Citations

Intestinal fibrosis is considered an inevitable complication of Crohn’s disease (CD) that results in symptoms of obstruction and stricture formation. Endoscopic or surgical treatment is required to treat the majority of patients. Progress in the management of stricturing CD is hampered by the lack of effective antifibrotic therapy; however, this situation is likely to change because of recent advances in other fibrotic diseases of the lung, liver, and skin. In this review, we summarize data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of antifibrotic therapies in these conditions. Multiple compounds have been tested for antifibrotic effects in other organs. According to their mechanisms, they were categorized into growth factor modulators, inflammation modulators, 5-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase inhibitors, intracellular enzymes and kinases, renin-angiotensin system (RAS) modulators, and others. From our review of the results from the clinical trials and discussion of their implications in the gastrointestinal tract, we have identified several molecular candidates that could serve as potential therapies for intestinal fibrosis in CD.

Abstract Background Disease-free survival (DFS) with a 3-year median follow-up (3-year DFS) was validated as a surrogate for overall survival (OS) with a 5-year median follow-up (5-year OS) in adjuvant chemotherapy colon cancer (CC) trials. Recent data show further improvements in OS and survival after recurrence in patients who received adjuvant FOLFOX. Hence, reevaluation of the association between DFS and OS and determination of the optimal follow-up duration of OS to aid its utility in future adjuvant trials are needed. Methods Individual patient data from 9 randomized studies conducted between 1998 and 2009 were included; 3 trials tested biologics. Trial-level surrogacy examining the correlation of treatment effect estimates of 3-year DFS with 5 to 6.5-year OS was evaluated using both linear regression (RWLS2) and Copula bivariate (RCopula2) models and reported with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). For R2, a value closer to 1 indicates a stronger correlation. Results Data from a total of 18 396 patients were analyzed (median age = 59 years; 54.0% male), with 54.1% having low-risk tumors (T1-3 and N1), 31.6% KRAS mutated, 12.3% BRAF mutated, and 12.4% microsatellite instability high or deficient mismatch repair tumors. Trial-level correlation between 3-year DFS and 5-year OS remained strong (RWLS2 = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.67 to 0.98; RCopula2 = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.83 to 1.00) and increased as the median follow-up of OS extended. Analyses limited to trials that tested biologics showed consistent results. Conclusions Three-year DFS remains a validated surrogate endpoint for 5-year OS in adjuvant CC trials. The correlation was likely strengthened with 6 years of follow-up for OS.

AbstractBackgroundAdipocyte-derived adiponectin may play a role in the host inflammatory response to cancer. We examined the association of plasma adiponectin with the density of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in colon cancers and with vitamin D, clinicopathological features, and patient survival.MethodsPlasma adiponectin and 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] were analyzed by radioimmunoassay in 600 patients with stage III colon cancer who received FOLFOX-based adjuvant chemotherapy (NCCTG N0147 [Alliance]). TIL densities were determined in histopathological sections. Associations with disease-free survival (DFS), time to recurrence, and overall survival were evaluated by multivariable Cox regression adjusting for potential confounders (ie, body mass index, race, TILs, and N stage). All statistical tests were 2-sided.ResultsWe found a statistically significant reduction in adiponectin, but not 25(OH)D, levels in tumors with high vs low TIL densities (median = 6845 vs 8984 ng/mL; P = .04). A statistically significant reduction in adiponectin was also observed in obese (body mass index >30 kg/m2) vs nonobese patients (median = 6608 vs 12 351 ng/mL; P < .001), in men vs women (median = 8185 vs 11 567 ng/mL; P < .001), in Blacks vs Whites or Asians (median = 6412 vs 8847 vs 7858 ng/mL; P < .03), and in those with fewer lymph node metastases (N1 vs N2: median = 7768 vs 9253 ng/mL; P = .01). Insufficiency of 25(OH)D (<30 ng/mL) was detected in 291 (48.5%) patients. In multivariable analyses, neither adiponectin nor 25(OH)D were associated with a statistically significant difference in DFS, overall survival , or time to recurrence in models adjusted for potential confounders. We found a statistically significant association of TILs with prognosis, yet no such interaction was observed for the association of adiponectin with TILs for DFS.ConclusionsLower circulating adiponectin levels were associated with a statistically significant increase in TIL densities in colon cancers, indicating an enhanced antitumor immune response. In contrast to TILs, neither adiponectin nor 25(OH)D was independently prognostic.

