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AbstractBackgroundThe addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy improved outcomes for patients with metastatic colon cancer. E5204 was designed to test whether the addition of bevacizumab to mFOLFOX6, following neoadjuvant chemoradiation and definitive surgery, could improve overall survival (OS) in patients with stage II/III adenocarcinoma of the rectum.Subjects, Materials, and MethodsPatients with stage II/III rectal cancer who had completed neoadjuvant 5-fluorouracil-based chemoradiation and had undergone complete resection were enrolled. Patients were randomized to mFOLFOX6 (Arm A) or mFOLFOX6 with bevacizumab (Arm B) administered every 2 weeks for 12 cycles.ResultsE5204 registered only 355 patients (17% of planned accrual goal) as it was terminated prematurely owing to poor accrual. At a median follow-up of 72 months, there was no difference in 5-year overall survival (88.3% vs. 83.7%) or 5-year disease-free survival (71.2% vs. 76.5%) between the two arms. The rate of treatment-related grade ≥ 3 adverse events (AEs) was 68.8% on Arm A and 70.7% on Arm B. Arm B had a higher proportion of patients who discontinued therapy early as a result of AEs and patient withdrawal than did Arm A (32.4% vs. 21.5%, p = .029).The most common grade 3–4 treatment-related AEs were neutropenia, leukopenia, neuropathy, diarrhea (without prior colostomy), and fatigue.ConclusionAt 17% of its planned accrual, E5204 did not meet its primary endpoint. The addition of bevacizumab to FOLFOX6 in the adjuvant setting did not significantly improve OS in patients with stage II/III rectal cancer.Implications for PracticeAt 17% of its planned accrual, E5204 was terminated early owing to poor accrual. At a median follow-up of 72 months, there was no significant difference in 5-year overall survival (88.3% vs. 83.7%) or in 5-year disease-free survival (71.2% vs. 76.5%) between the two arms. Despite significant advances in the treatment of rectal cancer, especially in improving local control rates, the risk of distant metastases and the need to further improve quality of life remain a challenge. Strategies combining novel agents with chemoradiation to improve both distant and local control are needed.

Failure to mature and venous neointimal hyperplasia formation are the two major causes of hemodialysis arteriovenous fistula (AVF) vascular access failure. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) is the firstline treatment for both of these conditions, but, clinically, women have decreased patency rates compared with men. The hypothesis to be tested in the present study was that female mice after PTA of venous areas of higher intimal thickening have increased gene expression of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) and TGF-β receptor 1 (TGFβ-R1) accompanied with histological changes of fibrosis compared with male mice. Seventeen male and eighteen female C57BL/6J mice were used in this study. Chronic kidney disease was induced by partial nephrectomy, and, 28 days later, an AVF was created to connect the left carotid artery to the right jugular vein. Two weeks later, the higher intimal thickening area was treated with PTA, and mice were euthanized 3 days later for gene expression analysis or 14 days later for histopathological analysis. Doppler ultrasound was performed weekly after AVF creation. At day 3, female AVF had significantly higher average gene expression of TGF-β1 and TGFβ-R1 compared with male AVF. At day 14, female outflow veins had a smaller venous diameter, lumen vessel area, decreased wall shear stress, lower average peak systolic velocity, and an increased neointima area-to-media area ratio. Moreover, female outflow veins showed a significant increase in α-smooth muscle actin and fibroblast-specific protein-1. There was a decrease in M1/M2 with an increase in CD68.

