Citations

Background. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have changed the landscape in the treatment of a number of cancers. Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) have emerged as a serious clinical problem with the use of ICI. Methods. All oncology patients diagnosed with pulmonary complications secondary to ICI at Mayo Clinic Rochester from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2018 were reviewed. Demographics, comorbidities, smoking, and oncologic history were analyzed. Results. A total of 10 patients developed pulmonary complications secondary to ICI. Seven patients were men (70%), and the median age at diagnosis was 61.5 (IQR 55.8-69.3) years. All patients had stage IV disease. Melanoma was the most common malignancy. Seven (70%) patients had a positive smoking history, and 6 (60%) were obese (BMI>30). Most cases were grade 2 pneumonitis (70%). One patient with grade 4 pneumonitis required endotracheal intubation and a prolonged course of systemic corticosteroids (>30 days). Eight (80%) patients received prior radiation therapy. The median time from initiation of ICI to pneumonitis diagnosis was 3.5 months. Conclusion. Melanoma was the most common malignancy, the majority of patients had grade 2 pneumonitis and required treatment with steroids, and all patients affected by ICI-related pneumonitis had stage IV malignancy. Potential risk factors included smoking history, prior radiotherapy, obesity, and advance stage at the time of ICI initiation. Extrapulmonary irAEs are common in patients with pneumonitis.

Objectives A platinum/etoposide doublet is standard first-line therapy for poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinoma (PD NEC); however, evidence to guide treatment beyond first-line regimens is lacking. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of second-line regimens in PD NEC. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of patients treated with second-line chemotherapy for PD NEC. Inclusion criteria were previous first-line therapy with platinum/etoposide, extrapulmonary PD NEC, and follow-up data. The primary end points were overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) after second-line therapy. Secondary end points included OS and PFS from first-line therapy. Results Sixty-four patients were included. The median OS from initiation of second-line therapy was 6.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.9–8.9). The median PFS was 2.3 months (95% CI, 2.0–3.2). No second-line regimen showed a statistically significant difference in OS or PFS. There was a significant increase in OS for cisplatin first-line regimens compared with carboplatin (17.0 months [95% CI, 12.5–22.6] vs 11.7 months [95% CI, 8.0–14.0]). Conclusions The efficacy of current second-line therapy in PD NEC is poor. No second-line regimen showed statistically significant superiority. Cisplatin was associated with longer OS regardless of second-line regimen or age. However, unmeasured confounders such as performance status or comorbidities may explain this effect.

Objective: This study sought to understand the patients’ perspective of what contributes to an absence of discussions of sexual orientation (SO), gender identity (GI), and sexual health in cancer care. Methods: Patients were recruited from oncology, gynecology, and a gender transition clinic to participate in semistructured interviews, which were analyzed with qualitative methods. Results: A total of 25 patients were interviewed, shedding light on 2 themes. The first was that these conversations are important but infrequent. One patient explained, “…. we know people who have had sex changes…[they] would have appreciated that question.” In response to whether sexual health was ever brought up, one patient responded, “No doctor ever has.” Patients described unaddressed issues: “There have been times, you know, we’ve wondered if it was okay to make love.” The second theme consisted of 4 pragmatic, patient-provided points to facilitate discussions: (1) implementation of a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being comfortable) to first gauge patients’ comfort in talking about SO, GI, and sexual health; (2) having the health-care provider explore the topic again over-time; (3) making sure the health-care provider is comfortable, as such comfort appears to enhance the patient’s comfort (“I have a doctor here, a female doctor, who just matter of fact will ask if I get erections and so on because of the medication she’s giving me);” and (4) eliminating euphemisms (one patient stated, “I don’t know what you mean by ‘sexual health’.”). Conclusion: Oncology health-care providers have a unique opportunity and responsibility to address SO, GI, and sexual health.

Background The objective of this case cohort study was to describe our experience in the care of patients with immune checkpoint inhibitor–related acute interstitial nephritis (ICI-AIN) including rechallenge. Methods A descriptive case series of patients that received an ICI and had an AKI (defined as a ≥1.5-fold increase in serum creatinine) as an immune-related adverse event (irAE), with biopsy-proven or clinically suspected ICI-AIN from January 1, 2014 to December 1, 2018 at Mayo Clinic, Rochester. We studied details regarding diagnosis, clinical course, management, and outcomes of rechallenge of immunotherapy. Complete response (CR) was defined as return of kidney function back to baseline or <0.3 mg/dl above baseline creatinine; partial response (PR) was defined as creatinine >0.3 mg/dl from baseline, but less than twofold above the baseline by the end of steroid course. Results A total of 14 cases of biopsy-proven (35%) or clinically suspected (65%) ICI-AIN was identified. All patients had their ICI withheld and 12 patients received steroids. Steroid regimens were highly variable. The starting equivalent dose of prednisone was higher in those that had a CR versus a PR (median 0.77 mg/kg versus 0.66 mg/kg). Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) were used in 11 patients and were stopped in eight (73%) patients at the time of the AKI event. A CR was seen in five (63%) of the eight patients who discontinued PPIs. Rechallenge was attempted in four of the 14 patients: three were successful with no recurrence of AKI, but one patient had recurrent AKI and fatal pneumonitis. Conclusions Careful review, withholding ICI and concomitant known AIN-inducing medications, along with prompt initial steroid management were the key in complete renal kidney recovery. A kidney biopsy should be strongly considered. Rechallenge of immunotherapy after a kidney irAE, although challenging, is possible and would need careful evaluation on an individual basis. Podcast This article contains a podcast at https://www.asn-online.org/media/podcast/K360/2020_01_30_KID0000152019.mp3

