Citations

In recent years, the importance of the gut microbiome in human health and disease has increased. Growing evidence suggests that gut dysbiosis might be a crucial risk factor for coronary artery disease (CAD). Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine whether or not CAD is associated with specific changes in the gut microbiome. The V3–V4 regions of the 16S rDNA from fecal samples were analyzed to compare the gut microbiome composition between CAD patients and controls. Our search yielded 1181 articles, of which 21 met inclusion criteria for systematic review and 7 for meta-analysis. The alpha-diversity, including observed OTUs, Shannon and Simpson indices, was significantly decreased in CAD, indicating the reduced richness of the gut microbiome. The most consistent results in a systematic review and meta-analysis pointed out the reduced abundance of Bacteroidetes and Lachnospiraceae in CAD patients. Moreover, Enterobacteriaceae, Lactobacillus, and Streptococcus taxa demonstrated an increased trend in CAD patients. The alterations in the gut microbiota composition are associated with qualitative and quantitative changes in bacterial metabolites, many of which have pro-atherogenic effects on endothelial cells, increasing the risk of developing and progressing CAD.

AbstractThe European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) presents a short list of performance measures for colonoscopy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Current performance measures for colonoscopy mainly focus on detecting (pre)malignant lesions. However, these performance measures are not relevant for all colonoscopy indications in IBD patients. Therefore, our aim was to provide endoscopy services across Europe and other interested countries with a tool for quality monitoring and improvement in IBD colonoscopy. Eight key performance measures and one minor performance measure were recommended for measurement and evaluation in daily endoscopy practice.

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is an uncommon malignancy of B-cell origin. Classical HL (cHL) and nodular lymphocyte–predominant HL are the 2 main types of HL. The cure rates for HL have increased so markedly with the advent of modern treatment options that overriding treatment considerations often relate to long-term toxicity. These NCCN Guidelines Insights discuss the recent updates to the NCCN Guidelines for HL focusing on (1) radiation therapy dose constraints in the management of patients with HL, and (2) the management of advanced-stage and relapsed or refractory cHL.

In the last decade, a better understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas has resulted in the development of novel targeted therapies, such as small molecule inhibitors of select kinases in the B-cell receptor pathway, antibody–drug conjugates, and small molecules that target a variety of proteins (eg, CD-19, EZH2, and XPO-1–mediated nuclear export). Anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, first approved for relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, has also emerged as a novel treatment option for R/R follicular lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma. These NCCN Guideline Insights highlight the new targeted therapy options included in the NCCN Guidelines for B-Cell Lymphomas for the treatment of R/R disease.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on provision of endoscopy services globally as staff and real estate were repurposed. As we begin to recover from the pandemic, a cohesive international approach is needed, and guidance on how to resume endoscopy services safely to avoid unintended harm from diagnostic delays. The aim of these guidelines is to provide consensus recommendations that clinicians can use to facilitate the swift and safe resumption of endoscopy services. An evidence-based literature review was carried out on the various strategies used globally to manage endoscopy during the COVID-19 pandemic and control infection. A modified Delphi process involving international endoscopy experts was used to agree on the consensus statements. A threshold of 80% agreement was used to establish consensus for each statement. 27 of 30 statements achieved consensus after two rounds of voting by 34 experts. The statements were categorised as pre-endoscopy, during endoscopy and postendoscopy addressing relevant areas of practice, such as screening, personal protective equipment, appropriate environments for endoscopy and infection control precautions, particularly in areas of high disease prevalence. Recommendations for testing of patients and for healthcare workers, appropriate locations of donning and doffing areas and social distancing measures before endoscopy are unique and not dealt with by any other guidelines. This international consensus using a modified Delphi method to produce a series of best practice recommendations to aid the safe resumption of endoscopy services globally in the era of COVID-19.

The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) provide recommendations for the management of adult patients with HL. The NCCN panel meets at least annually to review comments from reviewers within their institutions, examine relevant data, and reevaluate and update their recommendations. Current management of classic HL involves initial treatment with chemotherapy alone or combined modality therapy followed by restaging with PET/CT to assess treatment response. Overall, the introduction of less toxic and more effective regimens has significantly advanced HL cure rates. This portion of the NCCN Guidelines focuses on the management of classic HL.

