pretreated (median previous systemic therapies 2, range 1-9). Thirty six percent of patients had received previous non-ex20ins EGFR TKIs and 3/73 (4.1%) patients received previous EGFR ex20ins TKIs. The most frequently reported treatment-related adverse events of any grade included rash (80%), paronychia (32%), diarrhea (30%), and fatigue (21%). No cases of grade 3 or higher drug-related rash or diarrhea were observed at 100 mg twice a day or below. Objective responses occurred across all zipalertinib dose levels tested, with confirmed partial response (PR) observed in 28/73 (38.4%) response-evaluable patients. Confirmed PRs were seen in 16/39 (41%) response-evaluable patients at the dose of 100 mg twice a day. CONCLUSION: Zipalertinib has encouraging preliminary antitumor activity in heavily pretreated patients with EGFR ex20ins-mutant NSCLC, with an acceptable safety profile, including low frequency of high-grade diarrhea and rash.

Clinical efficacy and biomarker analysis of dual PD-1/CTLA-4 blockade in recurrent/metastatic EBV-associated nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Single-agent checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) activity in Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) related nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is limited. Dual CPI shows increased activity in solid cancers. In this single-arm phase II trial (NCT03097939), 40 patients with recurrent/metastatic EBV-positive NPC who failed prior chemotherapy receive nivolumab 3 mg/kg every 2 weeks and ipilimumab 1 mg/kg every 6 weeks. Primary outcome of best overall response rate (BOR) and secondary outcomes (progression-free survival [PFS], clinical benefit rate, adverse events, duration of response, time to progression, overall survival [OS]) are reported. The BOR is 38% with median PFS and OS of 5.3 and 19.5 months, respectively. This regimen is well-tolerated and treatment-related adverse events requiring discontinuation are low. Biomarker analysis shows no correlation of outcomes to PD-L1 expression or tumor mutation burden. While the BOR does not meet pre-planned estimates, patients with low plasma EBV-DNA titre (<7800 IU/ml) trend to better response and PFS. Deep immunophenotyping of pre- and on-treatment tumor biopsies demonstrate early activation of the adaptive immune response, with T-cell cytotoxicity seen in responders prior to any clinically evident response. Immune-subpopulation profiling also identifies specific PD-1 and CTLA-4 expressing CD8 subpopulations that predict for response to combined immune checkpoint blockade in NPC.

Real world efficacy of osimertinib in second line/beyond in patients with metastatic EGFR+ non-small cell lung cancer and role of paired tumour-plasma T790M testing at tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance.

Background: Osimertinib is a third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) approved for use in EGFR-mutant lung cancer. We examined its performance in the second/subsequent line after resistance to first- and second-generation (1/2G) EGFR-TKI. Methods: We reviewed electronic records of 202 patients who received osimertinib from July 2015 to January 2019 in the second/subsequent line after progression on prior EGFR-TKI. Of these, complete data from 193 patients were available. Clinical data including patient characteristics, primary EGFR mutation, T790M mutation status, presence of baseline brain metastases (BM), first-line EGFR-TKI use, and survival outcomes were extracted, and results retrospectively analyzed. Results: Of 193 evaluable patients, 151 (78.2%) were T790M+ (T790M positive) with 96 (49.2%) tissue confirmed; 52% of patients received osimertinib in the second line setting. After median follow up of 37 months, median progression-free survival (PFS) of the entire cohort was 10.3 [95% confidence interval (CI): 8.64-11.50] months and median overall survival (OS) was 20 (95% CI: 15.61-23.13) months. Overall response rate (ORR) to osimertinib was 43% (95% CI: 35.9-50.3%); 48.3% in T790M+ vs. 20% in T790M- (T790M negative) patients. OS in T790M+ patients was 22.6 vs. 7.9 months in T790M- patients (HR 0.43, P=0.001), and PFS was 11.2 vs. 3.1 months respectively (HR 0.52, P=0.01). Tumour T790M+ was significantly associated with longer PFS (P=0.007) and OS (P=0.01) compared to tumour T790M- patients, however this association was not seen with plasma T790M+. Of the 22 patients with paired tumor/plasma T790M testing, response rate (RR) to osimertinib was 30% for those plasma T790M+/tumour T790M-, compared to 63% and 67% for those who were plasma T790M+/tumour T790M+ and plasma T790M-/tumour T790M+, respectively. By multivariable analysis (MVA), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status ≥2 was associated with shorter OS (HR 2.53, P<0.001) and PFS (HR 2.10, P<0.001), whereas presence of T790M+ was associated with longer OS (HR 0.50, P=0.008) and PFS (HR 0.57, P=0.027). Conclusions: This cohort demonstrated the efficacy of osimertinib in second line/beyond for EGFR+ (EGFR mutation-positive) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Tissue T790M result appeared more predictive of osimertinib efficacy compared to plasma, highlighting potential T790M heterogeneity and the advantage with paired tumor-plasma T790M testing at TKI resistance. T790M- disease at resistance remains an unmet treatment need.