Abstract High‐dimensional mass cytometry data potentially enable a comprehensive characterization of immune cells. In order to positively affect clinical trials and translational clinical research, this advanced technology needs to demonstrate a high reproducibility of results across multiple sites for both peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and whole blood preparations. A dry 30‐marker broad immunophenotyping panel and customized automated analysis software were recently engineered and are commercially available as the Fluidigm® Maxpar® Direct™ Immune Profiling Assay™. In this study, seven sites received whole blood and six sites received PBMC samples from single donors over a 2‐week interval. Each site labeled replicate samples and acquired data on Helios™ instruments using an assay‐specific acquisition template. All acquired sample files were then automatically analyzed by Maxpar Pathsetter™ software. A cleanup step eliminated debris, dead cells, aggregates, and normalization beads. The second step automatically enumerated 37 immune cell populations and performed label intensity assessments on all 30 markers. The inter‐site reproducibility of the 37 quantified cell populations had consistent population frequencies, with an average %CV of 14.4% for whole blood and 17.7% for PBMC. The dry reagent coupled with automated data analysis is not only convenient but also provides a high degree of reproducibility within and among multiple test sites resulting in a comprehensive yet practical solution for deep immune phenotyping.

Drug pharmacokinetics may be significantly altered in patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Ensuring the optimized effective dosing of antimicrobials on ECMO remains a challenge. To date, limited data are available regarding the optimal use of amphotericin and triazoles during ECMO. We report a case of altered pharmacokinetics, insufficient liposomal amphotericin B and isavuconazole levels, and the need for escalated doses during ECMO in a patient with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome secondary to pulmonary blastomycosis. A 2‐fold increase in the standard total daily dose of both drugs was necessary to overcome low serum concentrations thought to be secondary to drug loss from ECMO circuit sequestration. These findings have important implications for optimizing antimicrobial therapy in patients receiving ECMO to maximize therapeutic efficacy. The use of therapeutic drug monitoring for patients receiving antimicrobial therapy with concurrent ECMO may facilitate appropriate drug dosing to achieve adequate serum concentrations and optimize favorable patient outcomes. Further studies exploring antimicrobial pharmacokinetics during ECMO are needed to inform dosing recommendations in critically ill patients.

Background: NGS of myeloid mutations is an integral part of AML clinical decision-making. There is currently no information regarding concordance between NGS panels in AML using samples from the same patient across various platforms in different diagnostic laboratories. To study this important question, we analyzed NGS of myeloid mutations in diagnostic samples from The Beat AML Master Trial (BAMT) for newly diagnosed older AML patients, and compared variant calls made between institutional laboratories enrolling the study subject with those made by Foundation Medicine (FM), the central laboratory used for treatment assignment in this precision medicine trial. Methods: We identified newly diagnosed AML patient samples (peripheral blood (PB) and/or bone marrow (BM)) from 2 lead institutions in the BAMT(Ohio State, OSU and Oregon Health and Sciences University, OHSU) that were analyzed by both the institutional and by FM from Nov 15, 2016 to Apr 15, 2019. Samples sent to both laboratories >3 days apart were excluded. Samples were analyzed at the institutional laboratories using their respective NGS mutational panels and by FM using the FoundationOne®Heme(FMH) NGS panel which utilizes capture based sequencing. The OSU NGS assay utilizes sequencing on Illumina MiSeq. The OHSU NGS assay employs semiconductor-based sequencing (Ion Torrent PGM platform). The variant allele frequency (VAF) sensitivity for detection for all 3 laboratories range from 1-2%. We evaluated the ability to identify mutations in 8 genes : FLT3, IDH1/ 2, NPM1, TET2, DNMT3A, WT1 and TP53 used in treatment assignment in theBAMT. A detection cutoff of 2% was used to define the presence or absence of a mutation. Overall, agreement was defined as the number of times the local and central laboratories made the same call divided by the total number of patients. Sensitivity was defined as the number of present calls made locally divided by the number of present calls made centrally, and specificity as the number of absent calls made locally divided by the number of absent calls made centrally. The overall kappa statistic, controlling for institution, provided another measure of agreement between local and central calls, where a value of 1 indicates perfect agreement. Results: 194 patient samples were identified using methods above and analyzed locally at the screening institution (125 at OSU, 69 at OHSU) and centrally at FM. Type of tissue