Objective: Compare oncological long-term and short-term outcomes between patients with distal cT2NO rectal cancer treated with chemoradio-therapy and local excision (CRT + LE) and patients treated with total mesorectal excision (TME). Summary Background Data: Previous studies showed that CRT + LE is equivalent to TME in local tumor control and survival for T2N0 rectal cancer. Methods: Seventy-nine patients with cT2N0 rectal adenocarcinoma treated with CRT + LE in the ACOSOG Z6041 trial were compared to a cohort of 79 patients with pT2N0 tumors treated with upfront TME in the Dutch TME trial. Survival, short-term outcomes, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) were compared between groups. Results: Three patients (4%) in the CRT + LE group required abdominoperineal resection, compared with 31 (40%) in the TME group. Forty TME patients (51%) required a permanent stoma. CRT-related toxicity occurred in 43% of the CRT + LE patients; however, TME patients had a higher rate of complications requiring reoperation (1 vs 9%; P = 0.03). Five-year disease-free survival {88.2% [confidence interval (CI), 77.7%–93.9%] vs 88.3% [CI, 78.7%–93.7%]; P = 0.88} and overall survival [90.3% (CI, 80.8%–95.3%) vs 88.4% (CI, 78.9%–93.8%); P = 0.82] were similar in the 2 groups. Compared to baseline, overall HRQOL decreased in the CRT + LE group and improved in the TME group. In both groups, patients with sphincter preservation had worse HRQOL scores 1 year after surgery. Conclusions: In patients who underwent CRT + LE, oncological outcomes were similar to those of patients who underwent TME, with fewer complications requiring reoperation but significant CRT toxicity. Although overall HRQOL decreased in the CRT + LE group and improved in TME patients, when considering anorectal function, results were worse in both groups.

Background: Benchmarking international cancer survival differences is necessary to evaluate and improve healthcare systems. Our aim was to assess the potential regional differences in outcomes among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) participating in international randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Design: Countries were grouped into 11 regions according to the World Health Organization and the EUROCARE model. Meta-analyses based on individual patient data were used to synthesize data across studies and regions and to conduct comparisons for outcomes in a two-stage random-effects model after adjusting for age, sex, performance status, and time period. We used mCRC patients enrolled in the first-line RCTs from the ARCAD database, which provided enrolling country information. There were 21,509 patients in 27 RCTs included across the 11 regions. Results: Main outcomes were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Compared with other regions, patients from the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland were proportionaly over-represented, older, with higher performance status, more frequently male, and more commonly not treated with biological therapies. Cohorts from central Europe and the United States (USA) had significantly longer OS compared with those from UK and Ireland ( p = 0.0034 and p < 0.001, respectively), with median difference of 3–4 months. The survival deficits in the UK and Ireland cohorts were, at most, 15% at 1 year. No evidence of a regional disparity was observed for PFS. Among those treated without biological therapies, patients from the UK and Ireland had shorter OS than central Europe patients ( p < 0.001). Conclusions: Significant international disparities in the OS of cohorts of mCRC patients enrolled in RCTs were found. Survival of mCRC patients included in RCTs was consistently lower in the UK and Ireland regions than in central Europe, southern Europe, and the USA, potentially attributed to greater overall population representation, delayed diagnosis, and reduced availability of therapies.

Abstract Background Colon cancer (CC) incidence in young adults (age 20-49 years), termed early-onset CC (EO-CC), is increasing. Methods Individual patient data on 35 713 subjects with stage III colon cancer from 25 randomized studies in the Adjuvant Colon Cancer ENdpoint database were pooled. The distributions of demographics, clinicopathological features, biomarker status, and outcome data were summarized by age group. Overall survival, disease-free survival, time to recurrence, and survival after recurrence were assessed by Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox models stratified by treatment arms within studies, adjusting for sex, race, body mass index, performance status, disease stage, grade, risk group, number of lymph nodes examined, disease sidedness, and molecular markers. All statistical tests were 2-sided. Results Using a 5% difference between age groups as the clinically meaningful cutoff, patients with stage III EO-CC had similar sex, race, performance status, risk group, tumor sidedness, and T stage compared with patients with late-onset CC (age 50 years and older). EO-CC patients were less likely to be overweight (30.2% vs 36.2%) and more commonly had 12 or more lymph nodes resected (69.5% vs 58.7%). EO-CC tumors were more frequently mismatch repair deficient (16.4% vs 11.5%) and less likely to have BRAFV600E (5.6% vs 14.0%), suggesting a higher rate of Lynch syndrome in EO-CC. Patients with EO-CC had statistically significantly better overall survival (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.81, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.74 to 0.89; P &lt; .001), disease-free survival (HR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.84 to 0.98; P = .01), and survival after recurrence (HR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.80 to 0.97; P = .008) in the analysis without molecular markers; however, age at onset of CC lost its prognostic value when outcome was adjusted for molecular markers. Conclusion Tumor biology was found to be a more important prognostic factor than age of onset among stage III colon cancer patients in the Adjuvant Colon Cancer ENdpoint database.

