Citations

ABSTRACTNodal follicular helper T‐cell (T FH) lymphoma of the angioimmunoblastic (AITL) subtype has a dismal prognosis. Using whole‐exome sequencing (n = 124), transcriptomic (n = 78), and methylation (n = 40) analysis, we identified recurrent mutations in known epigenetic drivers (TET2, DNMT3A, IDH2 R172 ) and novel ones (TET3, KMT2D). TET2, IDH2 R172 , DNMT3A co‐mutated AITLs had poor prognosis (p < 0.0001). Genes regulating T‐cell receptor (TCR) signaling (CD28, PLCG1, VAV1, FYN) or activation (RHOA G17V ) or regulators of the PI3K‐pathway (PIK(3)C members, PTEN, PHLPP1, PHLPP2) were mutated. CD28 mutation/fusion was associated with poor prognosis (p = 0.02). WES of purified, neoplastic T‐cell (CD3+PD1+) demonstrated high concordance with whole tumor biopsies and validated the presence of TET2 and DNMT3A in tumor and non‐lymphoid cells, but other mutations (CD28, RHOA G17V , IDH2 R172 , PLCG1) in neoplastic cells. Integrated DNA‐methylation and mRNA expression analysis revealed epigenetic alterations in genes regulating TCR, cytokines, PI3K‐signaling, and apoptosis. RNA‐seq analysis identified fusion transcripts regulating TCR‐activation (8%), revealed a restricted TCR‐repertoire (α = 87%, β = 72%), and showed the presence of Epstein–Barr virus transcriptome (73%). GEP demonstrated the association of B‐cells or dendritic cells in the tumor milieu with prognosis (p < 0.01). RNA‐seq and WES analysis of 12 AITL‐patient‐derived‐xenografts (PDX) showed that bi‐allelic TET2 and DNMT3A mutations or sub‐clonal mutations (PLCG1, PHLPP2) propagated in sequential passages, and gene signatures related to T FH and T CM (central‐memory) were well‐maintained through passages. Gene expression signatures associated with late PDX passages (3rd–5th) were enriched with proliferation and metabolic reprogramming‐related genes and predicted prognosis in an independent AITL series. Low PHLPP2 mRNA expression predicted poor prognosis (p = 0.05) and engineered PHLPP2 or TET2 loss in CD4+ T‐cells showed enhanced PI(3)K activation, thus uncovering a therapeutic target for clinical trials.

Recent advancements in compact MRI scanners, portable low-field-strength MRI systems, and high-performance gradient inserts address the challenges of conventional MRI for brain imaging, providing more accessible and versatile technology.

LBA3500 Background: BREAKWATER (NCT04607421) is an open-label, global, randomized, phase 3 study evaluating first-line (1L) encorafenib + cetuximab (EC) ± chemotherapy (chemo) vs standard of care (SOC; chemo ± bevacizumab) in BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). The study previously met one of its dual primary endpoints (EPs) demonstrating clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvement in confirmed objective response rate (ORR) by blinded independent central review (BICR) in the ORR subset. These results were the basis for the FDA accelerated approval of EC+mFOLFOX6 for BRAF V600E-mutant mCRC, including in the 1L, under Project Frontrunner. Here, we report the primary analysis of progression-free survival (PFS) by BICR, updated interim analysis of OS, updated safety, and other analyses. Methods: Eligible patients (pts) with untreated BRAF V600E-mutant mCRC were randomized 1:1:1 to receive EC, EC+mFOLFOX6, or SOC; EC arm enrollment was closed after a protocol amendment. Dual primary EPs: ORR and PFS by BICR (EC+mFOLFOX6 vs SOC); key secondary EP: OS (EC+mFOLFOX6 vs SOC). Results: 637 pts were randomized to EC, EC+mFOLFOX6, or SOC. Baseline demographics and disease characteristics were generally balanced between arms. EC+mFOLFOX6 (data cutoff: Jan 6, 2025) demonstrated a clinically meaningful and statistically significant PFS improvement vs SOC, meeting the other dual primary EP; HR=0.53 (95% CI 0.407, 0.677; P<0.0001); median PFS 12.8 vs 7.1 mo. OS was clinically meaningful and statistically significant vs SOC; HR=0.49 (95% CI 0.375, 0.632; P<0.0001); median OS 30.3 vs 15.1 mo. Median PFS and OS in the EC arm were 6.8 and 19.5 mo. These data and response data for all randomized pts are shown in the table. Serious treatment-emergent adverse events occurred in 30%, 46%, and 39% of pts in the safety analysis set. Safety was consistent with that known for each agent. Conclusions: BREAKWATER demonstrated clinically meaningful and statistically significant PFS and OS improvements with EC+mFOLFOX6 vs SOC and manageable toxicities. EC+mFOLFOX6 is potentially practice changing as the new SOC. Clinical trial information: NCT04607421 . ECn=158 EC+mFOLFOX6n=236 SOCn=243 EC+mFOLFOX6vs SOCHR (95% CI)P-value a Median PFS b , mo (95% CI) 6.8(5.7, 8.3) 12.8(11.2, 15.9) 7.1(6.8, 8.5) 0.53 (0.407, 0.677) <0.0001 Median OS, mo (95% CI) 19.5(17.6, 22.5) 30.3(21.7, NE) 15.1(13.7, 17.7) 0.49 (0.375, 0.632)<0.0001 ORR, b % (95% CI) 45.6(38.0, 53.3) 65.7(59.4, 71.4) 37.4(31.6, 43.7) Median DOR b , mo (95% CI) c 7.0 (4.2, 11.6) 13.9 (10.9, 18.5) 10.8 (7.6, 13.4) DOR b ≥6 mo, n (%) c 29 (40.3) 110 (71.0) 38 (41.8) DOR b ≥12 mo, n (%) c 15 (20.8) 54 (34.8) 16 (17.6) Median time to response, b wk (range) c 6.6(4.3-86.4) 7.0(5.1-103.6) 7.3 (5.4-48.0) a 1-sided stratified log rank test. b By BICR. c Responders: n=72, n=155, and n=91. DOR, duration of response.

