Cytokine release syndrome-like serum responses after COVID-19 vaccination are frequent and clinically inapparent under cancer immunotherapy.

Patients with cancer frequently receive immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), which may modulate immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines. Recently, cytokine release syndrome (CRS) was observed in a patient with cancer who received BTN162b2 vaccination under ICI treatment. Here, we analyzed adverse events and serum cytokines in patients with 23 different tumors undergoing (n = 64) or not undergoing (n = 26) COVID-19 vaccination under ICI therapy in a prospectively planned German single-center cohort study (n = 220). We did not observe clinically relevant CRS (≥grade 2) after vaccination (95% CI 0-5.6%; Common Terminology of Adverse Events v.5.0) in this small cohort. Within 4 weeks after vaccination, serious adverse events occurred in eight patients (12.5% 95% CI 5.6-23%): six patients were hospitalized due to events common under cancer therapy including immune related adverse events and two patients died due to conditions present before vaccination. Despite absence of CRS symptoms, a set of pairwise-correlated CRS-associated cytokines, including CXCL8 and interleukin-6 was >1.5-fold upregulated in 40% (95% CI 23.9-57.9%) of patients after vaccination. Hence, elevated cytokine levels are common and not sufficient to establish CRS diagnosis.

Interleukin-2 and Interferon-α for Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma: Patient Outcomes, Sexual Dimorphism of Responses, and Multimodal Treatment Approaches over a 30-Year Period.

INTRODUCTION: Cytokine-based immunotherapy (IT) has been the mainstay of systemic treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) from the late 1980s until 2007. With the introduction of immune checkpoint inhibitors, a renaissance of immune oncological approaches is rapidly unfolding. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present study, we revisited survival outcomes, sexual dimorphism of treatment responses, and the relevance of multimodal treatment approaches over a 30-year period in 156 patients with advanced RCC treated with subcutaneous (s.c.) interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-α (IFN-α) between 1990 and 2009. RESULTS: The median progression-free survival following the first IT was 5.8 months with a wide range from 0 to 197 months. The median overall survival (OS) was 25.8 months and the median cancer-specific survival after tumor nephrectomy was 24.6 months. A group of 29 patients (18.6%) and 11 patients (7.1%) survived longer than 5 and 10 years after surgery, respectively. A difference in the 5-year OS rate between male and female patients was detected (men, 21.6%; women, 11.1%). However, no sex-specific survival advantage was observed after 10 years. CONCLUSIONS: We provide evidence that IT with s.c. IL-2 and IFN-α played a vital role in long-term survivors either by inducing lasting complete remissions or as part of multimodal approaches that allowed patients to survive until novel therapies became available. The implications for current immune oncological treatment approaches are being discussed.

High prevalence of DNA damage repair gene defects and TP53 alterations in men with treatment-naïve metastatic prostate cancer -Results from a prospective pilot study using a 37 gene panel.

BACKGROUND: Defects in DNA damage repair genes characterize a subset of men with prostate cancer and provide an attractive opportunity for precision oncology approaches. The prevalence of such perturbations in newly diagnosed, treatment-naïve patients with a high risk for lethal disease outcome, however, has not been sufficiently explored. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Prostate cancer specimens from 67 men with newly diagnosed early onset, localized high-risk/locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer were included in this prospective pilot study. Tumor samples, including 30 prostate biopsies, were analyzed by targeted next generation sequencing using a formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue-optimized 37 DNA damage repair and checkpoint gene panel. RESULTS: The drop-out rate due to an insufficient quantity of DNA was 4.5% (3 of 67 patients). In the remaining 64 patients, the rate of pathogenic DNA damage repair gene mutations was 26.6%. The highest rate of pathogenic DNA damage repair and checkpoint gene mutations was found in men with treatment-naïve metastatic prostate cancer (38.9%). In addition, a high number of likely pathogenic mutations and gene deletions were detected. Altogether, one or more pathogenic mutation, likely pathogenic mutation or gene deletion affected 43 of 64 patients (67.2%) including 29 of 36 patients (80.6%) with treatment-naïve metastatic prostate cancer. Men with metastatic prostate cancer showed a high prevalence of alterations in TP53 (36.1%). CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study demonstrates the feasibility, performance and clinical relevance of somatic targeted next generation sequencing using a unique 37 DNA damage repair and checkpoint gene panel under routine conditions. Our results indicate that this approach can detect actionable DNA repair gene alterations, uncommon mutations as well as mutations associated with therapy resistance in a high number of patients, in particular patients with treatment-naïve metastatic prostate cancer.