Real-world clinical practice and outcomes in treating stage III non-small cell lung cancer: KINDLE-Asia subset.

Introduction: Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a heterogeneous disease requiring multimodal treatment approaches. KINDLE-Asia, as part of a real world global study, evaluated treatment patterns and associated survival outcomes in stage III NSCLC in Asia. Methods: Retrospective data from 57 centers in patients with stage III NSCLC diagnosed between January 2013 and December 2017 were analyzed. Median progression free survival (mPFS) and median overall survival (mOS) estimates with two sided 95% confidence interval (CI) were determined by applying the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Results: Of the total 1874 patients (median age: 63.0 years [24 to 92]) enrolled in the Asia subset, 74.8% were men, 54.7% had stage IIIA disease, 55.7% had adenocarcinoma, 34.3% had epidermal growth factor receptor mutations (EGFRm) and 50.3% had programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression (i.e. PD-L1 ≥1%). Of the 31 treatment approaches as initial therapy, concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) was the most frequent (29.3%), followed by chemotherapy (14.8%), sequential CRT (9.5%), and radiotherapy (8.5%). Targeted therapy alone was used in 81 patients of the overall population. For the Asia cohort, the mPFS and mOS were 12.8 months (95% CI, 12.2-13.7) and 42.3 months (95% CI, 38.1-46.8), respectively. Stage IIIA disease, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group ≤1, age ≤65 years, adenocarcinoma histology and surgery/concurrent CRT as initial therapy correlated with better mOS (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The results demonstrate diverse treatment patterns and survival outcomes in the Asian region. The high prevalence of EGFRm and PD-L1 expression in stage III NSCLC in Asia suggests the need for expanding access to molecular testing for guiding treatment strategies with tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immunotherapies in this region.

Dietary factors and the risk of lung cancer by epidermal growth factor receptor mutation status and histological subtypes.

Background: Previous studies have reported differential associations of certain dietary factors such as soy consumption by epidermal growth factor receptor mutant (EGFR +) subtype of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, whether the other dietary factors including meat, fruits, and vegetables have differential risks on different histological and molecular subtypes of lung cancer remains unclear. Therefore, we conducted a case-control study to evaluate these associations. Methods: A total of 3,170 cases and 4,238 controls from three different studies (Genes and Environment in Lung Cancer Study, Lung Cancer Consortium Singapore Study, and Multi-ethnic Cohort Study) were included. Information on demographics, lifestyle, and dietary consumption was obtained using questionnaires. Diet was assessed by using the number of standard servings of each item consumed per week. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between meat, vegetables, and fruits consumption with lung cancer risk after adjusting for potential confounders. Results: We identified a significant inverse association between higher consumption of fruits and the risk of lung cancer (2nd tertile: OR = 0.54, 95%CI = 0.46-0.65; 3rd tertile: OR = 0.77, 95%CI = 0.65-0.91), compared with the lower (1st tertile) consumption of fruits. Higher vegetable consumption was significantly associated with a lower risk of EGFR + lung cancer (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.54-0.88), however, this association was not significant among EGFR wild-type (-) lung cancer. Conversely, higher consumption of total meat (OR = 2.10, 95%CI = 1.58-2.79) was significantly associated with higher lung cancer risk, as compared with the lower consumption group. Conclusions: Differential associations between vegetable consumption with EGFR mutation status in NSCLC were found. Further prospective studies are warranted to assess this association and elucidate the biological mechanisms.

