Citations

163 Background: Being physically inactive is an independent predictor of poor outcomes in patients with stage III colon cancer. Whether physical activity can mitigate the oncologic risk of postoperative MRD is unknown. Methods: We concluded a post hoc analysis of a phase III trial evaluating celecoxib vs. placebo and 3 vs. 6 months of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with resected stage III colon cancer. Self-reported physical activity was assessed in standardized measures of metabolic equivalent hours per week (MET-h/wk) at 2 timepoints: 1) midway through and 2) 6 months after completing adjuvant chemotherapy, modeled as a time-weighted average. MRD was determined via a clinically validated, tumor-informed circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assay (Signatera, Natera, Inc.). Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated using flexible parametric survival models. Results: Among 763 patients (median follow-up 6.0 years), 24% were highly active (≥18 MET-h/wk) and 32% were inactive (<3 MET-h/wk); 18% were ctDNA positive. Adjusting for covariates, DFS improved in patients who were ctDNA negative and moderately active (Ref: inactive; 3-17.9 MET-h/wk; HR=0.62, 95% CI [0.40-0.97]) or highly active (HR = 0.53 [0.30-0.94]). No benefit was seen among patients who were ctDNA positive (Ref: inactive; moderately active: HR = 1.20 [0.75-1.92]; highly active: HR=0.83 [0.45-1.54]). The interaction was not significant (Pint=0.269). Physical activity did not impact OS regardless of ctDNA status. The interaction of physical activity and adjuvant celecoxib use is shown in Table. Conclusions: Among patients who were ctDNA negative, physical activity was associated with improved DFS, and may demonstrate increased survival benefit alongside adjuvant celecoxib. The additive effects of both interventions were inconclusive among those who were ctDNA positive. Support: U10CA180821, U10CA180882, U24CA196171; https://acknowledgments.alliancefound.org; Natera, Pfizer; NCT01150045. Disease-free survival by physical activity level and celecoxib use, stratified by ctDNA status. 3-yr event # at risk Adjusted HR (95% CI) P-value Pint ctDNA Negative 0.258 Inactive + placebo 23 182 Ref Active + placebo 17 132 0.74 (0.43-1.28) 0.283 Inactive + celecoxib 23 167 0.92 (0.57-1.48) 0.720 Active + celecoxib 10 146 0.40 (0.22-0.79) 0.007 ctDNA Positive 0.221 Inactive + placebo 26 33 Ref Active + placebo 15 20 0.96 (0.50-1.84) 0.903 Inactive + celecoxib 34 54 0.62 (0.37-1.05) 0.076 Active + celecoxib 14 29 0.34 (0.18-0.64) 0.001 ctDNA, circulating tumor DNA; HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval. Active = ≥9 MET-h/week, inactive = <9 MET-h/week. Celecoxib use defined by assignment in CALGB/SWOG 80702. Models adjusted by T and N stage, age, sex, race, assigned cycles of fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin, KRAS and BRAF status, BMI, and Western diet.

Facial pain disorders, most notoriously trigeminal neuralgia, cause substantial suffering, functional impairment, disability, and impaired quality of life. However, most pain medicine practitioners have had only limited education on the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of facial pain. Furthermore, this limited education often contains commonly held myths about facial pain diagnosis. These myths can result in misdiagnoses that lead to ineffective medications, interventions, or surgeries and prolonged pain. Therefore, the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine’s Headache and Facial Pain Special Interest Group convened a multidisciplinary group of neurologists, anesthesiologists, and dentists to identify and dispel pervasive myths in facial pain diagnosis.

