Prognostic value of serum CYFRA 21-1 1 in patients with anal canal squamous cell carcinoma treated with radio(chemo)therapy.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to assess the prognostic value of CYFRA 21-1 in a series of patients with anal canal squamous cell carcinoma treated by radiation-based therapy. METHODS: All patients with anal cancer referred between September 2005 and July 2013 were considered. Patients with diagnosis of anal squamous cell carcinoma and in whom pre- and post-treatment serum CYFRA 21-1 levels were available were included. Serum CYFRA 21-1 levels at initial workup and after therapy were collected. Survival rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate prognostic variables for prediction of outcomes. RESULTS: Eighty-two patients were included. Median follow-up was 60 months (range: 8-128). Pre-treatment serum CYFRA 21-1 levels were significantly correlated with tumour stage (p < 0.001). Normal post-treatment serum CYFRA 21-1 level was significantly correlated with tumour complete response (p = 0.004). Elevated post-treatment serum CYFRA 21-1 level was significantly associated with poorer progression-free survival (p = 0.02) and overall survival (p = 0.003). T stage and post-treatment serum CYFRA 21-1 were independent prognostic factors for overall survival (p = 0.04 and 0.03, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Serum CYFRA 21-1 appears to be a useful marker for the monitoring of anal squamous cell carcinoma patients. Elevated post-treatment value appears to be correlated with treatment failure.

Prognostic impact of tumour burden assessed by metabolic tumour volume on FDG PET/CT in anal canal cancer.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to confirm the prognostic value of metabolic tumour volume (MTV) at the primary site on initial work-up FDG PET/CT in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the anal canal. METHODS: Patients with a recent diagnosis of SCC of the anal canal without metastases undergoing PET/CT for initial work-up and treated with (chemo)radiotherapy were retrospectively reviewed. Computer-aided MTV and SUVmax were determined. Survival rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate prognostic variables of progression-free survival and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: The study group comprised 75 patients who had an initial work-up PET/CT. Five patients (6.7 %) had stage I disease, 22 (29.3 %) stage II disease, 20 (26.7 %) stage IIIA disease, and 28 (37.3 %) stage IIIB disease. Median follow-up was 51 months (range 10 - 117 months). Global 4-year OS was 82.7 %, ranging from 100 % in patients with stage I disease to 75 % in patients with stage IIIB disease. MTV at the primary site was significantly and independently correlated with OS (p < 0.05), as patients with MTV less than 7 cm3 had a better prognosis. SUVmax was not correlated with survival parameters. Metabolic involvement of the inguinal lymph nodes was also correlated with a poor outcome in the univariate analysis (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: MTV at the primary site is a prognostic biomarker in anal canal cancer. Hypermetabolic inguinal lymph nodes also appear to be correlated with survival.

Mutational analysis of anal cancers demonstrates frequent PIK3CA mutations associated with poor outcome after salvage abdominoperineal resection.

BACKGROUND: A better understanding of the molecular profile of anal squamous cell carcinomas (ASCCs) is necessary to consider new therapeutic approaches, and the identification of prognostic and predictive factors for response to treatment. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed tumours from ASCC patients for mutational analysis of KRAS, NRAS, HRAS, BRAF, PIK3CA, MET, TP53 and FBXW7 genes by HRM and Sanger sequencing analysis. RESULTS: Specimens from 148 patients were analysed: 96 treatment-naive tumours and 52 recurrences after initial radiotherapy (RT) or chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Mutations of KRAS, PIK3CA, FBXW7 and TP53 genes were present in 3 (2.0%), 30 (20.3%), 9 (6.1%) and 7 tumours (4.7%), respectively. The distribution of the mutations was similar between treatment-naive tumours and recurrences, except for TP53 mutations being more frequent in recurrences (P=0.0005). In patients treated with abdominoperineal resection (APR) after relapse (n=38, median follow-up of 18.2 years), overall survival (OS) was significantly correlated with HPV16 status (P=0.048), gender (P=0.045) and PIK3CA mutation (P=0.037). The PIK3CA status retained its prognostic significance in Cox multivariate regression analysis (P=0.025). CONCLUSIONS: Our study identified PIK3CA mutation as an independent prognostic factor in patients who underwent APR for ASCC recurrence, suggesting a potential benefit from adjuvant treatment and the evaluation of targeted therapies with PI3K/Akt/mTor inhibitors in PIK3CA-mutated patients.

Ductal Carcinoma in Situ: A French National Survey. Analysis of 2125 Patients.