Immuno-oncology gene expression profiling of formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded clear cell renal cell carcinoma: Performance comparison of the NanoString nCounter technology with targeted RNA sequencing.

Inflammatory gene signatures are currently being explored as predictive biomarkers for immune checkpoint blockade, and particularly for the treatment of renal cell cancers. From a diagnostic point of view, the nCounter analysis platform and targeted RNA sequencing are emerging alternatives to microarrays and comprehensive transcriptome sequencing in assessing formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) cancer samples. So far, no systematic study has analyzed and compared the technical performance metrics of these two approaches. Filling this gap, we performed a head-to-head comparison of two commercially available immune gene expression assays, using clear cell renal cell cancer FFPE specimens. We compared the nCounter system that utilizes a direct hybridization technology without amplification with an NGS assay that is based on targeted RNA-sequencing with preamplification. We found that both platforms displayed high technical reproducibility and accuracy (Pearson coefficient: ≥0.96, concordance correlation coefficient [CCC]: ≥0.93). A density plot for normalized expression of shared genes on both platforms showed a comparable bi-modal distribution and dynamic range. RNA-Seq demonstrated relatively larger signaling intensity whereas the nCounter system displayed higher inter-sample variability. Estimated fold changes for all shared genes showed high correlation (Spearman coefficient: 0.73). This agreement is even better when only significantly differentially expressed genes were compared. Composite gene expression profiles, such as an interferon gamma (IFNg) signature, can be reliably inferred by both assays. In summary, our study demonstrates that focused transcript read-outs can reliably be achieved by both technologies and that both approaches achieve comparable results despite their intrinsic technical differences.

Serum very long-chain fatty acid-containing lipids predict response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in urological cancers.

Checkpoint inhibitors (CPI) have significantly changed the therapeutic landscape of oncology. We adopted a non-invasive metabolomic approach to understand immunotherapy response and failure in 28 urological cancer patients. In total, 134 metabolites were quantified in patient sera before the first, second, and third CPI doses. Modeling the association between metabolites and CPI response and patient characteristics revealed that one predictive metabolite class  (n = 9/10) were very long-chain fatty acid-containing lipids (VLCFA-containing lipids). The best predictive performance was achieved through a multivariate model, including age and a centroid of VLCFA-containing lipids prior to first immunotherapy (sensitivity: 0.850, specificity: 0.825, ROC: 0.935). We hypothesize that the association of VLCFA-containing lipids with CPI response is based on enhanced peroxisome signaling in T cells, which results in a switch to fatty acid catabolism. Beyond use as a novel predictive non-invasive biomarker, we envision that nutritional supplementation with VLCFA-containing lipids might serve as an immuno sensitizer.

The BRCA2 mutation status shapes the immune phenotype of prostate cancer.

Defects in DNA damage repair caused by mutations in BRCA1/2, ATM or other genes have been shown to play an important role in the development and progression of prostate cancer. The influence of such mutations on anti-tumor immunity in prostate cancer, however, is largely unknown. To better understand the correlation between BRCA1/2 mutations and the immune phenotype in prostate cancer, we characterized the immune infiltrate of eight BRCA2-mutated tumors in comparison with eight BRCA1/2 wild-type patients by T-cell receptor sequencing and immunohistochemistry for CD45, CD4, CD8, FOXP3, and CD163. In addition, we analyzed seven prostate cancer biopsies that were either BRCA2 or ATM-mutated in comparison with wild-type tumors. Whereas in BRCA1/2 wild-type tumors, immune cells were found predominantly extratumorally, most BRCA2-mutated tumors including one biopsy showed a significantly increased intratumoral immune cell infiltration. The ratio of intratumoral to extratumoral immune cells was considerably higher in BRCA2-mutated tumors for all markers and reached statistical significance for CD4 (p = 0.007), CD8 (p = 0.006), and FOXP3 (p = 0.001). However, the intratumoral CD8 to FOXP3 ratio showed a trend to be lower in BRCA2-mutated tumors suggesting a more suppressed tumor immune microenvironment. Our findings provide a rationale for the future use of immune oncological approaches in BRCA2-mutated prostate cancer and may encourage efforts to target immunosuppressive T-cell populations to prime tumors for immunotherapy.