Abstract Introduction: Lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel) was approved in the United States for the treatment of CLL in 3/2024 for patients who have received two prior lines of therapy including a covalent BTK inhibitor and a BCL-2 inhibitor. Data regarding outcomes of liso-cel is limited to reports from the registrational TRANSCEND-CLL 004 clinical trial which had strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. This work investigates the real-world efficacy and safety of liso-cel for patients with CLL and its efficacy in specific sub-populations. Methods: This is a multi-institutional retrospective study (Collaborative Assessment of Real-World Evidence of Lisocabtagene Maraleucel in Patients with Relapsed/Refractory CLL/SLL [CARE CAR-T CLL]) of patients with CLL who received commercial liso-cel in the United States. Patients with Richter transformation were excluded. Response was defined by iwCLL criteria. Patients who did not undergo a marrow biopsy but met other criteria for a complete response (CR) were categorized as unconfirmed CR (CRu). CRS and ICANS were graded per ASTCT criteria. Results: A total of 30 patients were identified with a median age of 67 years (range 44 – 80). Twenty of thirty patients (67%) had either del17p and/or mutated TP53, and 8/30 (27%) had complex karyotype (≥ 3 abnormalities) at time of liso-cel infusion. Patients received a median of 6 prior lines of therapy (range 1 - 12), and 24 (80%) were previously treated with chemotherapy. All patients had previous exposure to a covalent BTK inhibitor and a BCL-2 inhibitor. Twenty-seven (90%) of patients had prior exposure to pirtobrutinib. Twenty-nine patients (96.7%) received bridging treatment that was stopped after leukapheresis with 1 patient in CR and 25 patients in PR at time of liso-cel. Eighteen patients (60%) were treated with pirtobrutinib as the last line of treatment prior to liso-cel. Median length of time on pirtobrutinib prior to liso-cel infusion was 4 months (interquartile range [IQR], 2 – 8 months). Twelve (66.7%) patients stopped pirtobrutinib between leukapheresis and lymphodepletion, and 6 continued after liso-cel. Best CR/CRu rate was 60.0% (CR, n = 17/30; CRu, n = 1/30), and best overall response rate (ORR) was 83.3% (25/30) with median time to best response of 30 days (IQR, 28 – 30 days). Of the 18 patients who received pirtobrutinib as their last line of therapy, 13 (72%) achieved a CR/CRu. Meanwhile, of the 12 patients who did not receive pirtobrutinib as their last line of therapy, only 5 (28%) achieved a CR. Measurable residual disease testing (MRD) by flow cytometry was done in 14/30 patients, and 9 patients (64%) had achieved undetectable MRD (uMRD). MRD by next generation sequencing (NGS) was done in 17 patients, and 7 (41%) patients had uMRD. Twenty-seven of 30 patients (90%) were alive at time of data collection. Median follow-up was 3.3 months (IQR, 1.2 – 8.9 months). Twenty-six patients (87%) experienced any grade cytokine release syndrome (CRS), and 3 patients experienced grade 3 CRS (10%). Twelve patients (40%) experienced any grade immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), and 4 patients (13%) experienced grade 3 ICANS. There were no grade 4 or 5 CRS or ICANS. One patient experienced grade 3 immune effector cell-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis-like syndrome (IEC-HS). At day 30, patients had a median absolute neutrophil count of 1.7K/μL (IQR, 0.8 – 3.6K/μL), hemoglobin of 11.7 g/dL (IQR, 8.6 – 13.1 g/dL), and platelet count of 72K/μL (IQR, 29 – 119K/μL). Conclusion: Real-world analysis of liso-cel for patients with relapsed/refractory CLL showed CR and ORR of 60.0% and 83.3%, respectively. Despite having a heavily pre-treated and chemotherapy-exposed population and with over half the patients having high-risk features, these response rates are higher than what was described in the TRANSCEND-CLL 004 clinical trial. These results are limited by the short follow-up period and the variability in response assessment typical of a retrospective study. As we increase our sample size, we will also be interested if the use of the non-covalent BTK inhibitor pirtobrutinib prior to liso-cel is associated with a higher CR rate, mimicking the findings of the sub-cohort analysis of TRANSCEND-CLL 004 where the concurrent use of ibrutinib led to higher CR rates. Further updates and patients from additional collaborators will be presented at the meeting.