Abstract Eating disorders and substance use disorders frequently co‐occur. Twin studies reveal shared genetic variance between liabilities to eating disorders and substance use, with the strongest associations between symptoms of bulimia nervosa and problem alcohol use (genetic correlation [ r g ], twin‐based = 0.23‐0.53). We estimated the genetic correlation between eating disorder and substance use and disorder phenotypes using data from genome‐wide association studies (GWAS). Four eating disorder phenotypes (anorexia nervosa [AN], AN with binge eating, AN without binge eating, and a bulimia nervosa factor score), and eight substance‐use‐related phenotypes (drinks per week, alcohol use disorder [AUD], smoking initiation, current smoking, cigarettes per day, nicotine dependence, cannabis initiation, and cannabis use disorder) from eight studies were included. Significant genetic correlations were adjusted for variants associated with major depressive disorder and schizophrenia. Total study sample sizes per phenotype ranged from ~2400 to ~537 000 individuals. We used linkage disequilibrium score regression to calculate single nucleotide polymorphism‐based genetic correlations between eating disorder‐ and substance‐use‐related phenotypes. Significant positive genetic associations emerged between AUD and AN ( r g = 0.18; false discovery rate q = 0.0006), cannabis initiation and AN ( r g = 0.23; q < 0.0001), and cannabis initiation and AN with binge eating ( r g = 0.27; q = 0.0016). Conversely, significant negative genetic correlations were observed between three nondiagnostic smoking phenotypes (smoking initiation, current smoking, and cigarettes per day) and AN without binge eating ( r gs = −0.19 to −0.23; qs < 0.04). The genetic correlation between AUD and AN was no longer significant after co‐varying for major depressive disorder loci. The patterns of association between eating disorder‐ and substance‐use‐related phenotypes highlights the potentially complex and substance‐specific relationships among these behaviors.