analyzed for variants between local site and FM were 59 PB, 129 BM, and 6 with BM/PB mismatch. Overall agreement in presence/absence calls between local and central results for each of the 8 genes was over 95% (Table 1). There was perfect agreement for NPM1. The sensitivity was above 94% for all genes except TP53 (88.6%) and WT1 (63.6%). Failure to detect a mutation locally was primarily due to reporting of all TP53 variants, including variants of unknown significance (VUS) (5) by FM as agreed upon in the study protocol, detection at low levels below local site sensitivity cutoff (1), detection of variants in a portion of gene not covered at the local site(1)and possible artifact (1). For the WT1 gene, discordance in 5 samples included VUS (3) reported by FM ,a variant detected in a portion of the gene not covered at the local site(1).and difference in leukemic tissue analyzed with mutation not detected by the central laboratory on a PB sample, and present at the institutional lab on a BM sample; affecting the overall agreement and specificity but not sensitivity. Specificity was at least 98% for each of the 8 genes. Finally, most discrepancies in reported mutations in FLT3 (n=2), IDH1 (n=1), IDH2 (n=2), DNMT3A (n=4) and TET2 (n=5) were due to reporting of VUS in one laboratory and not by another. Conclusion: Detection of pathogenic myeloid mutations using orthogonal assays showed a high degree of concordance for genes used in therapeutic assignment on the BAMT.The small number of discordant results, in TP53 and WT1, were attributed to the reporting of VUS. This study illustrates the importance of quality control and standardization as NGS continues to be widely utilized in AML for clinical decision making, with a variety of platforms across multiple laboratories. Our next steps involve evaluating the differences in VAFs reported between local and central laboratories when a given mutation is identified, as well as the potential reasons for observed differences and clinical implications of known pathogenic mutations vs putative VUS. Disclosures Borate: Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy; AbbVie: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Takeda: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy. Vergilio:Foundation Medicine: Employment; Roche Holding AG: Equity Ownership. Stein:Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene Corporation: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Daiichi Sankyo, Inc.: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Agios: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Astellas Pharma US, Inc: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bioline: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Genentech: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; PTC Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Syros: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Patel:France Foundation: Honoraria; Dava Oncology: Honoraria; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Baer:Astellas: Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding; AI Therapeutics: Research Funding; Forma: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; Kite: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding. Stock:Daiichi: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Astellas: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Agios: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Research to Practice: Honoraria; UpToDate: Honoraria; Kite, a Gilead Company: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Schiller:Amgen: Other, Research Funding; Astellas: Research Funding; Biomed Valley Discoveries: Research Funding; Bristol Myer Squibb: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Constellation Pharmaceutical: Research Funding; Daiichi Sankyo: Research Funding; Eli Lilly and Company: Research Funding; FujiFilm: Research Funding; Genzyme: Research Funding; Gilead: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; J&J: Research Funding; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Research Funding; Karyopharm: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Onconova: Research Funding; Pfizer Pharmaceuticals: Equity Ownership, Research Funding; Sangamo Therapeutics: Research Funding; Agios: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau. Blum:AmerisourceBergen: Consultancy; Boehringer Ingelheim: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Astellas,: Research Funding; Xencor: Research Funding; Forma: Research Funding. Kovacsovics:Pfizer: Research Funding; Jazz: Consultancy; Novartis: Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding; Amgen: Consultancy, Research Funding. Foran:Agios: Honoraria, Research Funding. Druker:Pfizer: Research Funding; OHSU (licensing fees): Patents & Royalties: #2573, Constructs and cell lines harboring various mutations in TNK2 and PTPN11, licensing fees ; Cepheid: Consultancy, Honoraria; Aileron Therapeutics: #2573, Constructs and cell lines harboring various mutations in TNK2 and PTPN11, licensing fees , Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; ALLCRON: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Aptose Biosciences: Consultancy, Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Beta