Abstract Background Despite CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) therapy achieving remarkable remission rates in relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (R/R B-ALL), long-term survival remains constrained by T-cell exhaustion and immunosuppressive microenvironments. Dasatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), has been shown to alleviate T cell exhaustion and enhance CAR-T cell persistence, demonstrating therapeutic synergy in newly diagnosed ALL. However, it may also suppress CAR-T cytotoxicity and is ineffective against BCR-ABLT315I mutations. Third-generation TKIs, including ponatinib and olverembatinib, effectively overcome T315I-mediated resistance, yet their impact on CAR-T cell function and immune modulation remains insufficiently defined. Methods and Results: We first established in vitro co-culture models of CD19 CAR-T cells with the B-ALL cell line NALM6 to evaluate the effects of dasatinib, ponatinib and olverembatinib on resting and tumor antigen-activated CAR-T cells. At clinically relevant concentrations, none of the TKIs affected resting CAR-T viability. In contrast, upon activation, all three TKIs significantly inhibited CAR-T activation, cytotoxicity, and cytokine secretion (IL-2, TNF-α, IFN-γ), while reducing activation-induced CAR-T cell apoptosis. TKIs treatment also downregulated exhaustion markers (eg. PD-1, TIM3, LAG3) and promoted differentiation toward naïve (TN) and central memory (TCM) subsets, while reducing terminal effector T cells. After the drug elution, CAR-T cells regained their cytolytic function in response to tumor targets. Notably, ponatinib-treated CAR-T cells exhibited higher levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-2 post-washout compared to other groups. Importantly, the TN/TCM phenotype and low exhaustion marker expression were preserved after washout in all TKI-treated groups. Transcriptomic profiling of CAR-T cells in vitro revealed that all three TKIs downregulated key exhaustion-associated genes, including PDCD1, HAVCR2, CTLA4 and NR4A1, along with upregulation of stemness- and memory-associated genes (eg. CCR7, TCF7, LEF1, IL7R). Gene set enrichment analysis showed inhibition of T-cell activation, apoptosis, glycolysis, and TGF-β signaling by all TKIs. Remarkably, ponatinib uniquely activated the IFN-γ pathway, suggesting superior immunostimulatory effects. Mechanistically, all three TKIs suppressed the phosphorylation of AKT, p38 MAPK, and NF-κB p65, indicating shared inhibition of downstream TCR signaling. Based on these findings, we evaluated ponatinib in a clinical setting. A prospective study (No. ChiCTR2000036350) enrolled three R/R B-ALL patients with the BCR-ABLT315I mutation. All the patients received CD19 CAR-T cell therapy followed by ponatinib maintenance, initiated two months post-infusion. All three patients remained progression-free during ponatinib maintenance. Notably, the DNA copies of CAR-T cells remained detectable at months 5 and 9 after ponatinib treatment in two patients, respectively. To further explore the in vivo effects of ponatinib on T cells and other immune cells,peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected from these patients before and one month after ponatinib initiation for single-cell RNA sequencing. Ponatinib exposure led to an increased proportion of CD8+T cells and a decreased abundance of myeloid cells subsets. Within T cells, effector cells expanded while Tregs and exhausted T cells decreased. Differential gene analysis showed suppression of activation, adhesion, apoptosis, and PD-1/PD-L1 signaling, aligning with in vitro results. Functional scoring revealed enhanced cytotoxicity, IFN-γ responses, and reduced glycolysis, exhaustion, TGF-β, and Treg signatures. Furthermore, analysis of NK cell subsets showed enhanced cytolytic scores and enrichment of proliferation and immune activation pathways, suggesting that ponatinib preserves innate immune responses in vivo. Conclusions: This study provides preclinical and preliminary clinical evidence that third-generation TKIs, particularly ponatinib, can effectively alleviate CAR-T cell exhaustion, promote memory phenotypes, and remodel the immune microenvironment. Compared to dasatinib and olverembatinib, ponatinib uniquely enhances effector cytokine production and activates the IFN-γ pathway. These findings support ponatinib as a promising combinatorial agent with CAR-T therapy, offering a rational strategy for improving outcomes in patients with T315I-mutated R/R B-ALL.