Background: Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common aggressive lymphoid malignancy in adults. Though standard immunochemotherapy regimens can result in clinical remission and cure in a majority of patients, approximately 30% of patients are primary refractory or eventually relapse, and their prognosis is very poor. Recent progress by large scale genomic and transcriptomic profiling of DLBCL patients has resulted in a deep understanding of disease drivers in newly diagnosed DLBCL (ndDLBCL). However, previous genomic studies of relapsed and/or refractory DLBCL (rrDLBCL) are limited by small sample sizes and much less is known about the genomic landscape or the changes in clonal populations that occur within a patient undergoing R-CHOP therapy. Analysis of a large cohort of rrDLBCL is needed to uncover the importance of known drivers, define clonal shifts that occur in relapsing patients, and discover novel mutations that impact resistance to therapy. Methods: DNA sequencing (whole exome or genome sequencing) was performed on tumor and matching germline samples from two rrDLBCL patient cohorts (N=143). The first rrDLBCL cohort consisted of 68 formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tumor samples with matched germline obtained from the Mayo/Iowa Lymphoma SPORE Molecular Epidemiology Resource (MER); including 18 diagnostic/relapse paired samples. The second cohort consisted of 75 FFPE samples from 2 rrDLBCL clinical trials CC-122-ST-001 and CC-122-DLBCL-001 (NCT01421524 and NCT02031419). In addition, a ndDLBCL cohort (n=364) consisting of MER front line samples were also analyzed. CNV and SV calling was performed with Sclust and Manta, respectively. Mutational drivers were identified with cDriver. Cosmic mutational signatures were calculated for all samples. Results: For comparison of overall mutation rates between the ndDLBCL and rrDLBCL we analyzed the frequency of mutations in known driver genes [n=211, Chapuy et al, 2018; Schmitz et al, 2018; Reddy et al 2017]. Of these, the top 5 most mutated genes found in the relapse cohort were KMT2D (34.3%), IGLL5 (25.9%), CREBBP (22.4%), TP53 (21.0%), and HIST1H1E (19.6%) all of which were previously reported as mutated genes in rrDLBCL [Morin et al. 2016; Park et al. 2016;Greenawalt et al. 2017]. None of these frequencies changed significantly from the MER ndDLBCL cohort. However, frequencies of 2 genes NCOR1 and ACTB were increased significantly from 3.3% to 13.3% (p= 5.85 x 10-05) and 0.5% to 6.3% (p=2.56 x 10-04), respectively, in the rrDLBCL cohorts. Analysis of the previously reported driver mutations in 18 paired samples revealed a significant increase in the mean variant allele frequency (VAF) from diagnosis to relapse of mutations in BCL2 and BIRC6 from 18.5% to 28.8%(p=0.016) and 4.3% to 13.7%(p=0.011), respectively. In our analysis of novel drivers in rrDLBCL cohorts, 59 significant driver mutations (FDR 0.1) were identified, 23 were novel driver mutations while the remaining 36 have been previously reported as drivers of newly diagnosed DLBCL. These include novel mutations in genes such as IL4R (8.8%), CDK5R1 (6.7%), LAPTM5 (3.7%) and others whose function in lymphoma are unknown. In a secondary analysis, we performed mutational signature analysis for rrDLBCL and identified groups of patients with COSMIC mutational signatures that are associated with aging, defects in homologous end joining resulting in large insertions/deletions, and with defective mismatch repair often found in microsatellite unstable tumors. Together with the high prevalence of TP53 mutations, these results indicate genetic instability as a hallmark of relapse/refractory DLBCL. Analysis of CNV and SV will also be reported. Conclusion: Here we report to our knowledge the largest genomic dataset in relapsed and /or refractory DLBCL using tumor biopsies. Previously identified mutated genes in rrDLBCL were confirmed and novel drivers identified. Paired samples analysis reveals clonal shifts which occur during treatment and at time of relapse. Whether the novel driver mutations appeared as a function of selection of a rare clone over the course of therapy or a therapy induced mutation will be the focus of ongoing work. Novel variants including SNV, CNV and SV can potentially lead to new insights and deepen our understanding of the mechanisms of resistance in DLBCL. * Wenzl, Ortiz and Stong contributed equally **Novak and Gandhi contributed equally Disclosures Ortiz: Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Stong:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Huang:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Maurer:Morphosys: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Research Funding; Nanostring: Research Funding. Towfic:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Hagner:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties. Nikbakht:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Stokes:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Lata:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Kamalakaran:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Mavrommatis:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Trotter:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Czuczman:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership. Ansell:Regeneron: Research Funding; LAM Therapeutics: Research Funding; Trillium: Research Funding; Affimed: Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Mayo Clinic Rochester: Employment; Affimed: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Research Funding; LAM Therapeutics: Research Funding; Mayo Clinic Rochester: Employment; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Research Funding; Trillium: Research Funding; Regeneron: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Research Funding. Cerhan:Celgene: Research Funding; NanoString: Research Funding; Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Nowakowski:Bayer: Consultancy, Research Funding; Curis: Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; MorphoSys: Consultancy, Research Funding; Genentech, Inc.: Research Funding; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd: Research Funding; Selvita: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; NanoString: Research Funding. Novak:Celgene Coorperation: Research Funding. Gandhi:Celgene Corporation: Employment, Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties.

Background and Aims Lifetime risk of biliary tract cancer (BTC) in primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) may exceed 20%, and BTC is currently the leading cause of death in patients with PSC. To open new avenues for management, we aimed to delineate clinically relevant genomic and pathological features of a large panel of PSC‐associated BTC (PSC‐BTC). Approach and Results We analyzed formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded tumor tissue from 186 patients with PSC‐BTC from 11 centers in eight countries with all anatomical locations included. We performed tumor DNA sequencing at 42 clinically relevant genetic loci to detect mutations, translocations, and copy number variations, along with histomorphological and immunohistochemical characterization. Regardless of the anatomical localization, PSC‐BTC exhibited a uniform molecular and histological characteristic similar to extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. We detected a high frequency of genomic alterations typical of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, such as TP53 (35.5%), KRAS (28.0%), CDKN2A (14.5%), and SMAD4 (11.3%), as well as potentially druggable mutations (e.g., HER2/ERBB2). We found a high frequency of nontypical/nonductal histomorphological subtypes (55.2%) and of the usually rare BTC precursor lesion, intraductal papillary neoplasia (18.3%). Conclusions Genomic alterations in PSC‐BTC include a significant number of putative actionable therapeutic targets. Notably, PSC‐BTC shows a distinct extrahepatic morpho‐molecular phenotype, independent of the anatomical location of the tumor. These findings advance our understanding of PSC‐associated cholangiocarcinogenesis and provide strong incentives for clinical trials to test genome‐based personalized treatment strategies in PSC‐BTC.