Abstract Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has revolutionized cancer therapy. However, the response of patients to ICB is difficult to predict. Here, we examined 81 patients with lung cancer under ICB treatment and found that patients with MET amplification were resistant to ICB and had a poor progression-free survival. Tumors with MET amplifications had significantly decreased STING levels and antitumor T-cell infiltration. Furthermore, we performed deep single-cell RNA sequencing on more than 20,000 single immune cells and identified an immunosuppressive signature with increased subsets of XIST- and CD96-positive exhausted natural killer (NK) cells and decreased CD8+ T-cell and NK-cell populations in patients with MET amplification. Mechanistically, we found that oncogenic MET signaling induces phosphorylation of UPF1 and downregulates tumor cell STING expression via modulation of the 3′-UTR length of STING by UPF1. Decreased efficiency of ICB by MET amplification can be overcome by inhibiting MET. Significance: We suggest that the combination of MET inhibitor together with ICB will overcome ICB resistance induced by MET amplification. Our report reveals much-needed information that will benefit the treatment of patients with primary MET amplification or EGFR–tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistant-related MET amplification. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 2659

3610 Background: Chronic lower grade adverse events (AE) can negatively affect a patient’s quality of life but it is difficult to capture using a traditional toxicity reporting approach. A novel AE reporting method was recently developed to describe, summarize, and present longitudinal AE profiles(Lopes et al, 2021). We leveraged this method to describe and compare the AE profiles of doublet chemotherapy (DC) + Cetuximab and DC alone in mCRC patients. Methods: This AE reporting method utilizes two additional AE metrics to complement the maximum (max) toxicity grade usually reported in clinical trials. Onset time indicates the time period in which max grade for an AE occurred for the first time, defined here as “early” (i.e. within first 42 days) and “late” (i.e. after the 42nd day). AE Load (AEL) indicates the overall severity of an AE in the entire treatment. AEL varies from 0 to 1. Higher AEL indicates a worse overall severity of that AE over time. AEL is the key metric for describing chronic AE. We included patients receiving DC + cetuximab (n = 738) and DC alone (n = 564 [ref group]) from two randomized first-line trials in the ARCAD database. Diarrhea, rash, hand-foot syndrome (HFS), fatigue, anorexia, and mucositis were examined and adjusted for backbone (FOLFOX vs. FOLFIRI), ECOG PS, sex, site location, dose reduction, and treatment length. Results: For rash, DC + cetuximab had a higher risk of G3+ (21% vs. 0.5%; odds ratio {OR} [95% confidence interval {CI}] = 50 [16,157], p < 0.001), increased overall severity over the entire treatment (AEL = 0.257 vs. 0.069; Adjusted difference in means–Mdiff [95% CI] = 0.22 [0.21,0.23], p < 0.001), and increased risk of early onset (67% vs. 33%; OR [95% CI] = 4.3 [2.7,6.7], p < 0.001). DC + cetuximab also had higher AEL for rash across max grades (p < 0.001 within G1, G2, and G3+). For HFS, DC + cetuximab had a higher risk of G3+ (OR [95% CI] = 6.0 [2.5,14], p < 0.001), increased overall severity (AEL = 0.139 vs. 0.087; Mdiff [95% CI] = 0.03 [0.03,0.04], p < 0.001), and slightly earlier onset (12.4 vs. 13.9 weeks; Mdiff, weeks [95% CI] = -4.9 [-0.80,-9.0], p = 0.021). Within each max grade, DC + cetuximab did not have higher AEL of HFS. No associations were found for diarrhea, fatigue, anorexia, or mucositis. Conclusions: The addition of cetuximab is associated with higher grade, more persistent, and more immediate rash. The higher severity in HFS with the addition of cetuximab appears to be related to higher grade but not chronic HFS. This method may be useful to describe different strategies, e.g. intermittent cetuximab. It provided a comprehensive view of acute and chronic toxicity profiles supporting its potential interest as new metrics in clinical trials. Lopes GS, Tournigand C, Olswold CL, et al. Adverse event load, onset, and maximum grade: A novel method of reporting adverse events in cancer clinical trials. Clinical Trials. 2021;18(1):51-60