Abstract Background: For patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), extramedullary relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) carries an extremely unfavorable prognosis. As a new immunotherapy, chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy has shown remarkable effects in refractory or relapsed B-ALL (r/r B-ALL). However, there is still a lack of evidence for its efficacy and safety in patients with extramedullary relapse after allo-HSCT. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of allogeneic CAR-T in such high-risk populations. Method: We conducted a prospective clinical study, during which 7 patients with B-ALL who experienced extramedullary relapse after allo-HSCT were enrolled between October 2019 and January 2025. These patients all received allogeneic CD19 CAR-T cell therapy. We prospectively evaluated the safety, efficacy, and survival outcomes following CAR-T treatment. This study was registered at www.chictr.org.cn (No. ChiCTR2000036350). Results: This study included 7 patients with extramedullary relapse after allo-HSCT. Median age was 21 years (range: 15 - 46 years), and the median follow-up time was 415 days (range: 130 - 1320 days). The last follow-up was conducted until July 5, 2025. All the patients were classified as high-risk patients before transplantation. Four of them were Philadelphia chromosome/BCR-ABL positive (Ph+). The sites of extramedullary relapse included: 5 cases of central nervous system (among which 2 cases were accompanied by BCR-ABL molecular relapse in the bone marrow), 1 case of testicular relapse, and 1 case of extensive extramedullary relapse. The median interval from transplantation to extramedullary relapse was 628 days (44 - 1225 days). All patients received chemotherapy, radiotherapy or targeted therapy to reduce tumor burden before infusion. The infusion dose of CAR-T cells was 4 - 10 × 10⁶/kg. After infusion, one patient developed grade 3 cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and grade 4 immune effector cell-related neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS), while the remaining patients did not experience grade 2 or higher CRS or ICANS. No patients developed graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and all adverse events were resolved. In terms of therapeutic efficacy, one patient was considered unresponsive at the first assessment after infusion (54 days after infusion). The remaining 6 patients all achieved complete remission (CR) efficacy. The median duration of CR was 275 days (range: 120 - 1305 days). During the follow-up period, one patient suffered from central nervous system relapse again at 275 days post-infusion, while the other 5 maintained a continuous CR. The expansion of CAR-T cells in peripheral blood peaked between days 8 to 15 post-infusion, with a median peak of 1.90E+05 copies/μg DNA (range: 1.78E+04 – 3.18E+05 copies/μg DNA), and the longest duration of detectable expansion was 1320 days. Furthermore, CAR-T cells were detected in the cerebrospinal fluid of three patients, indicating their capability for targeted migration and central nervous system infiltration. Conclusion: Overall, allogeneic CAR-T therapy has demonstrated excellent safety and durable anti-leukemia effects in high-risk ALL patients with extramedullary relapse after transplantation.

Abstract Introduction CAR T cell treatment is the standard of care for patients (pts) with primary refractory and relapsed large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) within the first 12 months of chemoimmunotherapy, or for those unfit for autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) regardless of timing of relapse. Consequently, the role of ASCT is limited to pts with late relapse (&gt;12 months) who achieve a complete or partial response (CR or PR) to salvage therapy and are deemed eligible for ASCT based on comorbidities and performance status. In this report, we evaluated post-ASCT outcomes in this population of pts. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study using publicly available data from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). Adult pts (age ≥18 years) with DLBCL, NOS, and high-grade large B-cell lymphomas (HGBL) who relapsed after having responded to initial treatment and who remained on response for at least 12 months since diagnosis were selected. We considered for this analysis only pts who achieved a CR or PR after salvage treatment at the time of relapse, documented on pre-ASCT CT or PET scan (per the 2014 Lugano definition). CIBMTR databases used for this study included pts who received ASCT from 2013 to 2021. We compared baseline characteristics between ASCT in CR vs PR using the Wilcoxon rank sum test for continuous