Citations

Aberrant activation of β-catenin signaling is frequently observed in hepatocellular cancer. Although Wnt/β-catenin signaling can be targeted by vitamin D, therapeutic use of vitamin D for this purpose is not currently established. We evaluated the therapeutic use of vitamin D or its analogs using a synthetic transgenic mouse of hepatocarcinogenesis induced by mutant β-catenin, and MET overexpression in which 75% of mice develop well-differentiated HCC within 8 weeks in the absence of fibrosis. Vitamin D receptor expression was similar in both tumoral and nontumoral tissue. There was no significant difference in overall survival, or in tumor progression assessed by imaging, biochemical, or tumor cell burden assessments in mice receiving a vitamin D-supplemented diet containing 12.0 IU VD/g (HVD) compared with a standard diet (SD) containing 2.3 IU VD/g. Furthermore, systemic treatment with calcitriol [vitamin D analog 1α,25(OH) 2 D 3 ] or EB1089 (synthetic vitamin D analog) by intraperitoneal injection for 4 weeks prolonged median survival but did not increase overall survival compared with controls. Although tumor formation was delayed in males compared with that in females, there was no difference in overall survival between males and females. In conclusion, although 1α,25(OH) 2 D 3 is reported to inhibit β-catenin signaling, as well as proliferation, migration, and differentiation in cancer cells, neither dietary supplementation with vitamin D nor treatment with vitamin D analogs altered the formation or growth of HCC associated with β-catenin activation. These results conclusively demonstrate the lack of utility of targeting vitamin D for therapy of HCC in this setting.

Abstract Objective: More than 5,000 premenopausal women are diagnosed with lung cancer annually in the United States. Limited data exist regarding the risk of treatment-related amenorrhea, a surrogate for infertility and early menopause, after systemic therapies for lung cancer. Methods: Premenopausal women diagnosed with lung cancer under age 50 were surveyed at diagnosis and annually thereafter about their menstrual status as a part of the Mayo Clinic Epidemiology and Genetics of Lung Cancer Research Program. Types of lung cancer-directed treatments were recorded, and frequencies of self-reported menopause at each survey were calculated. Results: A cohort of 182 premenopausal women were included in this study, with average age at lung cancer diagnosis 43 years (SD 6). Among the 85 patients who received chemotherapy, 64% self-reported that they had become menopausal within a year of diagnosis. Platinum salts were universally included in these chemotherapy regimens, and the majority of these women also received taxanes within 1 year of diagnosis. Only 15% of the 94 patients who did not receive systemic therapy within 1 year of diagnosis experienced self-reported menopause. Three patients received targeted therapy alone, two of whom remained premenopausal at the final qualifying survey, completed a median of 3 years after diagnosis. Conclusions: Chemotherapy for lung cancer patients appears to increase risk of early loss of menses in survivors.

ABSTRACTBackground: In 2015, the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society published clinical diagnostic criteria for Parkinson's disease (PD). Although recent validation studies suggest high accuracy, one unmet need is for highly specific criteria for clinical trials in early/de novo PD.Objectives: The objective of this study was to generate and test a PD diagnostic criteria termed “clinically established early PD.”Methods: We modified the Movement Disorder Society criteria to increase specificity for early PD by removing all disease duration components and changing red flags to absolute exclusions. We then estimated the sensitivity/specificity of clinically established early PD criteria in patients with disease duration <5 years, selected from a 626‐patient validation study.Results: After documentation of parkinsonism, 18 individual exclusion criteria are assessed that preclude the diagnosis of “clinically established early PD.” Among 212 PD and 152 non‐PD patients, the estimated specificity was 95.4%, with 69.8% sensitivity.Conclusions: We describe high‐specificity criteria for de novo PD, which are freely available for use in clinical trials. © 2018 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Thymidylate synthase (TYMS) is a crucial enzyme for DNA synthesis. TYMS expression is regulated by its antisense mRNA, ENOSF1. Disrupted regulation may promote uncontrolled DNA synthesis and tumor growth. We sought to replicate our previously reported association between rs495139 in the TYMS-ENOSF1 3′ gene region and increased risk of mucinous ovarian carcinoma (MOC) in an independent sample. Genotypes from 24,351 controls to 15,000 women with invasive OC, including 665 MOC, were available. We estimated per-allele odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using unconditional logistic regression, and meta-analysis when combining these data with our previous report. The association between rs495139 and MOC was not significant in the independent sample (OR = 1.09; 95% CI = 0.97–1.22; p = 0.15; N = 665 cases). Meta-analysis suggested a weak association (OR = 1.13; 95% CI = 1.03–1.24; p = 0.01; N = 1019 cases). No significant association with risk of other OC histologic types was observed (p = 0.05 for tumor heterogeneity). In expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis, the rs495139 allele was positively associated with ENOSF1 mRNA expression in normal tissues of the gastrointestinal system, particularly esophageal mucosa (r = 0.51, p = 1.7 × 10−28), and nonsignificantly in five MOC tumors. The association results, along with inconclusive tumor eQTL findings, suggest that a true effect of rs495139 might be small.

