Citations

260 Background: Recent placebo-controlled phase III trials of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus and the VEGF/ PDGF receptor inhibitor sunitinib in PNET noted improved progression-free survival (PFS). However, objective response rates (RR) with these agents are <10%. Preclinical studies suggest enhanced anti-tumor effects with combined mTOR and VEGF targeted therapy. Methods: We conducted a phase II trial of the mTOR inhibitor TEM (25 mg IV q week) and the VEGF-A monoclonal antibody BEV (10 mg/kg IV q 2 weeks) in patients (pts) with well or moderately differentiated PNET and progressive disease by RECIST within 7 months of study entry. Co-primary endpoints were RR and 6-month PFS. Planned enrollment is 50 patients, with interim analysis after the first 25 evaluable pts. Pts had no prior mTOR or VEGF targeted agents, ECOG PS 0-1, and adequate hematologic and organ function. Continued octreotide was allowed, but not required. Prior interferon, embolization, and ≤ 2 chemotherapy regimens were allowed. Results: Confirmed PR was documented in 11 of the first 25 (44%) evaluable patients. 20 of 25 (80%) patients were progression-free at 6 months. Both endpoints exceeded pre-defined criteria to continue enrollment. For 35 evaluable patients, the most common grade 3-4 adverse events attributed to therapy were leukopenia (12%), hypertension (12%), hyperglycemia (12%), mucositis (9%), and fatigue (9%). Conclusions: The combination of TEM/BEV has substantial activity in a multi-center phase II trial with RR of 44%, well in excess of single targeted agents in PNET. 6-month PFS was a notable 80% in a population of patients with RECIST criteria progression within 7 months of study entry. Accrual is ongoing. Supported by NCI N01 Contracts: 662205, 62203, 62208, 62209, 62206, 62204, 62207, 62201.

CRA9015 Background: Hot flashes are a common symptom during the menopause transition or following breast cancer treatment that can negatively impact the quality of life for many women. Preliminary data have suggested that flaxseed, a rich source of dietary lignans, may be a potentially effective treatment for hot flashes. Methods: A phase III randomized, placebo controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of flaxseed in reducing hot flashes. Postmenopausal women were randomly assigned to a flaxseed bar (providing 410 mg of lignans) for 6 weeks vs a placebo bar. Participants completed daily prospective, self report hot flash diaries during the baseline week and then began eating one study bar per day for 6 weeks, while continuing to record their daily hot flashes. The intra-patient difference in hot flash activity between baseline and the last treatment week was the primary endpoint. Side effects of the bars were evaluated through self report and CTC assessment. Results: Between October and December 2009, 188 women were enrolled onto this trial. Mean hot flash scores were reduced by 4.9 units in the flaxseed group and 3.5 in the placebo group (p=0.29). In both groups, a little over a third of the women received a 50% reduction in their hot flash scores. Only one side effect was significantly different between groups, that being grade 1 pruritis, which was more common (7%) in the placebo group versus 1% in the flaxseed group. Both groups reported increased abdominal distension, flatulence, diarrhea and nausea. Adherence and ability to detect treatment assignment did not differ between groups. Conclusions: The results of this trial do not support the use of 410 mg of flaxseed lignans for the reduction of hot flashes. The gastrointestinal side effects seen in both groups were likely due to the fiber content in the flaxseed and placebo bars.

Phase I oncology trials are designed to identify a safe dose with an acceptable toxicity profile. The dose is typically determined based on the probability of severe toxicity observed during the first treatment cycle, although patients continue to receive treatment for multiple cycles. In addition, the toxicity data from multiple types and grades are typically summarized into a single binary outcome of dose‐limiting toxicity. A novel endpoint, the total toxicity profile, was previously developed to account for the multiple toxicity types and grades. In this work, we propose to account for longitudinal repeated measures of total toxicity profile over multiple treatment cycles, accounting for cumulative toxicity during dosing‐finding. A linear mixed model was utilized in the Bayesian framework, with addition of Bayesian risk functions for decision‐making in dose assignment. The performance of this design is evaluated using simulation studies and compared with the previously proposed quasi‐likelihood continual reassessment method (QLCRM) design. Twelve clinical scenarios incorporating four different locations of maximum tolerated dose and three different time trends (decreasing, increasing, and no effect) were investigated. The proposed repeated measures design was comparable with the QLCRM when only cycle 1 data were utilized in dose‐finding; however, it demonstrated an improvement over the QLCRM when data from multiple cycles were used across all scenarios. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Purpose Given that the clinical course of oxaliplatin-induced neuropathy is not well defined, the current study was performed to better understand clinical parameters associated with its presentation. Methods Acute and chronic neuropathy was evaluated in patients receiving adjuvant FOLFOX (fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin) on study N08CB (North Central Cancer Treatment Group, Alliance). Acute neuropathy was assessed by having patients complete daily questionnaires for 6 days with each cycle of FOLFOX. Before each dose of FOLFOX and as long as 18 months after chemotherapy cessation, chronic neurotoxicity was assessed with use of the 20-item, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality-of-life questionnaire for patients with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Results Three hundred eight (89%) of the 346 patients had at least one symptom of acute neuropathy with the first cycle of FOLFOX; these symptoms included sensitivity to touching cold items (71%), sensitivity to swallowing cold items (71%), throat discomfort (63%), or muscle cramps (42%). Acute symptoms peaked at day 3 and improved, although they did not always resolve completely between treatments. These symptoms were about twice as severe in cycles 2 through 12 as they were in cycle 1. For chronic neurotoxicity, tingling was the most severe symptom, followed by numbness and then pain. During chemotherapy, symptoms in the hands were more prominent than they were in the feet; by 18 months, symptoms were more severe in the feet than they were in the hands. Patients with more severe acute neuropathy during the first cycle of therapy experienced more chronic sensory neurotoxicity (P < .0001). Conclusion Acute oxaliplatin-induced neuropathy symptoms do not always completely resolve between treatment cycles and are only half as severe on the first cycle as compared with subsequent cycles. There is a correlation between the severities of acute and chronic neuropathies.