variables and the Pearson's χ2 test for categorical variables after ignoring missing data. Primary endpoints included Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Non-relapse mortality (NRM) and relapse rate were among the secondary endpoints. Results 182 were included in the analysis: 100 were in CR and 82 in PR before ASCT. The median age at ASCT was 60 years (range, 26-79). Race distribution was similar across CR and PR pts. Advanced-stage disease at diagnosis (stage III–IV) was seen in 61% of CR pts and 55% of PR pts. High-grade B-cell lymphoma (HGBL) with MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements was similar in the CR and PR groups (7% vs 4%). The median number of lines of treatment before ASCT were identical in CR and PR pts (N=2). BEAM was the most frequently used transplant conditioning regimen in both groups (80%). Median follow-up after ASCT was 34 months (range, 1–95): it was 37 months (range 1-95) in the CR group and 26 months (range 1-79) in the PR group For the entire cohort, OS at 3 years was 67.6% and PFS was 50.6%. NRM was 1.7% at 100 days and 3.4% at 1 year. Cumulative incidence of relapse at 3 years was 43.9%. The NRM analysis showed no statistically significant difference between pts in CR and PR. The 3-year OS for CR pts was 73.9%% compared to 59.4% for PR pts (95% CI, 0.334-0.99; p=.044). The 3-year PFS for CR pts was 59.8%, compared to 38.6% for PR pts (95% CI, 0.321-0.784; p=.001). The median PFS for CR pts was 52.01 months, compared to 14.05 months for PR pts. The cumulative incidence of relapse at 3 years in CR and PR pts was 35.2% vs 55.7%, respectively (95% CI, 0.311-0.811; p=.003.). Higher age (HR 1.03; p=.026) and number of previous lines of treatment (HR 1.43; p=.002) were associated with inferior OS. For PFS, no variables showed any significant impact in univariable analysis. The stepwise multivariable analysis showed that only the number of previous treatments had a significant impact on the OS (p=.009), while undergoing ASCT on a PR was the only factor significantly associated with shorter PFS (HR 1.41; 95% CI, 1.09-1.82; p=.029). Conclusion This dataset supports that ASCT provides high efficacy in pts experiencing late relapses (after 12 months) achieving CR following pre-transplant savage and validates the value of achieving CR. Outcomes for PR are inferior, and this analysis provides a benchmark for future investigations. At this time, until convincing on other non-transplant treatment show superior outcomes in this setting, ASCT remains a standard of care for fit pts with chemo-sensitive late relapsed DLBCL. In this group of patients, who have a better prognosis compared to patients who relapse within a year the major hurdle is achieving a remission pre-ASCT.

Abstract Introduction Venetoclax combined with hypomethylating agents (VEN/HMA) is an approved frontline induction therapy for older or unfit patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, data comparing its efficacy and safety to intensive chemotherapy (IC) in intermediate-risk AML—characterized by molecular and cytogenetic heterogeneity—remain limited. Methods This multicenter, real-world retrospective study analyzed newly diagnosed intermediate-risk AML patients who received either VEN/HMA or IC. We evaluated composite complete remission (CRc) rates, transfusion and infection rates, long-term outcomes including overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), and performed subgroup analyses to identify mutation-specific predictors of treatment response. Multivariable Cox regression was used to identify independent prognostic factors. Results A total of 229 intermediate-risk AML patients were included. VEN/HMA achieved a comparable CRc rate to IC (75.3% vs. 63.4%) with lower transfusion needs and fewer infections. Patients harboring FLT3-ITD, DNMT3A, or TET2 mutations showed greater benefit from VEN/HMA, while KIT-mutated patients responded more favorably to IC. Among patients who did not undergo allo-HSCT, VEN/HMA significantly improved 3-year OS (P = 0.001) and PFS (P = 0.008). No significant OS or PFS difference was observed in the allo-HSCT subgroup. In MRD-negative patients without transplant, those treated with VEN/HMA had superior OS compared to IC. Multivariable analysis identified VEN/HMA (HR = 0.613, P = 0.038) and allo-HSCT (HR = 0.11, P = 0.001) as independent predictors of better survival. Conclusions VEN/HMA is a safe and effective induction strategy for intermediate-risk AML, particularly in patients with BCL-2 inhibitor–sensitive mutations (FLT3-ITD, DNMT3A, TET2). These findings support a genotype-guided treatment approach in AML, complementing current risk stratification frameworks and informing individualized induction therapy decisions.