Cat: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Stock options; GRAIL: Equity Ownership, Other: former member of Scientific Advisory Board; Patient True Talk: Consultancy; The RUNX1 Research Program: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Vivid Biosciences: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Stock options; Beat AML LLC: Other: Service on joint steering committee; CureOne: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Consultancy; Gilead Sciences: Other: former member of Scientific Advisory Board; ICON: Other: Scientific Founder of Molecular MD, which was acquired by ICON in Feb. 2019; Monojul: Other: former consultant; Novartis: Other: PI or co-investigator on clinical trial(s) funded via contract with OHSU., Patents & Royalties: Patent 6958335, Treatment of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors, exclusively licensed to Novartis, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Other: PI or co-investigator on clinical trial(s) funded via contract with OHSU., Research Funding; Pfizer: Other: PI or co-investigator on clinical trial(s) funded via contract with OHSU., Research Funding; Merck & Co: Patents & Royalties: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute license #2063, Monoclonal antiphosphotyrosine antibody 4G10, exclusive commercial license to Merck & Co; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (antibody royalty): Patents & Royalties: #2524, antibody royalty; Burroughs Wellcome Fund: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Blueprint Medicines: Consultancy, Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Patents & Royalties, Research Funding. Byrd:Gilead: Other: Travel Expenses, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Genentech: Research Funding; Acerta: Research Funding; TG Therapeutics: Other: Travel Expenses, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Other: Travel Expenses, Speakers Bureau; Pharmacyclics LLC, an AbbVie Company: Other: Travel Expenses, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Consultancy, Other: Travel Expenses, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; BeiGene: Research Funding; Ohio State University: Patents & Royalties: OSU-2S. Levine:C4 Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Isoplexis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Roche: Consultancy, Research Funding; Loxo: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Qiagen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen: Honoraria; Prelude Therapeutics: Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; Lilly: Honoraria; Imago Biosciences: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Mims:Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Astellas Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; PTC Therapeutics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Agios Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Abbvie: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

INTRODUCTION: EMZL is a heterogeneous disease with variable risk for relapse and progression. Based on age ≥70 years, stage III-IV and elevated LDH, Thieblemont et al (Blood. 2017) developed the MALT-IPI to identify high-risk patients. In this index, disease characteristics (stage and LDH) account for 66% while a disease nonspecific characteristic (age) for 33% of the index score. We reported (Am J Hematol. 2019) that EMZL with multiple mucosal sites (MMS) at diagnosis is characterized by shorter survival and increased incidence of higher grade transformation. To better recognize disease-attributable high-risk patients, we developed a new EMZL prognosis score chiefly based on patient's disease characteristics. METHODS: The revised (R)-MALT-IPI was developed using a retrospective data set of 405 EMZL patients treated at the University of Miami (UM) from 1995 to 2017. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the effect of the potential prognostic variables on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) and to develop the new index R-MALTI-IPI based on PFS. Model validation was performed in two independent cohorts of EMZL patients from the University of Iowa/Mayo Clinic Molecular Epidemiology Resource (MER) database (n=297) and the IELSG-19 study (n=400) used for the development of MALT-IPI. Performance of various prognostic indices was compared using AIC statistics, and concordance c-statistics by Harrell (CH) and by Gonen and Heller (CGH). RESULTS: Among the candidate variables tested in univariable analysis, the following were statistically significant predictors of shorter PFS: age >60, age ≥70, anemia (Hb<12g/dL), stage III-IV, ECOG PS ≥2, elevated serum LDH, number of extranodal sites >1, number of nodal sites >4, and presence of MMS at diagnosis, defined as EMZL with ≥2 different extranodal sites excluding spleen and bone marrow. A stepwise Cox regression analysis yielded a multivariable model with four independent predictors of shorter PFS: age >60 (HR=1.53, p=0.010), elevated LDH (HR=1.73, p=0.004), stage III-IV (HR=2.03, p=0.0003) and presence of MMS (HR=2.78, p<0.0001). Based on this, a new index R-MALT-IPI was developed with scores ranging from 0 to 5, calculated as a sum of 1 point for