Purpose There are few effective therapies for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs). Recent placebo-controlled phase III trials of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor everolimus and the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)/platelet-derived growth factor receptor inhibitor sunitinib have noted improved progression-free survival (PFS). Preclinical studies have suggested enhanced antitumor effects with combined mTOR and VEGF pathway–targeted therapy. We conducted a clinical trial to evaluate combination therapy against these targets in PNETs. Patients and Methods We conducted a two-stage single-arm phase II trial of the mTOR inhibitor temsirolimus 25 mg intravenously (IV) once per week and the VEGF-A monoclonal antibody bevacizumab 10 mg/kg IV once every 2 weeks in patients with well or moderately differentiated PNETs and progressive disease by RECIST within 7 months of study entry. Coprimary end points were tumor response rate and 6-month PFS. Results A total of 58 patients were enrolled, and 56 patients were eligible for response assessment. Confirmed response rate (RR) was 41% (23 of 56 patients). PFS at 6 months was 79% (44 of 56). Median PFS was 13.2 months (95% CI, 11.2 to 16.6). Median overall survival was 34 months (95% CI, 27.1 to not reached). For evaluable patients, the most common grade 3 to 4 adverse events attributed to therapy were hypertension (21%), fatigue (16%), lymphopenia (14%), and hyperglycemia (14%). Conclusion The combination of temsirolimus and bevacizumab had substantial activity and reasonable tolerability in a multicenter phase II trial, with RR of 41%, well in excess of single targeted agents in patients with progressive PNETs. Six-month PFS was a notable 79% in a population of patients with disease progression by RECIST criteria within 7 months of study entry. On the basis of this trial, continued evaluation of combination mTOR and VEGF pathway inhibitors is warranted.

ObjectiveMutations in Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease (CMT) genes are the cause of rare familial forms of polyneuropathy. Whether allelic variability in CMT genes is also associated with common forms of polyneuropathy—considered “acquired” in medical parlance—is unknown. Chemotherapy‐induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) occurs commonly in cancer patients and is individually unpredictable. We used CIPN as a clinical model to investigate the association of non‐CMT polyneuropathy with CMT genes.MethodsA total of 269 neurologically asymptomatic cancer patients were enrolled in the clinical trial Alliance N08C1 to receive the neurotoxic drug paclitaxel, while undergoing prospective assessments for polyneuropathy. Forty‐nine CMT genes were analyzed by targeted massively parallel sequencing of genomic DNA from patient blood.ResultsA total of 119 (of 269) patients were identified from the 2 ends of the polyneuropathy phenotype distribution: patients that were most and least susceptible to paclitaxel polyneuropathy. The CMT gene PRX was found to be deleteriously mutated in patients who were susceptible to CIPN but not in controls (p = 8 × 10−3). Genetic variation in another CMT gene, ARHGEF10, was highly significantly associated with CIPN (p = 5 × 10−4). Three nonsynonymous recurrent single nucleotide variants contributed to the ARHGEF10 signal: rs9657362, rs2294039, and rs17683288. Of these, rs9657362 had the strongest effect (odds ratio = 4.8, p = 4 × 10−4).InterpretationThe results reveal an association of CMT gene allelic variability with susceptibility to CIPN. The findings raise the possibility that other acquired polyneuropathies may also be codetermined by genetic etiological factors, of which some may be related to genes already known to cause the phenotypically related Mendelian disorders of CMT. Ann Neurol 2014;76:727–737