BACKGROUND: Small, randomized trials of patients with cervical artery dissection showed conflicting results regarding optimal stroke prevention strategies. We aimed to compare outcomes in patients with cervical artery dissection treated with antiplatelets versus anticoagulation. METHODS: This is a multicenter observational retrospective international study (16 countries, 63 sites) that included patients with cervical artery dissection without major trauma. The exposure was antithrombotic treatment type (anticoagulation versus antiplatelets), and outcomes were subsequent ischemic stroke and major hemorrhage (intracranial or extracranial hemorrhage). We used adjusted Cox regression with inverse probability of treatment weighting to determine associations between anticoagulation and study outcomes within 30 and 180 days. The main analysis used an as-treated crossover approach and only included outcomes occurring with the above treatments. RESULTS: The study included 3636 patients (402 [11.1%] received exclusively anticoagulation and 2453 [67.5%] received exclusively antiplatelets). By day 180, there were 162 new ischemic strokes (4.4%) and 28 major hemorrhages (0.8%); 87.0% of ischemic strokes occurred by day 30. In adjusted Cox regression with inverse probability of treatment weighting, compared with antiplatelet therapy, anticoagulation was associated with a nonsignificantly lower risk of subsequent ischemic stroke by day 30 (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.71 [95% CI, 0.45–1.12]; P =0.145) and by day 180 (adjusted HR, 0.80 [95% CI, 0.28–2.24]; P =0.670). Anticoagulation therapy was not associated with a higher risk of major hemorrhage by day 30 (adjusted HR, 1.39 [95% CI, 0.35–5.45]; P =0.637) but was by day 180 (adjusted HR, 5.56 [95% CI, 1.53–20.13]; P =0.009). In interaction analyses, patients with occlusive dissection had significantly lower ischemic stroke risk with anticoagulation (adjusted HR, 0.40 [95% CI, 0.18–0.88]; P interaction =0.009). CONCLUSIONS: Our study does not rule out the benefit of anticoagulation in reducing ischemic stroke risk, particularly in patients with occlusive dissection. If anticoagulation is chosen, it seems reasonable to switch to antiplatelet therapy before 180 days to lower the risk of major bleeding. Large prospective studies are needed to validate our findings.