age >60, elevated LDH, stage III-IV, and 2 points for MMS. The R-MALT-IPI defined 4 risk groups: low-risk (score 0 (35%), reference group), low-medium risk (score 1 (39%), HR=1.91, p=0.005), medium-high risk (score 2 (13%), HR=3.77, p<0.0001), and high-risk (score 3+ (13%), HR=8.54, p<0.0001). When compared with MALT-IPI, R-MALT-IPI better stratifies and separates high risk patients (26%) into medium-high risk and high-risk patients with a median PFS of 5.8 years (2.9-9.1) and 1.8 years (1.3-2.6) respectively, compared to 2.6 years (1.8-4.7) in the high-risk MALT-IPI patients (16.8%). The R-MALT-IPI index also distinguished patients with different OS. For validation, we analyzed R-MALT-IPI index performance in independent Iowa/Mayo Clinic MER and IELSG-19 cohorts. Both R-MALT-IPI and MALT-IPI were useful in distinguishing PFS and OS in all the cohorts. In the UM training cohort, the concordance c-statistics' values for the two indices were similar: for PFS, CH=0.6893 and CGH=0.6611 for R-MALT-IPI, and CH=0.6551 and CGH=0.6367 for MALT-IPI; for OS, CH=0.7017 and CGH=0.6813 for R-MALT-IPI, and CH=0.7029 and CGH=0.67715 for MALT-IPI. In the validation cohorts, the concordance c-statistics' values for the two indices were also similar, but slightly lower than in the UM cohort for PFS. When comparing medium-high to high-risk R-MALT-IPI groups, there was a reduction of 4 years in median PFS in the UM cohort, and reduction in median EFS of 5.6 years in the MER cohort, an important difference between these risk groups identified by the R-MALT-IPI index. CONCLUSIONS: R-MALT-IPI is a new index for EMZL centered principally on disease characteristics. Overall, there is a similar prediction of PFS (EFS) by R-MALT-IPI and MALT-IPI indexes; however, R-MALT-IPI better recognizes a high-risk group accounting for 13% of EMZL patients with short median PFS and thus obviates the waiting period needed to recognize patients with shorter EFS24. Collaborative studies addressing best treatment approach for these high-risk EMZL patients are eagerly needed. Disclosures Alderuccio: Agios: Other: Immediate family member; Foundation Medicine: Other: Immediate family member; OncLive: Consultancy; Targeted Oncology: Honoraria; Puma Biotechnology: Other: Immediate family member; Inovio Pharmaceuticals: Other: Immediate family member. Thieblemont:Cellectis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kyte: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria; Roche: Honoraria, Research Funding; Gilead: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria. Cerhan:Celgene: Research Funding; Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; NanoString: Research Funding. Zucca:Kite, A Gilead Company: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Roche: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Travel Grant, Research Funding; AstraZenaca: Research Funding; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Janssen: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Celltrion Helathcare: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Abbvie: Other: Travel Grant. Lossos:NIH: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen Scientific: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

Introduction Tissue loss as a consequence of congenital anomalies, trauma, malignancy, or gangrene represents a major health care problem in the United States. Because younger individuals are disproportionately affected, the costs are magnified over time and the resultant individual and societal effects are tremendous. The currently available options to restore soft tissue defects are associated with donor site morbidities. Vascularized composite allotransplantation may provide form, function, and esthetics without a donor site; however, it comes with the significant risk associated with toxic immunosuppression (Biomaterials. 2015;61:246-256, Ann Plast Surg. 2015;75(1):112-116, Transplantation. 2009;88(2):203-210). Engineered tissues offer promise in finding viable alternatives to allograft and autologous tissues. In this study, we present our simple and quick method to decellularize a muscle without disrupting the vascular network integrity or the extracellular matrix. Optimizing the decellularization process is a crucial step toward creating an “off-the-shelf” flap that can be used for soft tissue reconstruction. Methods The superficial gracilis muscle of 20 rats were harvested on their circulation and decellularized using perfusion with Krebs-Henseleit buffer and sodium dodecyl sulfate for 6 hours. These flaps were evaluated by gross morphology, histology, DNA quantification, integrity of the vascular network, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Results All samples were decellularized successfully as determined by DNA content and histological analysis for cellular content. The vascular network was preserved in all samples. Conclusions We present a quick, simple, and affordable method to decellularize a muscle flap through the vascular network. Our proposed method is efficient and can be completed in a significantly shorter time when compared with other methods. It is also safe and does not affect integrity of tissue, and this is essential for a reliable recellularization.