Asian Thoracic Oncology Research Group (ATORG) Expert Consensus Statement on MET Alterations in NSCLC: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Considerations.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a heterogeneous disease, with many oncogenic driver mutations, including de novo mutations in the Mesenchymal Epithelial Transition (MET) gene (specifically in Exon 14 [ex14]), that lead to tumourigenesis. Acquired alterations in the MET gene, specifically MET amplification is also associated with the development of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) resistance in patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC. Although MET has become an actionable biomarker with the availability of MET-specific inhibitors in selected countries, there is differential accessibility to diagnostic platforms and targeted therapies across countries in Asia-Pacific (APAC). The Asian Thoracic Oncology Research Group (ATORG), an interdisciplinary group of experts from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Mainland China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, discussed testing for MET alterations and considerations for using MET-specific inhibitors at a consensus meeting in January 2022, and in subsequent offline consultation. Consensus recommendations are provided by the ATORG group to address the unmet need for standardised approaches to diagnosing MET alterations in NSCLC and for using these therapies. MET inhibitors may be considered for first-line or second or subsequent lines of treatment for patients with advanced and metastatic NSCLC harbouring MET ex14 skipping mutations; MET ex14 testing is preferred within multi-gene panels for detecting targetable driver mutations in NSCLC. For patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC and MET amplification leading to EGFR TKI resistance, enrolment in combination trials of EGFR TKIs and MET inhibitors is encouraged.

Real-world global data on targeting epidermal growth factor receptor mutations in stage III non-small-cell lung cancer: the results of the KINDLE study.

Background: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are the standard of care for resectable and metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harbouring epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations (EGFRm). We describe the real-world practice of EGFRm testing, prevalence, treatment and outcomes in EGFRm stage III NSCLC from a multi-country, observational study. Methods: The KINDLE study retrospectively captured diagnostic information, treatments and survival outcomes in patients with stage III NSCLC from January 2013 to December 2017. Baseline characteristics and treatments were described and real-world outcomes from initial therapy were analysed using Kaplan-Meier methods. Results: A total of 3151 patients were enrolled across three regions: Asia (n = 1874), Middle East and North Africa (MENA) (n = 1046) and Latin America (LA) (n = 231). Of these, 1114 patients (35%) were tested for EGFRm (46% in Asia, 17% in MENA and 32% in LA) and EGFRm was detected in 32% of tested patients (34.3% in Asia, 20.0% in MENA and 28.4% in LA). In a multi-variate analysis, overall EGFRm patients treated with EGFR-TKI monotherapy as initial treatment, without any irradiation, had twice the risk of dying (hazard ratio: 1.983, 95% confidence interval: 1.079-3.643; p = 0.027) versus any other treatment. Finally, unresectable patients with EGFRm NSCLC who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy (cCRT) as initial therapy had longer overall survival (OS) compared with their counterparts who only received TKI monotherapy without any irradiation (48 months versus 24 months; p < 0.001). Conclusion: The KINDLE study showed that a minority of stage III NSCLC patients were tested for EGFRm. Patients with EGFRm with unresectable NSCLC had similar outcomes from cCRT as initial therapy compared with EGFR wild type with a trend in OS favouring the EGFRm group. Outcomes with EGFR-TKI monotherapy as initial therapy, without any irradiation, were worse. The ongoing LAURA study (NCT03521154) will help define the role of EGFR-TKIs in EGFRm stage III NSCLC treated with cCRT. Trial Registration: NCT03725475.