Abstract Introduction: Symptom control is an important objective in the care of patients with cancer and a critical goal for long-term survivors of antineoplastic treatments. Commonly used chemotherapies, including paclitaxel, are associated with a toxic effect on the peripheral nervous system in a substantial fraction of patients, termed chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), that is often debilitating. CIPN cannot be predicted from clinical parameters in neurologically normal subjects, suggesting a genetic basis as the root cause. Patients with hereditary neuropathy (HN) due to one of ~50 recognized genes are prone to developing severe CIPN even if the hereditary predisposition is clinically silent. Assessment of CIPN has usually been an afterthought of cancer treatment studies using crude symptom measurement instruments. N08C1 and N08CA are recent clinical trials_the latter analyzed only in early 2013_focusing on extensive phenotyping by patient reported outcomes (PRO) to support genetic investigations of paclitaxel-related CIPN. Massively parallel (“nextgen”) DNA sequencing is the genetic technology of choice and represents an as-yet unrealized potential to study cancer symptom control. Methods: Exome sequencing_analysis of 20,794 genes at nucleotide resolution_was performed on blood of CIPN cases (n=73) and controls (n=46) from N08C1. The primary endpoint was the association of HN genes with CIPN. Bioinformatic analysis determined SNV and other genetic variations across 6.2x107 nucleotides. The association of genes with CIPN was statistically examined by the over-dispersion test C-alpha. The role of singleton SNV was assessed by a burden test. N08CA served as validation. Results: 386,644 SNV were detected with an estimated sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 99.9%; the orthogonal validation rate (PCR of &gt;1000 genotypes) was 99.7%. The association of the minor allele (C&gt;T) at rs7349683 in the gene EPHA5, previously reported by Baldwin et al. (2012) for CALGB40101, was confirmed in N08C1. Two hereditary neuropathy genes were identified as new CIPN candidate genes: Firstly, ARHGEF10 was highly significant with p=5x10-4 based on single gene testing and p&lt;0.02 after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing of 41 hereditary neuropathy genes with non-synonymous SNV. Three SNV were predictive, rs17683288, rs2294039 and rs9657362, the latter with an odds ratio (OR)=3.62. Validation in an independent patient group (n=75) from another paclitaxel CIPN trial, N08CA, confirmed the impact of ARHGEF10 on CIPN (p&lt;0.025; rs9657362 OR=2.51). Secondly, peraxin (PRX) was disrupted by non-synonymous singleton SNV in n=8 cases and n=0 controls (OR=6.4; unadjusted p=0.04). 7 of the 8 mutations were also scored as deleterious by both Polyphen 2 and SIFT. Because PRX SNV were non-recurrent validation was performed in N08C1 by Sanger sequencing. Several neuro-genes across the exome were noted as additional CIPN gene candidates. Conclusions: ARHGEF10 and PRX associations with CIPN suggest that CIPN and HN might share genetic roots in a subset of patients. Construct validity of N08C1 is supported by confirmation of a published result from CALGB40101 relating EPHA5 to CIPN. Germline exome sequencing in cancer patients is highly informative for understanding complex pharmacogenomic traits including outcomes in symptom control research. Citation Format: Andreas S. Beutler, Amit Kulkarni, Rahul Kanwar, Rui Qin, Julie M. Cunningham, Terry M. Therneau, Charles L. Loprinzi. Sequencing symptom control: Results from the Alliance N08C1 and N08CA genetics of chemotherapy neuropathy trials. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-196. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-LB-196

Purpose Painful oral mucositis (OM) is a significant toxicity during radiotherapy for head and neck cancers. The aim of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was to test the efficacy of doxepin hydrochloride in the reduction of radiotherapy-induced OM pain. Patients and Methods In all, 155 patients were randomly allocated to a doxepin oral rinse or a placebo for the treatment of radiotherapy-related OM pain. Patients received a single dose of doxepin or placebo on day 1 and then crossed over to receive the opposite agent on a subsequent day. Pain questionnaires were administered at baseline and at 5, 15, 30, 60, 120, and 240 minutes. Patients were then given the option to continue doxepin. The primary end point was pain reduction as measured by the area under the curve (AUC) of the pain scale using data from day 1. Results Primary end point analysis revealed that the AUC for mouth and throat pain reduction was greater for doxepin (−9.1) than for placebo (−4.7; P < .001). Crossover analysis of patients completing both phases confirmed that patients experienced greater mouth and throat pain reduction with doxepin (intrapatient changes of 4.1 for doxepin-placebo arm and −2.8 for placebo-doxepin arm; P < .001). Doxepin was associated with more stinging or burning, unpleasant taste, and greater drowsiness than the placebo rinse. More patients receiving doxepin expressed a desire to continue treatment than did patients with placebo after completion of each of the randomized phases of the study. Conclusion A doxepin rinse diminishes OM pain. Further studies are warranted to determine its role in the management of OM.