Friedman, Paula N.

Abstract Background: Overexpression of COX-2 has been associated with worse outcome in NSCLC. In C30203, we found that administration of the selective COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib in addition to chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC improved outcome (progression free and overall survival, PFS, OS) in pts with moderate to high COX-2 expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC). C30801 was designed to prospectively confirm that finding. Patients and Methods: Pts with NSCLC (stage IIIb with pleural effusion, IV 6th ed) were pre-registered and biopsy specimens analyzed for COX-2 by IHC. Pts with COX-2 expression > or = 2, PS 0-2 and normal organ function were eligible. Chemotherapy was determined by histology: carboplatin (AUC = 6), pemetrexed (500 mg/m2) d 1, q21 days for pts with non-squamous NSCLC; carboplatin(AUC=5.5) d1, gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2) d 1,8 for pts with squamous histology. Randomization was to celecoxib (400 mg bid) (Arm A) or placebo (Arm B). The primary endpoint was to demonstrate improvement in PFS in patients with COX-2 index >=4 with hazard ratio of 0.645. Results: The study was halted by the DSMB for futility after 312 of the planned 322 pts were randomized. The current analysis is based upon the first 300 pts. There were no significant differences between the groups (Table). There was a possible harmful effect for COX-2 inhibition in the COX-2 2-3 subset (OS HR = 1.75, p =.0977). Toxicity was similar for both arms. Subset analyses evaluating histology, chemotherapy regimen, incremental COX-2 expression did not demonstrate any advantage for COX-2 inhibition. Conclusions: 1. COX-2 expression by IHC failed to select pts who could benefit from selective COX-2 inhibition. 2. COX-2 inhibition did not significantly increase toxicity associated with chemotherapy or increase cardiovascular morbidity. 3. We will evaluate other possible determinants of toxicity and response to COX-2 inhibition. OutcomeArm AArm BCOX-2 2-3 (n=37)COX-2 > or = 4 (n=111)COX-2 2-3 (n=46)COX-2 > or = 4 (n=106)PFS (months)4.404.934.606.11OS (months)9.0310.5814.8512.68 Citation Format: Martin J. Edelman, Xiaofei Wang, Lydia Hodgson, Richard T. Cheney, Maria Baggstrom, Thomas Sachdev, Ajeet Gajra, Erin Bertino, Karen Reckamp, Julian Molina, Joan Schiller, Kisha Mitchell-Richards, Paula Friedman, Jon Ritter, Everett Vokes, Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. Phase III randomized, placebo controlled trial of COX-2 inhibition in addition to standard chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC):CALGB 30801 (Alliance). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr CT238. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-CT238

Abstract Background and Aims: Cancer and Leukemia Group B 80303 was a randomized, phase III study in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer treated with gemcitabine plus either bevacizumab or placebo. We prospectively collected germline DNA and conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using overall survival (OS) as the endpoint. Experimental Design: DNA from 351 patients was genotyped for more than 550,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP). Associations between OS and SNPs were investigated using the log-linear 2-way multiplicative Cox proportional hazards model. The subset of 294 genetically European patients was used for the primary analysis. Results: A nonsynonymous SNP in interleukin (IL)17F (rs763780, H161R) and an intronic SNP in strong linkage disequilibrium (rs7771466) were associated with OS using genome-wide criteria (P ≤ 10−7). Median OS was significantly shorter (P = 2.61 × 10−8) for the rs763780 heterozygotes [3.1 months; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.3–4.3] than for the patients without this variant (6.8 months; 95% CI, 5.8–7.3). After adjustment by stratification factors, the P value for the association was 9.51 × 10−7. Conclusions: The variant 161R form of IL-17F is a natural antagonist of the antiangiogenic effects of wild-type 161H IL-17F, and angiogenesis may play an important role in the metastatic spread of pancreatic cancer. In this preliminary study, we hypothesize that the angiogenetic potential of pancreatic cancers in patients with variant IL-17F is higher than that of tumors in patients with wild-type IL-17F, conferring worse prognosis. This exploratory GWAS may provide the foundation for testing the biology and clinical effects of novel genes and their heritable variants through mechanistic and confirmatory studies in pancreatic cancer. Clin Cancer Res; 18(2); 577–84. ©2011 AACR.