Change in Eyelid Carcinoma T Category With Use of the 8th Versus 7th Edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer: Cancer Staging Manual.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the frequency and nature of changes in T category when eyelid carcinomas are staged using the criteria in the 8th edition instead of the 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging manual. METHODS: Following Institutional Review Board approval, a retrospective review was conducted for all consecutive patients with the diagnosis of eyelid carcinoma treated by the senior author from January 2012 through December 2016. After a review of the clinical and pathologic data, each patient's disease was staged using both the 7th-edition and 8th-edition American Joint Committee on Cancer criteria for eyelid carcinomas. Changes in T categories between the 2 staging systems were examined. RESULTS: The review initially identified 167 patients with the diagnosis of eyelid carcinoma. Four patients were excluded because of incomplete or unclear data. The remaining 163 patients included 78 men and 85 women aged 21 to 97 years (median, 68 years). Eighty-two patients had basal cell carcinoma; 35, squamous cell carcinoma; 32, sebaceous carcinoma; 6, mucinous eccrine carcinoma; 3, Merkel cell carcinoma; 3, adenocarcinomas; and 2, adnexal carcinoma. The most common T category according to the 7th-edition criteria was T2a; the most common T category according to the 8th-edition criteria was T1b. Of the 163 patients, 64 (39%) had a lower T category with the 8th-edition than with the 7th-edition criteria, 59 (36%) had a higher T category, and 40 (25%) had the same T category. CONCLUSIONS: Application of the 8th-edition American Joint Committee on Cancer criteria for eyelid carcinoma changed the T category in 75% of patients. In general, the new 8th-edition American Joint Committee on Cancer tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) designations allow for a more objective and consistent designation of the T category.

Extraocular Muscle Enlargement and Thyroid Eye Disease-like Orbital Inflammation Associated with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy in Cancer Patients.

PURPOSE: To describe thyroid eye disease (TED)-like orbital inflammatory syndrome in 3 cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. METHODS: All consecutive patients treated by the senior author who were receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors and developed TED-like orbital inflammation were included. RESULTS: Three cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors developed orbital inflammation. The first patient was treated with a combination of a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 inhibitor and a programmed cell death protein 1 inhibitor and developed TED-like orbital inflammation with normal thyroid function and antibody levels. The second patient had a previous diagnosis of Graves disease without TED, and developed TED soon after initiating treatment with a programmed cell death protein 1 inhibitor. The third patient developed acute hyperthyroidism with symptomatic TED following treatment with an investigational cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 inhibitor agent. All 3 patients were managed with either systemic steroids or observation, with resolution of their symptoms and without the need to halt immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment for their cancer. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: TED-like orbital inflammation may occur as a side effect of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy with anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 or anti-PD-1 inhibitors. To the best of their knowledge, this is the first reported case of TED as a result of programmed cell death protein 1 inhibitor monotherapy. All 3 patients were treated with systemic steroids and responded quickly while continuing treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors for their cancer. With increasing use of this class of drugs, clinicians should be familiar with the clinical manifestations and treatments for this adverse reaction.

Prevalence of a Histologic Change of Ocular Adnexal Lymphoma in Patients With a History of Lymphoma.

PURPOSE: The authors examined the prevalence of a histologic change of ocular adnexal lymphoma (OAL) grade in patients with a history of lymphoma in nonocular sites. METHODS: In this retrospective study, the authors reviewed the clinical and pathological data of 209 patients with OAL treated by the senior author during 2000 to 2017. RESULTS: Of 209 patients with OAL, 65 (31%) had a history of lymphoma. In 54 of the 65 patients (83%), the original lymphoma and OAL were of the same histologic type. In 8 of the 65 patients (12.3%), the OAL was more indolent than the original lymphoma: 6 patients with a history of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, one of mantle cell lymphoma, and one of grade 3 follicular lymphoma had biopsy-proven extranodal marginal-zone lymphoma in the orbital area. Two additional patients (3%) with a history of chronic lymphocytic leukemia developed OAL: diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in one patient and extranodal marginal-zone lymphoma in the other. One patient (1.5%) with a history of a low-grade follicular lymphoma relapsed as a different low-grade histology of extranodal marginal-zone lymphoma. Lower-grade OAL than the original lymphoma was more common than higher-grade OAL than the original lymphoma (p = 0.048). CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort of 209 patients with OAL, the authors found that nearly one third had a history of lymphoma, 17% of whom had a different histologic type of lymphoma in the orbit, more commonly a more indolent type. This underscores the importance of biopsy of OAL even in patients with a known history of lymphoma to determine the histologic subtype of orbital lymphoma and to help guide appropriate treatment.