Abstract Background: Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) S0016 was a phase III randomized study that compared safety and efficacy of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone and rituximab (CHOP-R) with CHOP followed by consolidation with (131) iodine-tositumomab radioimmunotherapy (CHOP-RIT) for previously untreated follicular lymphoma (FL) patients. As reported previously, the study demonstrated excellent outcomes in both arms with 2-year progression-free survival (PFS) of 76% and 80% and 2-year overall-survival (OS) of 97% and 93% in the CHOP-R and CHOP-RIT arms, respectively. (Press. et al. JCO, 2012) We now report the long term outcome of patients who were treated on the S0016 study. Methods: Between 2001 and 2008, 531 previously untreated advanced follicular lymphoma patients were randomized to receive either 6 cycles of CHOP every 3 weeks with 6 doses of rituximab (CHOP-R) or 6 cycles of CHOP every 3 weeks followed by RIT. Patients with advanced-stage disease (bulky stage II, III or IV) with any pathologic grade (1, 2 or 3) were eligible. Results: Patients on CHOP-R (n=264) and CHOP-RIT (n=267) arms had balanced baseline characteristics including age (median 54.5 vs. 53.4 years), presence of B symptoms (29% vs. 26%), pathologic grade 3 (8% vs. 9%), "high" FLIPI risk group (22% vs. 26%), stage IV disease (59% vs. 63%), elevated β2M (53% vs. 55%), bone marrow involvement (56% vs. 55%) and bulky disease (24% vs. 26%). Objective remissions were documented in 226 of 267 eligible patients treated with CHOP-R (85%) and in 226 of 264 patients with CHOP-RIT (86%). Complete remission (CR) rate was 40% in the CHOP-R and 45% in the CHOP-RIT arm. Neutropenia was the most common adverse event (AE) in both arms (48% vs. 51%). Rate of grade 3-5 AEs were not different except for thrombocytopenia which was more common in the CHOP-RIT group (18% vs. 2%). After a median follow-up of 9.6 years (range 0.1 - 14.4 years), the estimated 10-year PFS was 42% (95% CI: 35.6%, 48.5%) in the CHOP-R arm and 57% (95% CI: 50.5%, 63.2%) in the CHOP-RIT arm (p-value = 0.01). 51% of responders on the CHOP-R arm and 38% of responders on the CHOP-RIT arm have relapsed (p-value= 0.01). The estimated 2-year relapse-free survival was 76% for CHOP-R patients and 81% for CHOP-RIT patients (p-value=0.15). There were 48 deaths in the CHOP+R arm and 59 deaths in the CHOP-RIT arm with an estimated 10-year OS of 82% (95% CI: 76.3%, 86.4%) with CHOP-R and 77% (95% CI: 70.5%, 81.4%) with CHOP-RIT (p-value = 0.18). (Figure-1) During the follow-up, 41 patients (15.4%) in the CHOP-R arm and 37 patients (14%) in the CHOP-RIT arm developed secondary malignancies. MDS/AML were more common in the CHOP-RIT arm (11 patients; 4.2%) compared to CHOP-R arm (5 patients; 1.9%) with a relative risk of 2.2 (95% CI: 0.8-6.3) (P-value 0.12). Conclusion: With almost 10 years of follow-up, patients with FL treated on protocol S0016 show outstanding survival in both CHOP-R and CHOP-RIT arms, and represent the best published long-term outcomes to date in this disease. Indeed, almost half of patients enrolled still remain progression-free, confirming registry experiences. While CHOP-RIT provided significantly longer PFS and lower relapse rate compared to CHOP-R in our study, the OS rate was not different between 2 arms due in part to higher incidence of fatal MDS/AML in the CHOP-RIT group, emphasizing the importance of long-term follow-up, and calling into question the validity of PFS as a surrogate for OS in this setting. Given these outstanding outcomes, we believe chemoimmunotherapy should remain the standard induction approach for patients with high-risk FL until long-term follow-up of alternative approaches demonstrates superiority. Support: NIH/NCI grants CA180888, CA180819, CA180821 and in part by GlaxoSmithKline Disclosures Shadman: Emergent: Research Funding; Acerta: Research Funding; Gilead: Honoraria, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Honoraria, Research Funding. Rimsza:NCI/NIH: Patents & Royalties: L.M. Rimsza is a co-inventor on a provisional patent, owned by the NCI of the NIH, using Nanostring technology for determining cell of origin in DLBCL.. Gopal:Paid Consultancy- Gilead, Janssen, Seattle Genetics, Spectrum, Research funding- Gilead, Janssen, Pfizer, BMS, Merck, Teva, Takeda, Spectrum, Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Maloney:Juno Therapeutics: Research Funding; Genentech/Roche: Honoraria. Cheson:Gilead: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Acerta: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Smith:Amgen: Other: Educational lecture to sales force; TGTX: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy, Other: on a DSMB for two trials ; Portola: Consultancy; Juno: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; AbbVie: Consultancy. Fisher:Seattle Genetics: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; Johnson and Johnson: Consultancy. Friedberg:Bayer: Other: Data Safety Monitoring Committee. Press:Roche / Genentech: Consultancy, Research Funding.

