Efficacy and Safety of Docetaxel and Sodium Cantharidinate Combination vs. Either Agent Alone as Second-Line Treatment for Advanced/Metastatic NSCLC With Wild-Type or Unknown EGFR Status: An Open-Label, Randomized Controlled, Prospective, Multi-Center Phase III Trial (Cando-L1).

Second-line treatment options for advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients are limited. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of docetaxel/sodium cantharidinate combination vs. either agent alone as second-line treatment for advanced/metastatic NSCLC patients with wild-type or unknown EGFR status. A randomized, open-label, phase III study was performed at 12 institutions. Patients with failure of first-line platinum regimens were randomized to receive either single-agent sodium cantharivsdinate (SCA) or single-agent docetaxel (DOX) or docetaxel/sodium cantharidinate combination (CON). The primary endpoints were centrally confirmed progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The secondary endpoints were objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), quality of life (QoL) and toxicity. A total of 148 patients were enrolled in our study between October 2016 and March 2020. After a median follow-up time of 8.02 months, no significant difference was observed among the three groups in ORR (SCA vs. DOX vs. CON: 6.00% vs. 8.33% vs. 10.00%, respectively; p=0.814) and DCR (74.00% vs. 52.00% vs. 62.50%, respectively; p=0.080). In additional, the mOS was significantly higher in the CON group, compared with the single-agent groups (7.27 vs. 5.03 vs. 9.83 months, respectively; p=0.035), while no significant differences were observed in terms of PFS (2.7 vs. 2.9 vs. 3.1 months, respectively; p=0.740). There was no significant difference in the baseline QoL scores between the three groups (p>0.05); after treatment, life quality in SCA and CON group was significantly better than that in the DOX group (p<0.05). Furthermore, the incidence of adverse events (AEs) in the SCA group was significantly lower (46.00 vs. 79.17 vs. 25.00%, respectively; p=0.038) and the incidence of grade ≥3 AEs was also significantly lower in the SCA group compared with the DOX and CON groups (10.00 vs. 82.00 vs. 30.00%, respectively; p=0.042). Single-agent SCA and single-agent DOX has similar therapeutic efficacy in the second-line treatment of advanced/metastatic NSCLC with wild-type or unknown EGFR status, but single-agent SCA has fewer AEs and better QoL. Also, SCA plus DOX can significantly improve OS and exerted a significant synergistic effect, with good safety and tolerance profile.

Corrigendum: Effectiveness and Safety of Pyrotinib, and Association of Biomarker With Progression-Free Survival in Patients With HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Real-World, Multicentre Analysis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2020.00811.].

Pyrotinib Treatment in Patients With HER2-positive Metastatic Breast Cancer and Brain Metastasis: Exploratory Final Analysis of Real-World, Multicenter Data.

PURPOSE: Patients with HER2-positive (HER2+) metastatic breast cancer (MBC) have poor prognoses. Pyrotinib has shown promising antitumor activity in MBC to improve progression-free survival (PFS). However, findings based on real-world data to analyze whether pyrotinib affects overall survival (OS) remain scarce. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: This real-world study is an exploratory analysis of brain metastasis (BM) and the final update of our preceding study of 168 patients with HER2+ MBC. PFS, OS, tumor mutation burden (TMB), clinical benefit rate (CBR), and overall response rate (ORR) were analyzed. RESULTS: Pyrotinib treatment led to a median PFS time of 8.00 months and a median OS of 19.07 months in the 168 participants. High TMB was associated with poor OS (P = 0.0072) and PFS (P = 0.0028). In the 39 patients with BM, the median PFS and OS were 8.67 and 13.93 months, respectively. The surgery/radiation (S/R) group of patients with BM had prolonged survival (PFS: 9.97 vs. 7.73 months P = 0.19; OS: 20.67 vs. 12.43 months P = 0.021) compared with the no surgery/no radiation group (NS/NR). The CBR was 58.6% (S/R) vs. 41.4% (NS/NR), while the ORR was 24.1% (S/R) vs. 31.0% (NS/NR). CONCLUSIONS: Pyrotinib shows promise as a novel pan-HER2 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) for the treatment of BM and should be evaluated further. Surgical or radiotherapy in combination with pyrotinib was found to statistically improve OS in our cohort. TMB could be an exploratory biomarker for predicting PFS and OS, but its clinical application still needs further verification.

