Glioblastoma and bevacizumab in elderly patients: Monocentric study.

PURPOSE: A retrospective monocentric comparison of progression-free survival, overall survival, clinical benefit and tolerability between elderly (age>70) and non-elderly (age ≤ 70) patients receiving bevacizumab for recurrent glioblastoma. METHODS: We analyzed 47 patients with recurrent glioblastoma receiving bevacizumab (10 mg/kg every 14 days) between January 2011 and January 2014. Bevacizumab was introduced for all patients at recurrence after a first-line treatment by temozolomide. RESULTS: Nineteen patients were classified as elderly and 28 patients as non-elderly. No statistically significant difference was detected in the groups in terms of progression-free survival (3.8 vs. 4.1 months, p > 0.05) and overall survival at relapse (5.5 vs. 6.5 months, p > 0.05). A significant (p = 0.01) improvement of Karnofsky Performance Status Scale was observed in non-elderly patients. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the small number of patients in this retrospective study, the efficacy and safety of bevacizumab in recurrent glioblastoma appear similar in elderly and non-elderly patients. However, clinical benefit seemed to be less evident in younger patients. A prospective multicentric study integrating geriatric assessment tools and quality of life metrics would be interesting in this patient population.

Long-term response and postsurgical complete remissions after treatment with sunitinib malate, an oral multitargeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) and significantly extended survival in these patients. Sunitinib is an oral multitargeted inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs-1, -2, and -3), platelet-derived growth factor receptors (PDGFRs-α and -ß), stem-cell factor receptor (KIT), FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3), colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R), and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor receptor (REarranged during Transfection; RET). Sunitinib is approved multinationally for the treatment of advanced RCC, and is considered the reference standard of care for first-line treatment. In clinical trials, sunitinib has been associated with a consistent, distinct profile of adverse events. Here we describe three cases that show that it is possible to manage adverse events occurring during sunitinib therapy, and thus allow patients with mRCC to receive an effective dose of sunitinib in order to achieve long-term disease control. These cases also show that surgical resection, performed whenever possible, can help to improve control of metastatic disease and so avoid the unnecessary toxicity and high costs of prolonged antiangiogenic therapy.

Allelic loss of 9p21.3 is a prognostic factor in 1p/19q codeleted anaplastic gliomas.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to study the potential clinical relevance of 9p allelic loss, with or without copy number variation, in 1p/19q codeleted anaplastic oligodendroglial tumors (AOTs). METHODS: This study enrolled 216 patients with 1p/19q codeleted AOT. The prognostic value of 9p allelic loss was investigated using a French nation-wide prospective registry, POLA (prise en charge des tumeurs oligodendrogliales anaplasiques) and high-density single nucleotide polymorphism arrays. We validated our results using the Repository of Molecular Brain Neoplasia Data (REMBRANDT) dataset. RESULTS: The minimal common region of allelic loss in chromosome arm 9p was 9p21.3. Allelic loss of 9p21.3, detected in 41.7% of tumors, was associated with shorter progression-free and overall survival rates in univariate (p = 0.008 and p < 0.001, respectively) and multivariate analyses (p = 0.009 and p = 0.009, respectively). This finding was validated in the REMBRANDT dataset in univariate and multivariate analysis (p = 0.01 and p = 0.01, respectively). CONCLUSION: Our study highlights a novel potential prognostic biomarker in 1p/19q codeleted AOT. Further prospective studies are warranted to investigate our finding.

Complete remission of pulmonary metastases of Bellini duct carcinoma with cisplatin, gemcitabine and bevacizumab.

BACKGROUND: Bellini carcinomas, rare tumors of kidney, are aggressive and have a poor prognosis. For these cancers, there is no standard treatment regimen and chemotherapy for urothelial cancer is usually used. CASE REPORT: In a 44-year-old man with hematuria, a tumor was diagnosed in the right kidney. After radical nephrectomy, pathologic analysis revealed Bellini carcinoma, staged pT3apN0, Fuhrman grade 3. Secondary pulmonary lesions occur one year later. Chemotherapy (gemcitabine, cisplatin and bevacizumab) was started and after 2 cycles of chemotherapy, Thoracic CT scans showed good response to treatment, with almost complete regression of the pulmonary lesions. After the third cycle of chemotherapy, maintenance treatment with bevacizumab continued. Fifteen months after diagnosing pulmonary metastases, hilar adenopathies progressed slightly and cisplatin-gemcitabine was started again leading to a partial response after five courses. Approximately 2 years after the diagnosis of lung metastases, the patient presented a second relapse, so carboplatin-gemcitabine was started, while bevacizumab was continued. 24 months after the diagnosis of lung metastases, the patient was still alive with controlled disease. CONCLUSIONS: In view of our findings, a prospective multicenter trial with cisplatin, gemcitabine and bevacizumab in patients with metastatic collecting duct carcinoma is planned.