Background: Activation induced cytidine deaminase (AICDA or AID) causes somatic hypermutation (SHM) of the immunoglobulin heavy chain variable genes (IGHV). It has been widely hypothesized that aberrant targeting of AICDA creates additional driver mutations and intra-clonal heterogeneity which enables clonal evolution and thus disease progression. This hypothesis predicts that greater AICDA-mediated intraclonal heterogeneity will be associated with shortened progression free survival (PFS). To definitively test this hypothesis that AICDA-mediated heterogeneity is linked to risk of progression, we evaluated available samples from the largest US-based phase 3 trial of untreated follicular lymphoma patients treated with CHOP-based therapies, SWOG trial S0016. Methods: We have previously shown that ultradeep sequencing of two genes, the expressed IGHV and the 5' UTR of the translocated BCL2 allele, provide unrelated measures of AICDA-mediated genetic heterogeneity (Spence, J Immunol. 2014). Furthermore, the number of AICDA-mediated mutations in the 5' UTR of BCL2, but not in IGHV, correlates with the number of AICDA-mediated mutations at other known AICDA sites throughout the genome (such as PIM1, BCL6, RHOA, etc). Genomic DNA was prepared from all available paraffin-embedded specimens. Ultra-deep, amplicon-based sequencing (~10,000x) with internal controls to establish specimen-specific signal-to-noise parameters allowed sensitive and specific detection of sequence variants at 0.2% (FDR 1%). Results: For subjects with (152) and without (419) available specimens, the median duration of follow-up (11.3 years), the number of patients who progressed (60%), and other patient characteristics (demographics, histology, stage, FLIPI) were indistinguishable. Sequencing data that fulfilled strict quality metrics for low frequency variants were obtained for >75% of the specimens (114 for BCL2; 120 for IGHV); further analysis was restricted to these subjects. The extent of intraclonal variation within both the IGHV and the 5' UTR of BCL2 was highly variable. For BCL2, a median of 7 mutations/case were detected (range 0-61); the mutations were highly skewed to the RCYW motif (p<0.001), the preferred target of AICDA. These mutations defined a median of 5 subclones/case (range 1-22). The clonal IGHV was somatically mutated (<0.98 germline identity) in 94% of samples (median 0.89). For IGHV, a median of 113 subclones/case were detected (range 0-1531). Consistent with our prior study, no correlation was seen between the number of mutations detected in the IGHV and BCL2 or the number of subclones defined by IGHV and BCL2. Neither the number of mutations in nor the number of subclones defined by BCL2 or IGHV were prognostic. Cox regression showed no relationship between PFS and mutation number or subclone count based on either IGHV or BCL2 (hazard ratios are indistinguishable from 1; parameters were treated both as a continuous variables and dichotomized as quartiles). Furthermore, receiver operator curves did not suggest a cut point for any of these measures that would predict disease progression at any time (areas under the curve are indistinguishable from 0.5). Conclusions: Several measures of AICDA-mediated mutation and resulting subclonal heterogeneity were not found to be prognostic in previously untreated, advanced stage FL treated with CHOP-based regimens. In contrast, AICDA-mediated mutations have been reported to accrue during transformation from low grade FL to large cell lymphoma. This paradox calls for a more refined model to explain the role of AICDA in the progression of FL. Support: NIH/NCI grants U10CA180888, U10CA180819, U10CA180821, R21CA198072(WRB); and in part by GlaxoSmithKline. Disclosures Rimsza: NanoSting: Patents & Royalties: Named inventor on a patent licensed to NanoSting [Institution]. Leonard:Bayer Corporation: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Genentech, Inc./F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd: Consultancy; Sandoz: Consultancy; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Miltenyi: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy; Sutro Biopharma: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Nordic Nanovector: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; Karyopharm Therapeutics: Consultancy; Genentech, Inc./F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd: Consultancy; Bayer Corporation: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; Epizyme, Inc: Consultancy; Merck: Consultancy; MorphoSys: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Epizyme, Inc: Consultancy; Akcea Therapeutics: Consultancy; Miltenyi: Consultancy; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy; Karyopharm Therapeutics: Consultancy; Merck: Consultancy; Sandoz: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; Akcea Therapeutics: Consultancy; MorphoSys: Consultancy; Nordic Nanovector: Consultancy; Sutro Biopharma: Consultancy. Fisher:Celgene: Consultancy; Barclays: Honoraria; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; prIME: Honoraria. Smith:Portola Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding. Friedberg:Bayer: Honoraria, Other: Data & Safety Monitoring Committee; Acerta: Other: Data & Safety Monitoring Committee.