Survival outcomes of patients with germ cell tumors treated with high-dose chemotherapy for refractory or relapsing disease.

INTRODUCTION: Male patients with metastatic germ cell tumors can be cured in up to 96% of cases depending on stage and IGCCCG prognosis group. Treatment in relapse consists of conventional or high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) combined with local treatment modalities. RESULTS: Most patients were classified as poor risk according to IGCCCG (n = 24; 52%) and as intermediate (n = 12), high (n = 16), or very high risk (n = 9) at time of first relapse according to IPFSG criteria. In 67% of patients (n = 31) HDCT/ASCT was performed as first salvage treatment in relapse or for primary refractory disease following first line chemotherapy. In 46% of patients (n = 21) progressive disease was documented after mobilization and prior to HDCT/ASCT. Median progression free survival (mPFS) was 7.4 months (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.3-13.6) while median overall survival (mOS) was 22.2 months (95% CI: 8.9-35.5). When stratified for IPFSG risk group, mPFS (p < 0.001) and mOS (p = 0.009) differed significantly between risk groups (very low vs. low vs. intermediate vs. high vs. very high). Metastases to liver/bone/brain and platinum refractory disease were independent risk factors for inferior PFS (p = 0.024; p = 0.008) but not OS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-six patients treated with HDCT/ASCT at the university clinics in Heidelberg and Nuremberg between 2000-2016 were identified and analyzed. Data was collected retrospectively. CONCLUSIONS: HDCT/ASCT offers a potential curative strategy for patients with relapsed GCT. Improvement is still needed in patients with intermediate, high, and very high IPFSG risk group.

Overexpression of nuclear AR-V7 protein in primary prostate cancer is an independent negative prognostic marker in men with high-risk disease receiving adjuvant therapy.

BACKGROUND: Overexpression of the androgen receptor (AR) splice variant 7 (AR-V7) has recently been reported to be associated with resistance to antihormonal therapy. Herein, we address the question whether tumor cells with AR-V7 expression can be detected at the time of radical prostatectomy, that is, before long-term hormonal manipulation and castration resistance, and what the potential prognostic impact on the biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival may be. METHODS: An anti-AR-V7 antibody was first validated in a training set of prostate cancer specimens by a comparison of AR-V7 protein to AR-V7 mRNA expression. We then analyzed nuclear AR-V7 protein expression in the primary tumors and lymph node metastases from 163 predominantly high-risk patients (cohort I) as well as the primary tumors from patients of a second, consecutive patient cohort (n = 238, cohort II) not selected for any clinicopathological features. Staining results were correlated to patient characteristics and BCR-free patient survival. RESULTS: High nuclear AR-V7 protein expression was detected in approximately 30%-40% of patients in cohort I and II at the time of radical prostatectomy. High baseline expression of nuclear AR-V7 protein was associated with an unfavorable BCR-free survival in the high-risk patient cohort I but not in the unselected consecutive cohort II. Remarkably, AR-V7 was an independent negative prognostic factor in high-risk prostate cancer patients of cohort I who were selected to receive adjuvant treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Prostate cancer cells with high nuclear AR-V7 protein expression can be detected in a substantial proportion of tumors at the time of radical prostatectomy. The presence of AR-V7-positive tumor cells is associated with an unfavorable prognosis for BCR-free survival in a high-risk patient cohort including a subgroup of patients selected to receive adjuvant therapy, in which AR-V7 was an independent negative prognosticator. Overexpression of nuclear AR-V7 protein hence identifies a subset of tumors with remarkably aggressive growth characteristics among clinically and histologically high-risk patients at the time of radical prostatectomy.