PSMA PET Imaging and Therapy in Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma and Other Salivary Gland Cancers: A Systematic Review.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) and other salivary gland cancers (SGCs) are rare tumors where application of prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) and PSMA radioligand therapy have yet to be studied extensively. This review explores the role of PSMA PET imaging and therapy as a theranostic tool for ACC and other SGCs based on current literature. A comprehensive literature search on PubMed and Embase was performed. All relevant studies containing information on PSMA PET imaging in ACC and SGC were included. Ten studies (one prospective, three retrospective, five case reports and one review paper) were included. For ACC, the mean maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) for local recurrence and distant metastases ranged from 2.41 to 13.8 and 2.04 to 14.9, respectively. In SGC, the meanSUVmax ranged from 1.2-12.50. Most studies observed PSMA expression positivity on immunohistochemistry (IHC) when there was PSMA PET uptake. PSMA PET was able to detect lesions not detected on standard imaging. Despite the small number of studies and wide intra-patient and inter-tumor variation of PSMA uptake in ACC and SGC, 68Gallium (68Ga)-PSMA PET has promising prospects as a diagnostic and radioligand therapeutic option. Further studies to answer the various theranostics considerations are required to guide its use in the real-world setting.

Obtaining spatially resolved tumor purity maps using deep multiple instance learning in a pan-cancer study.

Tumor purity is the percentage of cancer cells within a tissue section. Pathologists estimate tumor purity to select samples for genomic analysis by manually reading hematoxylin-eosin (H&E)-stained slides, which is tedious, time consuming, and prone to inter-observer variability. Besides, pathologists' estimates do not correlate well with genomic tumor purity values, which are inferred from genomic data and accepted as accurate for downstream analysis. We developed a deep multiple instance learning model predicting tumor purity from H&E-stained digital histopathology slides. Our model successfully predicted tumor purity in eight The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohorts and a local Singapore cohort. The predictions were highly consistent with genomic tumor purity values. Thus, our model can be utilized to select samples for genomic analysis, which will help reduce pathologists' workload and decrease inter-observer variability. Furthermore, our model provided tumor purity maps showing the spatial variation within sections. They can help better understand the tumor microenvironment.

Recommended testing algorithms for NTRK gene fusions in pediatric and selected adult cancers: Consensus of a Singapore Task Force.

The occurrence of neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) gene fusions in a wide range of tumor types presents an attractive opportunity for using a tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) inhibitor as cancer therapy. Recent clinical studies have demonstrated highly efficacious outcomes associated with the use of TRK inhibitors, such as larotrectinib and entrectinib in NTRK fusion-bearing cancers, in both adult and pediatric populations. While NTRK gene fusions are commonly found in some uncommon adult and pediatric malignancies, they are also found, albeit rarely, in a wide range of more common malignancies. The potential value of testing for NTRK gene fusions in practically all advanced malignancies is underpinned by the remarkable therapeutic outcomes that TRK inhibitors offer. This requirement presents practical and financial challenges in real-world oncological practice. Furthermore, different testing platforms exist to detect NTRK gene fusions, each with its advantages and disadvantages. It is, therefore, imperative to develop strategies for NTRK gene fusion testing in an attempt to optimize the use of limited tissue specimen and financial resources, and to minimize the turnaround time. A multidisciplinary task force of Singapore medical experts in both public and private sectors was convened in late 2020 to propose testing algorithms for adult colorectal tumors, sarcomas, non-small cell lung cancer, and pediatric cancers, with particular adaptation to the Singapore oncological practice. The recommendations presented here highlight the heterogeneity of NTRK-fusion positive cancers, and emphasize the need to customize the testing methods to each tumor type to optimize the workflow.