Abstract Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains among the most aggressive cancers, due to its limited therapeutic options and poor prognosis. Even with the adoption of total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) and potentially curative surgical resection, PDAC relapse rates remain unacceptably high. Current systems for evaluating tumor response are valuable but limited, as they fail to capture the ecological complexity and broader architecture of the tumor microenvironment (TME). This results in uncertainty regarding the prognosis and recurrence risk of patients. To address this and to capture the complexity of the PDAC TME, we developed the Tumor Landscape Analysis (TLA). Using digitized H&E slides from 203 PDAC patients who received TNT and surgical resection at our institution, we applied a machine-learning pipeline to segment tumor and stromal compartments. We then quantified the TME architecture using ecological frameworks to assess the disease in multiple scales: individual patches, whole-slide landscapes, and aggregated patient-level summaries. Our analysis revealed that higher-order spatial features are independently prognostic of disease-free survival (DFS). Two statistical models showed different but complementary spatial characteristics that predict disease risk. In the first model, patients with more irregular cancer patch shapes and lower variability in stromal shape had significantly better DFS, with high-risk patients relapsing in a median of 7.2 months compared to 11.6 months in the low-risk group (HR=1.82, p=0.0003). In the second model, smaller stromal patch areas combined with greater tumor-stroma edge density identified patients at elevated risk, with high-risk individuals showing a median DFS of 8.0 months versus 15.7 months in low-risk patients (HR=1.73, p=0.0007). Importantly, these associations persisted even after adjustment for the T and N stage, showing that spatial features provide unique information beyond traditional pathology measures. These models help visualize PDAC as a comprehensive ecosystem that carries clinical significance. By quantifying tumor conformation and configuration, our models reveal prognostic information not available through CAP grading, percent tumor burden, or routine cell counts. This study suggests that tumor-stroma interactions and their spatial organizations are potentially biologically important for recurrence. We present a new, ecologically inspired approach to digital pathology for PDAC that not only improves our ability to predict recurrence and survival in PDAC but also sheds light on cancer as a complex, evolving ecosystem. Citation Format: Merih D. Toruner, Luis H. Cisneros, Miranda Lin, Andrea Maraone, Carlo Maley, Paul Dizona, Qian Shi, Martin E. Fernandez-Zapico, Ryan M. Carr. Ecological landscape analysis of the tumor microenvironment predicts recurrence risk in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Cancer Evolution: The Dynamics of Progression and Persistence; 2025 Dec 4-6; Albuquerque, NM. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(23_Suppl):Abstract nr B027.

Importance Observational studies have associated use of aspirin and selective cyclooxygenase inhibitors with decreased recurrence and improved survival in patients with colon cancer. While randomized clinical trials have not shown benefit across all patients, these findings suggest that select subgroups may benefit from their use. Despite the well-established prognostic value of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), its role in guiding treatment remains unclear. Objective To investigate the predictive value of postoperative ctDNA for survival outcomes with adjuvant celecoxib alongside conventional chemotherapy in patients with stage III colon cancer. Design, Setting, and Participants This was a post hoc analysis of the phase 3 Cancer and Leukemia Group B (now Alliance)/Southwest Oncology Group 80702 randomized clinical trial (2010-2015) assessing adjuvant celecoxib vs placebo and 3 vs 6 months of adjuvant 5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin for stage III colon cancer. Patients consented to biospecimen collection and had ctDNA analysis performed. Data analysis was performed from September 2024 to June 2025. Exposures Postoperative ctDNA positivity was determined using a clinically validated, tumor-informed 16-plex-polymerase chain reaction-next-generation sequencing assay (Signatera; Natera Inc) performed between surgery and initiation of adjuvant therapy. Main Outcomes and Measures Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Survival by ctDNA status and adjuvant celecoxib use were assessed as part of a post hoc companion study with prespecified statistical analysis plan. Results Among 940 patients (mean [SD] age, 60.9 [10.8] years; 426 female [45.3%] and 515 male [54.7%] individuals; 222 [23.6%] with prior low-dose aspirin use; and median follow-up of 6.0 [95% CI, 6.0-6.0] years), 767 (81.6%) were ctDNA negative and 173 (18.4%) were ctDNA positive. ctDNA positivity was highly prognostic of worse DFS (reference, ctDNA negativity; adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 6.12; 95% CI, 4.66-8.03) and OS (aHR, 5.86; 95% CI, 4.19-8.19). In patients with ctDNA positivity, celecoxib was associated with improved DFS (aHR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.42-0.89) and OS (aHR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.40-0.96) compared to placebo. Among patients with ctDNA negativity, celecoxib did not provide survival benefit (DFS: aHR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.53-1.09; OS: aHR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.54-1.36), although the interaction was not significant ( P for interaction, .41 and .33 for DFS and OS, respectively). These findings persisted when stratifying patients by microsatellite instability status and PIK3CA mutational status. Conclusion and Relevance The findings of this post hoc analysis suggest that ctDNA status has the potential to inform clinical decision-making among patients with stage III colon cancer who should consider adjuvant celecoxib in addition to conventional chemotherapy. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01150045