Abstract Background: TP53 is reported to be mutated in about 20% of transformed and/or relapsed follicular lymphoma (FL) specimens but in fewer than 5% of pre-treatment FL specimens. The disparity in the reported prevalence of TP53 mutations at diagnosis versus transformation/relapse suggests that TP53-mutated subpopulations, which are too small for detection, might be present at the time of diagnosis in tumors destined to relapse. To test this hypothesis, we developed a more sensitive assay for TP53 mutations and applied the assay to SWOG S0016, a phase III randomized intergroup trial of CHOP chemotherapy plus rituximab (R-CHOP) compared with CHOP chemotherapy plus 131-iodine tositumomab (radio-immunotherapy (RIT)-CHOP) for previously untreated follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Methods: Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) biopsies were available for 213/571 enrollees. 147 samples fulfilled inclusion criteria: 1) sufficient DNA for 3 PCR-reactions each at 250 ng gDNA (~40,000 diploid equivalents; 5'UTR and all exons of TP53 were amplified in 3 multiplexed reactions to obtain consistently sized amplicons); 2) appropriate size distribution of DNA products after library preparation (~300 bp). To maintain specificity with high read-coverage, each PCR included an amplicon of eUCR41 (eukaryotic ultra-conserved region) to provide specimen-specific metrics of DNA-damage and sequencing noise. Sequence reads (Ilumina 300 nt paired end) were merged, mapped to reference (>10,000x coverage), and single nucleotide variants (SNV) were called using LoFreq based on case and base-change error thresholds (from the eUCR41 data). Pathogenicity of each TP53 sequence variant was based on a consensus of the Seshat and IARC databases. Variant Allele Frequencies (VAF) of passenger SNVs (5'UTR of BCl2) allowed normalization to the minimum tumor fraction. Results: A total of 73 SNVs within TP53 were detected in 147 FFPE specimens (80 RIT-CHOP; 67 R-CHOP); the SNVs in 34 patients (23%; 17-30% 95% CI) created missense or nonsense mutations which met criteria for pathogenicity. The VAF for these SNVs ranged from 0.008 to 0.7 (median 0.02) and 82% had a VAF of less than 0.1. Among the 34 patients with a pathogenic TP53 mutation, no relationship was observed between the VAF and time to progression. The group of 34 patients with a pathogenic TP53 mutation had a shortened Progression Free Survival (PFS) (HR=1.68; p=0.035) and Overall Survival (OS) (HR=2.02; p=0.045). However, the relationship between TP53 mutations and PFS depended on treatment: for the R-CHOP arm, the pathogenic TP53 mutations were not associated with PFS (10-year PFS 44% vs 42%); in contrast, for the RIT-CHOP arm, pathogenic TP53 mutations were associated with a shortened PFS (10 year PFS 27% vs 65%; HR=3.2; p=0.001) (see figure). Furthermore, among patients with no detectable pathogenic TP53 mutation, RIT-CHOP was associated with a longer PFS than R-CHOP (10 year PFS 65% vs 44%; HR=0.58; p=0.046). Conclusions: Using specimens from SWOG S0016, we find that pathogenic TP53 mutations are present in 23% of untreated, advanced stage FL specimens, a considerably higher fraction than reports based on less sensitive methods. Long term follow-up of S0016 has shown that the RIT-CHOP arm had a small but statistically significant improvement in the 10-year PFS compared to R-CHOP (Shadman 2018). We now show that the interaction of RIT and TP53-status substantially affects PFS. First, in the cohort without a detectable TP53 mutation, a longer PFS was observed with RIT-CHOP than R-CHOP. Second, in the cohort with a detectable TP53 mutation, a shorter PFS was observed with RIT-CHOP than R-CHOP. This observation is consistent with the well-defined role of TP53 as the mediator of the apoptotic response to ionizing radiation. Therefore, an assay which detects subclonal populations with TP53 mutations defines two cohorts for which the inclusion of radio-immunotherapy had substantial and opposite effects on the risk of progression. Finally, this identification of subclonal TP53 mutations as a predictive biomarker highlights that preserving specimens from clinical trials to mine with new technologies can be key to the advancement of precision medicine. We wish to recognize the late Dr. Oliver Press for his central role in S0016 and his many contributions to SWOG. Support: NIH/NCI grants U10CA180888, U10CA180819, U10CA180821, R21CA198072 (RB); and in part by GlaxoSmithKline. Figure. Figure. Disclosures Rimsza: NanoString: Other: Inventor on the patent for the Lymph2Cx assay. Leonard:Juno: Consultancy; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; Sutro: Consultancy; Biotest: Consultancy; United Therapeutics: Consultancy; BMS: Consultancy; Bayer: Consultancy; Genentech/Roche: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy; MEI Pharma: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Karyopharm: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy. Smith:BMS: Consultancy; Portola: Honoraria. Friedberg:Bayer: Honoraria.