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Abstract BACKGROUND Leveraging external data has the potential to increase efficiency and precision of drug development in glioblastoma by complementing or replacing data from in-trial controls. We used an external control arm (ECA) to re-analyze data of the abemaciclib, neratinib and CC-115 arms of the Individualized Screening Trial of Innovative Glioblastoma Therapy (INSIGhT) trial. METHODS INSIGhT (NCT02977780) is an ongoing phase 2 adaptive platform trial in newly diagnosed MGMT unmethylated glioblastoma with a shared control arm of patients receiving radiation therapy with concurrent and maintenance temozolomide. The initial experimental arms (abemaciclib, neratinib, CC-115) have not shown a survival benefit relative to the shared control arm. We re-analyzed the experimental arm data and replaced the shared control arm with an ECA. The ECA was developed from a collection of trial datasets and real-world data available through the Glioblastoma External (GBM-X) Data Platform (). Propensity score matching was used to adjust for possible differences between pretreatment covariates (age, sex, resection, KPS) in the ECA and shared control arm. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate treatment effects. RESULTS On INSIGhT, patients were randomized to abemaciclib (n = 74), neratinib (n = 80), and CC-115 (n = 12). There were 687 unmethylated MGMT patients in the GBM-X ECA. After propensity score matching, there was no significant treatment effect associated with abemaciclib (HR 1.091, 95%CI:0.834-1.433, p = 0.536), neratinib (HR = 1.043, 95%CI:0.787-1.383, p = 0.770), or CC-115 (HR 1.088, 95%CI:0.834-1.433, p = 0.794) compared to the ECA. CONCLUSION In comparison to an ECA, there was no significant survival benefit with abemaciclib, neratinib and CC-115. Treatment effects estimates were similar to the primary analyses based on the original shared control arm of INSIGhT. The use of external control arms in early phase testing of new therapies is supported by our findings and could significantly reduce costs and time to conduct trials in newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

Abstract H3K27M-mutant diffuse midline glioma (DMG) patients have no proven effective therapies beyond radiation. ONC201, a mitochondrial protease ClpP agonist, has recently demonstrated efficacy in these patients, but the mechanism behind this remains unknown. We assessed clinical outcomes, tumor sequencing, and tissue samples from patients treated in two completed multi-site clinical studies (n=71). Patients treated with ONC201 monotherapy following initial radiation but prior to recurrence (n=35) demonstrated a median overall survival of 21.7 months and a median progression-free survival of 12.2 months. Radiographic response was associated with increased expression of key tricarboxylic acid cycle-related genes in baseline tumor sequencing. Similar survival benefits were observed using in utero electroporation and orthotopic mouse models of H3K27M-DMG (median 107 versus 77 days [p=0.02] and median 97 versus 141 days [p=0.004], respectively). Integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of ONC201-treated H3K27M-DMG cells revealed downregulation of TCA cycle, glycolysis, and pyruvate metabolism genes, most notably oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH), and concomitant changes in levels of associated metabolites including ɑ-ketoglutarate (ɑ-KG). Interestingly, L-2-hydroxyglutarate (L-2HG), a known inhibitor of the Jumonji C domain family of histone lysine demethylases, was also increased. This corresponded with increases in repressive H3K27me3 in vitro and in human tumors accompanied by epigenetic downregulation of cell cycle regulation and neuro-glial differentiation genes. Genetic knockdown of OGDH recapitulated ONC201-mediated increases in H3K27me3. In contrast, genetic knockdown of ClpP or lactate dehydrogenase A or overexpression of L-2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase (L-2HGDH), but not D-2HGDH, abrogated ONC201-mediated increases in H3K27me3, demonstrating that ONC201 induces the production of L-2HG in H3K27M-DMG cells leading to increased H3K27me3. Overall, our data demonstrates the efficacy of ONC201 in H3K27M-mutant DMG and supports ONC201 as the first monotherapy to improve outcomes in patients with H3K27M-mutant DMG for whom few therapeutic options currently exist. Mechanistically, ONC201 disrupts integrated metabolic and epigenetic pathways and reverses pathognomonic H3K27me3 reduction.