Prognostic factors for local recurrence, metastasis and survival for sebaceous carcinoma of the eyelid: observations in 100 patients.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To validate the predictive value of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 8th-edition classification for local recurrence, metastasis and survival in patients with eyelid sebaceous carcinoma. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of 100 consecutive patients with eyelid sebaceous carcinoma. Eyelid carcinomas were staged according to the AJCC 7th-edition and 8th-edition criteria. Associations between T and N categories and disease-related outcomes including local recurrence, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and survival were evaluated. RESULTS: 60 women and 40 men had a median age of 67 years (range, 41-94 years). The proportions of patients who experienced local recurrence, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and death from disease were 6%, 21%, 7% and 6%, respectively. Two-year and 5-year disease-specific survival (DSS) rates were 93.8% and 92.0%, respectively. There were significant correlations between (1) T2c or worse category and lymph node metastasis (p=0.04) and distant metastasis (p=0.01), (2) T3b or worse category and local recurrence (p=0.01) and death from disease (p=0.01) and (3) N1 category at presentation and distant metastasis (p<0.01) and death from disease (p<0.01). The AJCC 8th-edition classification showed a better homogeneity of the T-category distribution (p<0.01) and a slightly higher discrimination ability for lymph node metastasis (C=0.734 vs C=0.728) than the 7th-edition. CONCLUSIONS: T and N categories per AJCC 8th-edition classification are predictive of local recurrence, metastasis and DSS outcomes for eyelid sebaceous carcinoma. Surgeons should perform strict surveillance testing for nodal and systemic metastases in patients with T2c or worse T category and/or N1 disease at presentation.

Ocular preservation with neoadjuvant vismodegib in patients with locally advanced periocular basal cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Locally advanced (T4 per American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 8th edition) periocular basal cell carcinoma (BCC) can lead to loss of the eye. We report the neoadjuvant use of vismodegib followed by surgery in patients with such lesions with eye preservation as primary goal. METHODS: This retrospective interventional study includes all patients with a T4 periocular BCC (per 8th edition AJCC for eyelid carcinoma) treated by the senior author between 2013 and 2017 with neoadjuvant vismodegib prior to definitive surgery. RESULTS: Eight patients had a T4 tumour. Six patients presented with recurrent disease. Indications for neoadjuvant treatment were an unresectable tumour in one patient, an attempt to avoid an orbital exenteration in six patients and an attempt to avoid disfiguring facial surgery in one patient. Patients were treated for a median of 14 months (range: 4-36 months). All patients underwent an eye-sparing surgery following neoadjuvant vismodegib and all final surgical margins were negative for tumour. Five patients had a complete response to vismodegib with no microscopic residual BCC found during surgery; three patients had a significant partial response with residual tumour found on pathology. At last follow-up, a mean of 18 (range: 6-43) months after surgery, all patients were off-vismodegib and alive without evidence of disease. CONCLUSIONS: Neoadjuvant vismodegib for locally advanced (T4) periocular BCC enabled an eye-sparing surgery in all patients in our cohort. Prolonged treatment was well tolerated by most patients. Over half of patients achieved a complete response with no residual microscopic disease. Careful long-term follow-up is needed to confirm long-term disease-free survival.

Immunotherapy With Programmed Cell Death 1 Inhibitors for 5 Patients With Conjunctival Melanoma.

Importance: Conjunctival melanoma has the potential for regional lymphatic and distant metastasis. There is an urgent need for effective treatment for patients with metastatic or locally advanced conjunctival melanoma. Objective: To describe the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors for the treatment of conjunctival melanoma in 5 adult patients. Design, Setting, and Participants: A retrospective review was conducted of the medical records of 5 patients with conjunctival melanoma who were treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors from March 6, 2013, to July 7, 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures: Response to treatment and disease-free survival. Results: Of the 5 patients (4 women and 1 man) with metastatic conjunctival melanoma, 4 were treated with a programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor, nivolumab, and had a complete response to treatment with no evidence of disease at 1, 7, 9, and 36 months after completing treatment. One patient with metastatic conjunctival melanoma was treated with another PD-1 inhibitor, pembrolizumab, and had stable metastases during the first 6 months of treatment. Later disease progression resulted in treatment cessation after 11 months and switching to another therapy. Two patients treated with nivolumab developed autoimmune colitis that necessitated stopping the immunotherapy; these patients subsequently were managed with systemic corticosteroids or infliximab. Conclusions and Relevance: This case series report suggests that anti-PD-1 therapy can be used to treat metastatic conjunctival melanoma. Longer follow-up is needed to determine the long-term disease-free survival. Future studies might assess the potential for immune checkpoint inhibitors to obviate the need for orbital exenteration in selected patients with locally advanced disease.

High expression of PD-1 and PD-L1 in ocular adnexal sebaceous carcinoma.

Ocular adnexal sebaceous carcinoma (OASC) is an aggressive malignancy that frequently recurs locally and metastasizes. Surgical extirpation may produce significant aesthetic morbidity, and effective systemic therapies for locally advanced or metastatic disease are largely ineffective. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown efficacy in the management of several solid tumors where tumor cell PD-L1 expression correlates with improved response. To determine whether OASC might be amenable to immune checkpoint blockade, we performed comprehensive immune profiling for CD3, CD8, PD-1, FOXP3, and PD-L1 in 24 patients with primary OASC. The composition, distribution and density of the tumor associated immune infiltrate were quantified by automated image analysis and correlated with measures of clinical outcome. Tumor cells in 12 OASCs (50%) expressed PD-L1. Higher densities of CD3+ (p = 0.01), CD8+ (p = 0.006), and PD-1+ (p = 0.024) tumor-associated T cells were associated with higher T category (≥T3a per the 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging manual). Higher tumor cell expression of PD-L1 correlated with higher density of PD-1+ tumor-associated T cells (p = 0.021). Since a CD3+ CD8+ PD-1 + T-cell infiltrate represents a "suppressed T-cell phenotype" apparently permissive toward OASC progression, our findings provide a mechanistic rationale for the effective application of immune checkpoint blockade in OASC to abrogate PD-1/PD-L1 interaction and effectively unleash the immune infiltrate to treat higher-stage tumors.