BACKGROUND: Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) represents 15% of all breast cancers in France. The first national survey was conducted in 2003. The present multi-center real-life practice survey aimed at assessing possible changes in demographic, clinical, pathologic, and treatment features. MATERIAL AND METHODS: From March 2014 to September 2015, patients diagnosed with DCIS from 71 centers with complete information about age, diagnostic features, and treatment modalities were prospectively included. RESULTS: A total of 2125 patients with a median age of 58.6 years from 71 centers were studied. DCIS was diagnosed by mammography in 87.5% of cases. Preoperative biopsy was performed in 96% of cases. The median tumor size was 15 mm. Nuclear grade was low, intermediate, and high in 12%, 36%, and 47% of cases, respectively. Margins were considered to be negative in 83% of cases. Overall mastectomy and lumpectomy rates were 25% and 75%, respectively. The immediate breast reconstruction rate was 50%. Sentinel node biopsy and axillary dissection rates were 41% and 2.6%, respectively. After lumpectomy, 97% of patients underwent radiotherapy, and 32% received a boost dose. Only 1% of patients received endocrine therapy. Compared with our previous survey, the median tumor size remained the same, and the proportion of high-grade lesions increased by 9%. The mastectomy rate decreased by 4%. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical practice identified in this survey complies with French DCIS guidelines. About 10% of patients with low-grade DCIS may be eligible to participate in treatment de-escalation trials.

Exome sequencing reveals aberrant signalling pathways as hallmark of treatment-naive anal squamous cell carcinoma.

Anal squamous cell carcinomas (ASCC) are rare tumours in humans. The etiological role of HPV infection is now well established but little is known about the molecular landscape and signalling pathways involved in the pathogenesis of this cancer. Here we report the results from a whole exome sequencing of a homogeneous group of 20 treatment-naive ASCC. A total of 2422 somatic single nucleotide variations (SNV) were found, with an overall moderate rate of somatic mutations per tumour (median: 105 relevant SNV per tumour) but a high mutational load in 3 tumours. The mutational signatures associated with age and APOBEC were observed in 100% and 60% of tumours respectively. The most frequently mutated genes were PIK3CA (25%) followed by FBXW7 (15%), FAT1 (15%), and TRIP12 (15%), the two last ones having never been described in ASCC. The main copy number alterations were gains of chromosome 3q (affecting PIK3CA) and losses of chromosome 11q (affecting ATM). The combined analysis of somatic mutations and copy number alterations show that recurrent alterations of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway are frequent (60%) in these tumours, as well as potentially targetable alterations of other signalling pathways that have never been described in ASCC such as chromatin remodelling (45%) and ubiquitin mediated proteolysis (35%). These results highlight the possible implication of these aberrant signalling pathways in anal carcinogenesis and suggest promising new therapeutic approaches in ASCC. The high somatic mutation burden found in some tumours, suggesting an elevated neoantigen load could also predict sensitivity of ASCC to immunotherapy.

Array comparative genomic hybridization identifies high level of PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway alterations in anal cancer recurrences.

Genomic alterations of anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASCC) remain poorly understood due to the rarity of this tumor. Array comparative genomic hybridization and targeted gene sequencing were performed in 49 cases of ASCC. The most frequently altered regions (with a frequency greater than 25%) were 10 deleted regions (2q35, 2q36.3, 3p21.2, 4p16.3, 4p31.21, 7q36.1, 8p23.3, 10q23.2, 11q22.3, and 13q14.11) and 8 gained regions (1p36.33, 1q21.1, 3q26.32, 5p15.33, 8q24.3, 9q34.3, 16p13.3, and 19p13.3). The most frequent minimal regions of deletion (55%) encompassed the 11q22.3 region containing ATM, while the most frequent minimal regions of gain (57%) encompassed the 3q26.32 region containing PIK3CA. Recurrent homozygous deletions were observed for 5 loci (ie, TGFR2 in 4 cases), and recurrent focal amplifications were observed for 8 loci (ie, DDR2 and CCND1 in 3 cases, respectively). Several of the focal amplified genes are targets for specific therapies. Integrated analysis showed that the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway was the pathway most extensively affected, particularly in recurrences compared to treatment-naive tumors (64% vs 30%; P = .017). In patients with ASCC recurrences, poor overall survival (OS) was significantly correlated with a large number of altered regions (P = .024). These findings provide insight into the somatic genomic alterations in ASCC and highlight the key role of the druggable PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.

Role of fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography in gastrointestinal cancers.

Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) has become a routine imaging modality for many malignancies and its use is currently increasing. In the present review article, we will summarize the evidence for FDG-PET/CT use in digestive cancers (excluding neuroendocrine tumours), and review the existing recommendations. While PET/CT is nowadays considered to be an important tool in the initial workup of oesophageal and anal cancers, new data are emerging regarding its use in assessing therapeutic efficacy, radiotherapy treatment planning, and detection of recurrence in case of isolated tumour marker elevation. Moreover, PET/CT may help decision making by detecting distant metastatic sites especially in potentially resectable metastatic colorectal cancer and, to a lesser extent, in localized gastric and pancreatic cancers. Finally, incidental focal colonic FDG uptakes require exploration by colonoscopy, as they are often associated with premalignant or malignant lesions.