Abstract BACKGROUND Preclinical studies have demonstrated that IDH1-mutant (IDHmt) gliomas harbor a BRCAness phenotype with a defect in homologous recombination that confers PARP inhibitor sensitivity. METHODS The phase II component of ABTC 1801 examined the efficacy of the combination of pamiparib (BeiGene BGB-290) with low dose metronomic temozolomide in recurrent IDHmt grade 2 and 3 gliomas. In this two-stage design, Arm A enrolled patients who had failed two lines and Arm B a single line of alkylator therapy. Pamiparib and temozolomide doses based on phase I results was 60 mg BID and 20 mg daily. Primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR). RESULTS 39 patients (Arm A 15, Arm B 24) enrolled in the phase II. Median age was 45 (range: 25-69), 56% male, and median KPS 90. 72% of tumors were MGMT methylated. There were no confirmed responses in Arm A and one in Arm B; neither arm met the threshold for additional accrual. One-third of subjects discontinued treatment for reasons other than progressive disease. Estimated median PFS was 5.8 months in Arm A and 11.3 months in Arm B. Seven subjects (Arm A 3, Arm B 4) developed DLT during treatment. Grade 3+ toxicity was principally hematologic; 9 patients had grade 3 anemia, 7 grade 3 and 3 grade 4 neutropenia, and 3 grade 3 thrombocytopenia. In enhancing and non-enhancing tumors from 8 surgical arm patients, median unbound drug tumor/plasma ratios were 0.98 and 0.92, respectively; and median unbound pamiparib tumor concentrations were 209 and 188 nmol/L (or nmol/kg), respectively, which were >20-fold the in vitro IC50 for PARP inhibition. CONCLUSIONS While pamiparib appeared to achieve sufficient pharmacologically active concentrations in both enhancing and non-enhancing tumors, combination with temozolomide did not produce a meaningful ORR in IDHmt recurrent gliomas. Cumulative hematologic toxicity was substantial.

Abstract Development of a non-invasive test that can measure drug delivery and target engagement in GBM represents an opportunity to enhance knowledge during early phase clinical trials of a new compound’s pharmacological suitability and potential efficacy. We present here data supporting that the cargo within extracellular vesicles (EV) can potentially serve as a liquid biopsy that reports on the pharmacodynamics of GBM therapeutics. We treated short-term PDX cultures with vehicle, temozolomide, MLN4924, or arsenic trioxide. EVs were isolated from culture supernatants using size exclusion chromatography and then analyzed by mass spectrometry (proteomics) and RNA sequencing to characterize and compare cargo profiles for each condition. We found that at the proteome level, FDFT1 and FARSB were detected only in temozolomide EVs across all cell lines. In addition, there were drug-agnostic indications of exposure, including decreased abundance in all treated EV conditions of SLC3A2, C3, PLG, and A1BG, and increased abundance of GSTP1. These cargo changes were further validated by western blotting and ExoView immunofluorescence on isolated EVs. At the EV-transcriptome level, depending on treatment, there were shared alterations in EV cargo between models in the expression of long non-coding RNAs, genes that are overrepresented in biological processes such as cytoplasmic translation and cellular macromolecule biosynthesis, and circular RNAs. Thus, these results indicate that EV cargo post-treatment may be a novel pharmacodynamic reporter in GBM. To allow immunoprecipitation of patient GBM-derived EVs with the selective interrogation, the potential biomarkers, including PTPRZ1, B7H3, IL13RA2, and EGFR were screened across isolated EVs from both pre-clinical and clinical patient samples. Future efforts are focused on evaluating immunoprecipitated GBM-EVs from longitudinally collected patient biofluids. Overall, we anticipate that the results of this study will lead to development of a clinical test that reflects BBB penetration and tumor response, which will likely aid in novel drug development efforts.