Bevacizumab biosimilar LY01008 compared with bevacizumab (Avastin) as first-line treatment for Chinese patients with unresectable, metastatic, or recurrent non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer: A multicenter, randomized, double-blinded, phase III trial.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated the preclinical pharmacological and toxicological consistency, and clinical pharmacokinetic equivalence of bevacizumab biosimilar LY01008 with reference bevacizumab (Avastin). This randomized controlled trial aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of LY01008 with Avastin in first-line treatment of Chinese patients with advanced or recurrent non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS: Stage IIIB-IV NSCLC patients with evaluable lesions, good physical status, and adequate organ functions from 67 centers across China were randomized in a ratio of 1:1 to receive LY01008 or Avastin 15 mg/kg intravenously in combination with paclitaxel/carboplatin (combined treatment) for 4-6 cycles, followed by maintenance monotherapy with LY01008 until disease progression, intolerable toxicity, or death. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) in accordance with Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) version 1.1 confirmed by independent radiological review committees (IRRC). Secondary endpoints included disease control rate (DCR), duration of response (DoR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and safety. This study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03533127). RESULTS: Between December 15th , 2017, and May 15th , 2019, a total of 649 patients were randomized to the LY01008 (n = 324) or Avastin (n = 325) group. As of September 25th , 2019 for primary endpoint analysis, 589 patients received ORR evaluation, with a median number of combined treatment cycles of 5 (range 1-6) and median duration of treatment of 3.0 (range 0.0-5.1) months. ORR of response-evaluable patients in the LY01008 and Avastin groups were 48.5% and 53.0%, respectively. The stratified ORR ratio was 0.91 (90% CI 0.80-1.04, within the prespecified equivalence margin of 0.75-1.33). Up to May 15th , 2020, with a median follow-up of 13.6 (range 0.8-28.4) months, no notable differences in DCR, median DoR, median PFS, median OS, and 1-year OS rate were observed between the LY01008 and Avastin groups. There were no clinically meaningful differences in safety and immunogenicity across treatment groups. CONCLUSIONS: LY01008 demonstrated similarity to Avastin in terms of efficacy and safety in Chinese patients with advanced or recurrent non-squamous NSCLC. LY01008 combined with paclitaxel/carboplatin is expected to become a new treatment option for unresectable, metastatic, or recurrent non-squamous NSCLC patients in the first-line setting.

Effectiveness and Safety of Pyrotinib, and Association of Biomarker With Progression-Free Survival in Patients With HER2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Real-World, Multicentre Analysis.

Background: Pyrotinib, an irreversible pan-ERBB inhibitor, has shown promising antitumour activity, and acceptable tolerability. This research was conducted to evaluate the actual use and effectiveness of pyrotinib in China, therefore, contributed to solve the problem of real-world data scarcity. Methods: In this retrospective study, 168 patients who received pyrotinib treatment for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (MBC) in Hunan Province from June 2018 to August 2019 were included. Progression-free survival (PFS), tumor mutation burden (TMB), and drug-related adverse events (AEs) after pyrotinib administration were analyzed. Results: The median PFS (mPFS) time in the 168 participants was 8.07 months. The mPFS times in patients with pyrotinib in second-line therapy (n = 65) and third-or-higher-line therapy (n = 94) were 8.10 months and 7.60 months, respectively. Patients with brain metastases achieved 8.80 months mPFS time. In patients with pyrotinib in third-or-higher-line therapy, patients who had previously used lapatinib still got efficacy but showed a shorter mPFS time (6.43 months) than patients who had not (8.37 months). TMB was measured in 28 patients, K-M curve (P = 0.0024) and Multivariate Cox analysis (P = 0.0176) showed a significant negative association between TMB and PFS. Diarrhea occurred in 98.2% of participants (in any grade) and 19.6% in grade 3-4 AEs. Conclusion: Pyrotinib is highly beneficial to second-or-higher-line patients or HER2-positive MBC patients with brain metastases. Pyrotinib seems to be a feasible strategy both in combination of chemotherapeutic drugs or as a replacement of lapatinib if diseases progressed. TMB could be a potential predictor for evaluating pyrotinib's effectiveness in HER2-positive MBC.

An improved Asay window technique for investigating the micro-spall of an explosively-driven tin.

An improved Asay window technique is employed to experimentally investigate the micro-spalling fragments of a melted tin subjected to high explosive loading. Compared to the traditional Asay window, details of the new design are illustrated, through the use of photonic Doppler velocimetry to record high-quality micro-spall signals. The analytical method is established to convert the measured data into the spatial volume density distribution, being in quantitative agreement with that obtained from the x-ray radiograph. This improved non-radiographic technique greatly promotes a wide application in diagnosing the micro-spall.

An improved technique of expanding metal ring experiment under high explosive loading.

An experimental technique for metal expanding ring subjected to high explosive loading is conducted to significantly improve the loading stability compared with the traditional setup of two-end detonator initiation. Aspects of the circuit design, experimental arrangement, and initiation principle are illustrated in great detail. In terms of this experimental platform, we examine the velocity response of an individual ring, which demonstrates the experimental reproducibility. Moreover, fragmentation of multiple rings stacked on a metal driver is discussed.