PURPOSE To report the results of the multicenter, open-label IRAKLIA trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05405166 ) of isatuximab subcutaneous (SC) versus intravenous (IV), plus pomalidomide and dexamethasone, in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM), to our knowledge, the first phase III MM trial using an on-body injector (OBI). METHODS Patients with ≥1 prior line of therapy were randomly assigned 1:1 to Isa OBI (1,400 mg) or IV (10 mg/kg) once weekly in cycle (C)1 and then every 2 weeks, plus pomalidomide (4 mg once daily, day [D]1-21) and dexamethasone (40 mg once weekly [age ≥75: 20 mg]) and treated until progression, unacceptable toxicity, or patient request. Coprimary end points were overall response rate (ORR; noninferiority margin, 0.839) and Isa C trough (C6D1 predose; noninferiority margin, 0.8). Noninferiority of OBI versus IV was demonstrated if both coprimary end points achieved noninferiority. RESULTS IRAKLIA randomly assigned 531 patients (OBI, n=263; IV, n=268). After 12-month median follow-up, the ORR was 71.1% (OBI) and 70.5% (IV; relative risk, 1.008 [95% CI, 0.903 to 1.126]; lower CI exceeded noninferiority margin). The mean (standard deviation) C6D1 C trough was 499 (259) μg/mL (OBI) and 340 (169) μg/mL (IV). The C trough geometric mean ratio (90% CI) was 1.532 (1.316 to 1.784); lower CI exceeded noninferiority margin. Grade ≥3 treatment-emergent adverse event incidences were 81.7% (OBI) and 76.1% (IV); infusion reaction incidences were 1.5% and 25.0%. Injection site reactions occurred in 0.4% of OBI injections (all grade 1-2); 99.9% of injections completed without interruption. CONCLUSION IRAKLIA demonstrated efficacy and pharmacokinetic noninferiority between Isa OBI and IV. No unexpected safety signal was observed, with excellent local tolerability of Isa OBI. Efficacy and safety were comparable with Isa IV in ICARIA-MM, except the lower OBI infusion reaction rate. These results support potential use of the OBI, designed to improve practice efficiency.

PURPOSE Tumor treating fields (TTFields) use alternating electric fields to disrupt cancer cell proliferation. Feasibility of TTFields therapy with gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel was previously demonstrated in patients with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma. PANOVA-3 was designed to confirm safety and efficacy of TTFields in patients with unresectable locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma (LA-PAC). METHODS In this global phase III trial, 571 patients with newly diagnosed LA-PAC were randomly assigned to receive gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m 2 and nab-paclitaxel 125 mg/m 2 by intravenous infusion once a day on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle with or without TTFields. The primary end point was overall survival (OS). Secondary end points included progression-free survival (PFS), local PFS, pain-free survival, and overall response rate (ORR). Distant PFS was analyzed post hoc. RESULTS OS was significantly prolonged using TTFields with gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel versus gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel (median, 16.2 months [95% CI, 15.0 to 18.0] v 14.2 months [95% CI, 12.8 to 15.4]; hazard ratio [HR], 0.82 [95% CI, 0.68 to 0.99]; P = .039). PFS, local PFS, and ORR were not improved. Pain-free survival was significantly prolonged with TTFields with gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel (median, 15.2 months [95% CI, 10.3 to 22.8] v 9.1 months [95% CI, 7.4 to 12.7]; HR, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.56 to 0.97]; P = .027), as was distant PFS (median, 13.9 months [95% CI, 12.2 to 16.8] v 11.5 months [95% CI, 10.4 to 12.9]; HR, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.57 to 0.96]; P = .022). Device-related skin adverse events (AEs) were experienced by 76.3% of patients. Most device-related skin AEs were mild to moderate, with 7.7% of patients reporting a grade 3 AE. CONCLUSION This study demonstrated significant OS, pain-free survival, and distant PFS benefits for TTFields with gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel versus gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel in patients with unresectable LA-PAC, with no additive systemic toxicity.