Abstract Background/Introduction Over the last decade, epidemiology and pathology studies have suggested that gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) has an independent role in the pathogenesis and clinical evolution of cardiovascular diseases associated with atherosclerosis. Recently, machine learning (ML) algorithms have identified pre-procedural GGT as a significant predictor of long-term mortality after coronary revascularization in the SYNTAX trial. Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of pre-procedural GGT on 10-year all-cause mortality in patients with three-vessel disease (3VD) and/or left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD) following revascularization. Methods The SYNTAX trial was a randomized trial comparing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in 1,800 patients with complex CAD. The present report is a post-hoc sub-analysis of the SYNTAXES study, an investigator-driven extended 10-year follow-up of the SYNTAX trial. Before revascularization, blood samples were taken for GGT as well as other biological markers and analyzed by an independent central chemistry laboratory. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality at 10-years. The changes in hazard for all-cause mortality in GGT over time were modelled using restricted cubic spline functions in a Cox regression model adjusted by age and sex. Subsequently, we compared survival in four groups defined by gender specific GGT thresholds of <32 IU and ≥32 IU for females and <64 IU and ≥64 IU for males, in accordance with prior studies. Results Out of 1,800 patients enrolled in the SYNTAX study, 167 (9.3%) did not have a GGT available at baseline and 1,633 (90.7%) patients were included in the present study. The mean values of GGT for males and females were 43.5±48.5 and 36.4±46.1 U/L, respectively. In the overall population a 10 U/L increase in GGT was significantly associated with 10-year all-cause death (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03 [1.02–1.04], p <0.001, Figure A). For Kaplan–Meier analysis, patients were stratified into four groups according to previously reported sex related GGT thresholds. Ten-year mortality was numerically higher in males (adjusted HR 1.31, 95% CI: 0.90–1.91), and significantly higher in females (adjusted HR 1.88, 95% CI: 1.16–3.05) among patients with higher versus lower GGT (Figure B). Furthermore, GGT was significantly associated with CRP, a surrogate-marker of inflammation, as well as established cardiovascular risk biomarkers such as TG, total cholesterol, and glucose. Conclusions Preprocedural GGT is an independent predictor of 10-year mortality following coronary revascularization in patients with 3VD and/or LMCAD. This long-term association has been identified using ML algorithms and should be corroborated using data from large biobanks.Figure AFigure B

Abstract Background Cardiomyopathy is a leading cause of pregnancy-related mortality and represents the number one cause of death in the late postpartum period. Purpose The goal of this study was to prospectively evaluate the effectiveness of an artificial intelligence-based electrocardiogram (AI-ECG) and a point-of-care artificial intelligence-enhanced digital stethoscope for cardiomyopathy screening among pregnant and postpartum women. Methods We conducted a single-arm prospective study of pregnant and postpartum women (up to 12 months following delivery) enrolled at three sites between October 2021 and October 2022. Study participants completed a standard 12-lead ECG, ECG + phonocardiogram recordings with a digital stethoscope, a demographic questionnaire, and a transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) within a 24-hour period. Diagnostic performance of the AI-ECG and digital stethoscope for cardiomyopathy detection, defined as left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < 45%, was evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC) and standard measures of diagnostic performance. Results We included 100 consecutive pregnant and postpartum women who provided informed consent and had at least one ECG recorded, completed the questionnaire, and had an echocardiogram performed. All participants self-identified as female, and 41% were recruited from a federally qualified health center. The median age of participants was 31 years (Q1: 27, Q3: 34). Thirty-eight percent identified as non-Hispanic White, 32% as non-Hispanic Black, 21% as Hispanic or Latino, 6% as Asian, and 3% as Other (1 Native Hawaiian and 2 multiracial). Five percent (5/100) had LVEF <45%. The 12-lead AI-ECG model demonstrated close to perfect discrimination (accuracy 99%; AUC 1.00, sensitivity 100%) for detection of cardiomyopathy with 1 false positive screen (LVEF 49%), Figure 1A. The digital stethoscope (angled position) had an AUC of 0.99 (95% CI: 0.97, 1.00) for detection of LVEF <45%. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for the digital stethoscope were 60%, 98%, 60% and 98%, respectively for detection of LVEF <45% (Figure 1B & 1C). Conclusions In this small prospective study, we found that 5% of pregnant and postpartum women had cardiomyopathy, a potentially life-threatening condition, and that a rapid, inexpensive, ubiquitous, massively scalable point-of-care test - the ECG - showed promising results, identifying it with an AUC > 0.98 with the application of artificial intelligence.Figure 1

