RESUMEN
PURPOSE: Anti-PD-1 therapy provides clinical benefit in 40-50% of patients with relapsed and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (RM-HNSCC). Selection of anti- PD-1 therapy is typically based on patient PD-L1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) which has low specificity for predicting disease control. Therefore, there is a critical need for a clinical biomarker that will predict clinical benefit to anti-PD-1 treatment with high specificity. METHODS: Clinical treatment and outcomes data for 103 RM-HNSCC patients were paired with RNA-sequencing data from formalin-fixed patient samples. Using logistic regression methods, we developed a novel biomarker classifier based on expression patterns in the tumor immune microenvironment to predict disease control with monotherapy PD-1 inhibitors (pembrolizumab and nivolumab). The performance of the biomarker was internally validated using out-of-bag methods. RESULTS: The biomarker significantly predicted disease control (65% in predicted non-progressors vs. 17% in predicted progressors, p < 0.001) and was significantly correlated with overall survival (OS; p = 0.004). In addition, the biomarker outperformed PD-L1 IHC across numerous metrics including sensitivity (0.79 vs 0.64, respectively; p = 0.005) and specificity (0.70 vs 0.61, respectively; p = 0.009). CONCLUSION: This novel assay uses tumor immune microenvironment expression data to predict disease control and OS with high sensitivity and specificity in patients with RM-HNSCC treated with anti-PD-1 monotherapy.
RESUMEN
Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements are now routine biomarkers that have been incorporated into the practice of managing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Historically, the two molecular alterations have been viewed as mutually exclusive, but recent identified cases suggest otherwise. In this report, we describe cases of lung cancer with concurrent EGFR mutation and ALK rearrangement and identify their clinical characteristics. Non-small cell lung cancer patients with multiple molecular alterations were retrospectively analyzed from an academic referral center from 2011-2013. An additional review was conducted of reported cases with dual alterations. Four cases of NSCLC with alterations in both EGFR and ALK were identified and evaluated with 16 published cases for a total of 20 cases. The age of patients ranged from 37 to 77 years. Nine patients were never smokers. The disease control rates in patients treated with EGFR inhibitors and ALK inhibitors were 46% (6/13) and 71% (5/7), respectively. This series highlights the importance of comprehensive molecular profiling of newly diagnosed lung cancer, as NSCLC may be driven by concurrent molecular alterations. EGFR- and ALK-targeted therapies appear to have modest activity in patients with tumors possessing both alterations. Dual-altered NSCLC patients may have distinct clinical characteristics warranting further study. Combination targeted therapy or novel multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors may prove important in these patients, though necessary studies remain ongoing.