Abstract Background: HRAS is a proto-oncogene that is mutated in head and neck, bladder, thyroid, and salivary gland tumors, among others. While discovered over 40 years ago, no specific therapies have yet been developed targeting mutant HRAS. Tipifarnib is a potent and highly selective inhibitor of farnesyltransferase, a critical enzyme requisite for HRAS activation. Over 5,000 patients (pts) have been treated with tipifarnib; although responses have been documented in several tumor indications, the mechanisms of response are still poorly understood. Tipifarnib has demonstrated robust activity in HRAS mutant patient derived xenograft (PDX) models of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and squamous non-small cell lung cancer that are resistant to standard therapies. This Phase 2 study (NCT02383927) was conducted to test the hypothesis that inhibition of mutant HRAS oncogenic activity with tipifarnib could translate to objective responses in HNSCC pts driven by the HRAS oncogene. Methods: The study was originally designed to enroll pts into 2 single-arm study cohorts: Cohort 1 (thyroid cancer) and Cohort 2 (other solid tumors), each one with a 2-stage design (11+7 evaluable pts) to determine overall response rate (ORR) as the primary objective. This design has 80% power to detect a difference between 10% and 30% ORR at one-sided significance level of 0.087. Two objective responses were needed to be observed in the first stage for each cohort to proceed to stage 2. The study is considered positive if at least 4 responses are observed in one of the 2 cohorts (N=18 each, stages 1 and 2 combined). The prespecified activity goal for the first stage of accrual in Cohort 2 was met and based on data observed in the first stage of this Cohort, ongoing enrollment to the second stage of Cohort 2 was limited to HRAS mutant HNSCC. For enrollment, pts must have an HRAS mutant, locally advanced/unresectable and/or metastatic solid tumor malignancy and RECIST v1.1 measurable disease. Tipifarnib is given at 900 mg orally twice daily on days 1-7 and 15-21 of 28-day cycles. Response assessments are conducted every 8 weeks. Results: As of August 30, 2017, 28 pts have been enrolled. Tipifarnib was generally well tolerated with myelosuppression, gastrointestinal disturbances (nausea, vomiting and diarrhea) and fatigue constituting the most common adverse events (≥30% of pts, all grades). Twenty four pts are currently evaluable for efficacy: 10 in Cohort 1 and 14 in Cohort 2. Stage 1 enrollment continues in Cohort 1. The primary objective was met for Cohort 2 prior to completing full enrollment, with 4 confirmed responses observed out of 14 evaluable pts. Notably, of the 6 pts in Cohort 2 with HNSCC currently evaluable for efficacy, 4 (67%) achieved a confirmed partial response. Three of these pts remain on treatment in cycles 3, 5, and 19, and one subject discontinued at Cycle 21. Two (33%) pts had disease stabilization as best response (4 cycles, ongoing and 7 cycles). Importantly, 4 of these pts were refractory to prior therapies, including regimens containing immunotherapy (pembrolizumab, nivolumab) or cetuximab +/- chemotherapy. None of the 6 HNSCC patients experienced an objective partial response on their last prior therapy. Conclusions: These data suggest that HRAS mutant HNSCC pts may be refractory to standard therapies but can derive prolonged clinical benefit from tipifarnib treatment. Based on the encouraging activity of tipifarnib in pts with HNSCC with HRAS mutations, enrollment continues in this cohort. Citation Format: Alan Ho, Nicole Chau, Deborah J. Wong, Maria E. Cabanillas, Jessica Bauman, Marcia S. Brose, Keith Bible, Valentina Boni, Irene Brana, Charles Ferte, Caroline Even, Francis Burrows, Linda Kessler, Vishnu Mishra, Kelly Magnuson, Catherine Scholz, Antonio Gualberto. Preliminary results from a phase 2 proof of concept trial of tipifarnib in tumors with HRAS mutations [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2017 Oct 26-30; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2018;17(1 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-A10.

Abstract Large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified approximately 35 loci associated with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk. The majority of GWAS-identified disease susceptibility variants are located in noncoding regions, and causal genes underlying these associations remain largely unknown. Here, we performed a transcriptome-wide association study to search for novel genetic loci and plausible causal genes at known GWAS loci. We used RNA sequencing data (68 normal ovarian tissue samples from 68 individuals and 6,124 cross-tissue samples from 369 individuals) and high-density genotyping data from European descendants of the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx V6) project to build ovarian and cross-tissue models of genetically regulated expression using elastic net methods. We evaluated 17,121 genes for their cis-predicted gene expression in relation to EOC risk using summary statistics data from GWAS of 97,898 women, including 29,396 EOC cases. With a Bonferroni-corrected significance level of P &lt; 2.2 × 10−6, we identified 35 genes, including FZD4 at 11q14.2 (Z = 5.08, P = 3.83 × 10−7, the cross-tissue model; 1 Mb away from any GWAS-identified EOC risk variant), a potential novel locus for EOC risk. All other 34 significantly associated genes were located within 1 Mb of known GWAS-identified loci, including 23 genes at 6 loci not previously linked to EOC risk. Upon conditioning on nearby known EOC GWAS-identified variants, the associations for 31 genes disappeared and three genes remained (P &lt; 1.47 × 10−3). These data identify one novel locus (FZD4) and 34 genes at 13 known EOC risk loci associated with EOC risk, providing new insights into EOC carcinogenesis. Significance: Transcriptomic analysis of a large cohort confirms earlier GWAS loci and reveals FZD4 as a novel locus associated with EOC risk. Cancer Res; 78(18); 5419–30. ©2018 AACR.