PURPOSE Continued improvement in outcomes is needed for advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC). Methods Alliance A091802 is a randomized phase II trial of avelumab (800 mg IV once every 2 weeks) plus cetuximab (500 mg/m 2 IV once every 2 weeks) versus avelumab alone once every 2 weeks for up to 2 years. Cetuximab was given for 1 year in the avelumab + cetuximab arm. Crossover at progression to avelumab + cetuximab was allowed. Randomization was 1:1, stratified by PD-L1 and HIV status. Patients had distant metastatic or unresectable locally advanced cSCC, were anti–PD-1/PD-L1 monoclonal antibody–naive, had no previous cetuximab in the advanced setting, had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0-2, and could be HIV+ (CD4 >200, viral load <200). Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, immunosuppression, or active autoimmune diseases were excluded. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS; null hypothesis: median = 12 months v alternative hypothesis: 21 months or a 75% improvement, power of 80% with one-sided alpha .2, n = 57, 37 PFS events required). Secondary end points were overall survival, objective response rates (ORRs), clinical benefit rate, and toxicity. RESULTS Sixty patients were enrolled; 57 patients were evaluable. The median age was 72 years, all were HIV–; 75.4% was PD-L1+, 84.2% had head/neck origin, 47.4% had distant metastasis, and there were no differences in baseline characteristics by arm. Avelumab + cetuximab significantly improved PFS versus avelumab (median, 11.1 [7.6-not reached (NR)] v 3.0 months [2.7-13.6] hazard ratio, 0.48 [95% CI, 0.23 to 0.97], P = .018). Avelumab patients who crossed over (n = 9) to combination had a median PFS after crossover of 11.3 months (5.8-NR). The confirmed ORR was 27.6% with avelumab + cetuximab and 21.4% with avelumab. Grade 3 treatment-related adverse events occurred in 48.3% and 21.5% of patients with avelumab + cetuximab (most common: rash [20.7%], infusion reaction [20.7%]) and avelumab, respectively. CONCLUSION Avelumab + cetuximab significantly improved PFS versus avelumab alone in patients with advanced cSCC. Alliance A091802 supports a larger confirmatory study with the combination of cetuximab and PD-1:PD-(L)1 blockade.

Abstract Distinguishing high-risk intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs), pancreatic cysts requiring surgery, from low-risk lesions remains a clinical challenge, often resulting in unnecessary procedures due to limited specificity of current methods. While radiomics and deep learning (DL) have been explored for pancreatic cancer, cyst-level malignancy risk stratification of IPMNs remains untapped. We conducted a multi-institutional study (seven centers, 359 T2W MRI images) to assess the feasibility of AI for predicting IPMN dysplasia grade using cyst-level image features. We developed and compared 2D and 3D radiomics-only, deep learning (DL)-only, and radiomics-DL fusion models, using expert radiologist scoring as a baseline reference. Model performance was evaluated using held-out test data. The radiomics-DL fusion model showed the highest discriminatory ability on the test set (AUC 0.692), outperforming the radiomics-only model (AUC 0.665). Expert accuracy varied widely (37.4%-66.7%). The fusion model integrating deep learning and radiomics features from routine T2W MRI (AUC: 0.692) demonstrates potential for objective, cyst-level risk stratification of IPMNs in a multi-center cohort, outperforming both radiomics-only models and expert radiologists. While performance requires improvement for standalone clinical use, this approach offers a scalable, non-invasive method to potentially improve diagnostic accuracy and reduce unnecessary surgical interventions.

Abstract Motivation Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has become an important method for characterizing cellular heterogeneity, revealing more biological insights than the bulk RNA-seq. The surge in scRNA-seq data across multiple individuals calls for efficient and statistically powerful methods for differential expression (DE) analysis that addresses individual-level biological variability. Results We introduced DiSC, a method for conducting individual-level DE analysis by extracting multiple distributional characteristics, jointly testing their association with a variable of interest, and using a flexible permutation testing framework to control the false discovery rate (FDR). Our simulation studies demonstrated that DiSC effectively controlled the FDR across various settings and exhibited high statistical power in detecting different types of gene expression changes. Moreover, DiSC is computationally efficient and scalable to the rapidly increasing sample sizes in scRNA-seq studies. When applying DiSC to identify DE genes potentially associated with COVID-19 severity and Alzheimer’s disease across various types of peripheral blood mononuclear cells and neural cells, we found that our method was approximately 100 times faster than other state-of-the-art methods and the results were consistent and supported by existing literature. While DiSC was developed for scRNA-seq data, its robust testing framework can also be applied to other types of single-cell data. We applied DiSC to cytometry by time-of-flight data, DiSC identified significantly more DE markers than traditional methods. Availability and implementation The R software package “SingleCellStat” is freely available on CRAN (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/SingleCellStat/index.html) and GitHub (https://github.com/Lujun995/DiSC). The replication code for reproducing the analyses in this study is publicly accessible at https://github.com/Lujun995/DiSC_Replication_Code. The scRNA-seq expression matrix and metadata utilized in our simulations and analyses can be retrieved from https://cells.ucsc.edu/autism/rawMatrix.zip, https://cellxgene.cziscience.com/collections/1ca90a2d-2943-483d-b678-b809bf464c30, and https://covid19.cog.sanger.ac.uk/submissions/release1/haniffa21.processed.h5ad.