AbstractBackgroundRecurrent/metastatic adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is a rare, incurable disease. MYB is a putative oncogenic driver in ACC that is often overexpressed through an MYB‐NFIB rearrangement. The authors hypothesized that AKT inhibition with the allosteric inhibitor MK‐2206 could decrease MYB expression and induce tumor regression in patients with incurable ACC (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01604772).MethodsPatients with progressive, incurable ACC were enrolled and received MK‐2206 150 mg weekly; escalation to 200 mg was allowed. The primary end point was confirmed response. Secondary end points were progression‐free survival, overall survival, and safety. An exploratory analysis evaluating the effect of MK‐2206 on MYB expression was conducted in a subset of patients.ResultsSixteen patients were enrolled, and 14 were evaluable for efficacy. No confirmed responses were observed. Thirteen patients had stable disease, and one had disease progression as their best response. The median progression‐free survival was 9.7 months (95% CI, 3.8–11.8 months), and the median overall survival was 18.0 months (95% CI, 11.8–29.9 months). Nine of 16 patients (56%) had at least one grade 3 treatment‐related adverse event, and the most common were rash (38%), fatigue (19%), decreased lymphocyte count (13%), and hyperglycemia (13%). Twelve of 14 tumors (86%) had detectable MYB expression by immunohistochemistry, and seven of 14 tumors (50%) had an MYB‐NFIB gene rearrangement. Serial biopsies revealed decreased MYB levels with MK‐2206 in four of five patients.ConclusionsMK‐2206 failed to induce clinical responses in patients with incurable ACC. AKT inhibition may diminish MYB protein levels, although the effect was highly variable among patients. Novel approaches to target MYB in ACC are needed.

Background: Vertebral body tethering and other non-fusion techniques for the treatment of pediatric idiopathic scoliosis are increasing in popularity. There is limited physician consensus on this topic as the result of a paucity of published data regarding which patients most benefit from non-fusion strategies. Thus, much of the decision-making is left to patients and parents, who must select a treatment based on their goals and values and the information available from health-care providers, the internet, and social media. We sought to understand patient and family preferences regarding the attributes of fusion versus non-fusion surgery that drive these choices. Methods: Patients and families were recruited from 7 pediatric spine centers and were asked to complete a survey-based choice experiment that had been jointly developed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to evaluate patient preferences. Choices between experimentally designed alternatives were analyzed to estimate the relative importance of outcomes and requirements associated with the choice options (attributes). The attributes included appearance, confidence in the planned correction, spinal motion, device failure, reoperation, and recovery period. The inclusion criteria were (1) an age of 10 to 21 years and (2) a diagnosis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in patients who were considering, or who had already undergone, treatment with fusion or non-fusion surgery. Preference weights were estimated from the expected changes in choice given changes in the attributes. Results: A total of 344 respondents (124 patients, 92 parents, and 128 parent/patient dyads) completed the survey. One hundred and seventy-three patients were enrolled prior to surgery, and 171 were enrolled after surgery. Appearance and motion were found to be the most important drivers of choice. For the entire cohort, fusion was preferred over non-fusion. For patients who were considering surgery, the most important attributes were preservation of spinal motion and appearance. Conclusions: Patients and families seeking treatment for idiopathic scoliosis value appearance and preservation of spinal motion and, to a lesser extent, reoperation rates when considering fusion versus non-fusion surgery.

INTRODUCTION: Hospitalized patients with cirrhosis can develop respiratory failure (RF), which is associated with a poor prognosis, but predisposing factors are unclear. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled a multicenter North American cirrhosis inpatient cohort and collected admission and in-hospital data (grading per European Association for the Study of Liver-Chronic Liver Failure scoring system, acute kidney injury [AKI], infections [admission/nosocomial], and albumin use) in an era when terlipressin was not available in North America. Multivariable regression to predict RF was performed using only admission day and in-hospital events occurring before RF. RESULTS: A total of 511 patients from 14 sites (median age 57 years, admission model for end-stage liver disease [MELD]-Na 23) were enrolled: RF developed in 15%; AKI occurred in 24%; and 11% developed nosocomial infections (NI). At admission, patients who developed RF had higher MELD-Na, gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding/AKI-related admission, and prior infections/ascites. During hospitalization, RF developers had higher NI (especially respiratory), albumin use, and other organ failures. RF was higher in patients receiving albumin (83% vs 59%, P < 0.0001) with increasing doses (269.5 ± 210.5 vs 208.6 ± 186.1 g, P = 0.01) regardless of indication. Admission for AKI, GI bleeding, and high MELD-Na predicted RF. Using all variables, NI (odds ratio [OR] = 4.02, P = 0.0004), GI bleeding (OR = 3.1, P = 0.002), albumin use (OR = 2.93, P = 0.01), AKI (OR = 3.26, P = 0.008), and circulatory failure (OR = 3.73, P = 0.002) were associated with RF risk. DISCUSSION: In a multicenter inpatient cirrhosis study of patients not exposed to terlipressin, 15% of patients developed RF. RF risk was highest in those admitted with AKI, those who had GI bleeding on admission, and those who developed NI and other organ failures or received albumin during their hospital course. Careful volume monitoring and preventing nosocomial respiratory infections and renal or circulatory failures could reduce this risk.