Citations

4584 Background: EVP is the preferred frontline regimen in pts with aUC. Despite initial response to treatment, many pts treated with EVP ultimately have progression. We hypothesized that recurrence patterns would differ between pts with and without baseline liver metastases. Methods: UNITE is a multi-institutional retrospective database capturing clinical and treatment characteristics of pts with aUC receiving systemic therapies. We queried this database to identify pts who achieved an observed response (OR) to EVP. Pts were grouped by initial metastatic sites using a non-mutually exclusive approach. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize observed response rates (ORR) and recurrence patterns at time of progression. Progression-free survival (PFS) from start of EVP was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The effect of liver metastases on PFS was assessed via multivariable Cox regression. Median-follow up time was estimated using the reverse Kaplan-Meier method. Statistical analyses were conducted in RStudio. Results: We identified 464 pts treated with EVP (median age 72; 74% male, 80% White). Best ORR in pts with baseline liver metastases (n=77) were complete response 9%, partial response 35%, stable disease 18%, and progressive disease 21%, compared with 18%, 37%, 27%, and 18%, respectively, in pts without baseline liver metastases (n=325). The estimated median follow-up time was 52 weeks (95% CI 48-62). Among pts with initial OR to EVP, those with baseline liver metastases showed a non-significant trend toward shorter PFS (HR 1.35; 95% CI 0.67–2.75; p=0.40) versus those without baseline liver metastases. Among pts with initial OR to EVP and subsequent progression the distribution of sites of recurrences at progression for those with (n = 10) and without (n = 40) baseline liver metastases were: liver (50% vs. 10%), lymph nodes (60% vs. 55%), lungs (50% vs. 38%), bone (20% vs 20%), and primary tumor (20% vs 25%). EVP responders with baseline liver metastases had a numerically higher rate of site-specific metastasis resolution at progression versus those with lymph node or lung metastases (Table). Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that liver metastases may be associated with shorter PFS among EVP responders, though these pts frequently do not retain liver metastases at time of progression. Study limitations include retrospective analysis, investigator-assessed response, small sample size, selection and confounding biases. Patterns of recurrence following EVP merits further evaluation. Metastatic Site Pts with Site-Specific Baseline Metastases (n) Pts with Resolution of Site-Specific Metastases at Progression, n (%) Pts without Baseline Metastases at Site (n) Pts who Remained Free of Site-Specific Metastases at Progression, n (%) Liver 10 5 (50%) 40 36 (90%) Lymph Nodes 37 12 (32%) 13 10 (77%) Lungs 26 8 (31%) 24 22 (92%)

4565 Background: EVP is the preferred 1 st -line regimen for patients (pts) with aUC. EV-related toxicities are often managed with dose adjustments, such as reductions and holds. Analysis of EV monotherapy trials showed consistent survival outcomes despite dose adjustments. We hypothesized that on-treatment EV dose adjustments would not impact survival in these pts. Methods: Pts with aUC treated with EVP in the multisite UNITE study were analyzed. Early dose reductions (DR) and holds were defined as occurring < 9 weeks from EVP start, with the remainder classified as late. Pts with DR at treatment start were excluded. Survival endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) from EVP start, assessed by Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox models. Multivariable Cox analysis (MVA) included age (≥ 75 vs < 75), ECOG performance status (0-1 vs 2-3), Hgb level (< 10 vs ≥ 10) and liver metastases (present vs not). A time-dependent covariate was used to reduce immortal time bias. Complementary MVA landmark analyses were performed, aligned to the total number of treatment cycles received, with six analyses from cycles 2 to 7. Results: 360 pts from 17 sites were included (median age 70; 78% Caucasian; 76% male; 27% upper tract primary; 35% histology subtype component; 17% with liver metastasis; 78% frontline); median follow-up was 11.7 months (95% CI [10.79, 13.08]). Median number of cycles was 6 in pts with DR and 3 with no DR. Early DRs (100 pts [28%]) and holds (18 pts [5%]) were most commonly due to rash (28% of all early DRs and holds). Late DR (75 pts [21%]) and holds (50 pts [14%]) were most commonly due to neuropathy (52% of all late DRs and holds). Pts with early or late DR had longer PFS and OS vs those who did not (Table); however, there was no significant PFS or OS difference with dose hold vs no hold (PFS HR 0.65, 95%CI (0.40, 1.05), p = 0.08; OS HR 0.70, 95%CI (0.39, 1.27), p=0.24). In landmark analyses, about 50% of pts had DR; no significant difference in PFS or OS was observed at most landmarks, except for longer OS in the DR cohort at cycle 4 (HR 0.53, 95% CI (0.29, 0.98), p = 0.042) and cycle 5 (HR 0.43, 95% CI (0.19, 0.99), p = 0.048). Conclusions: In this real-world retrospective analysis, EVP efficacy was maintained despite DR and dose holds. Survival difference noted in the time-dependent analyses were not consistently reproduced in landmark analyses, suggesting exposure-related selection bias rather than causal effect. Prospective studies are warranted to validate these hypothesis-generating findings. Association of EV DR with PFS/OS (time-dependent analyses). Early DR Late DR DR vs no DR outcomes UVAHR (95% CI), p MVAHR (95% CI), p UVAHR (95% CI), p MVAHR (95% CI), p PFS 0.50 (0.35, 0.72), <.001 0.56 (0.38, 0.84), 0.005 0.32 (0.21, 0.49), <.001 0.36 (0.23, 0.57), <.001 OS 0.51 (0.32, 0.79), 0.003 0.57 (0.35, 0.92), 0.022 0.26 (0.15, 0.45), <.001 0.31 (0.17, 0.55), <.001

696 Background: EVP is the preferred 1st-line therapy for patients (pts) with aUC. Upfront EV dose reductions may be utilized to enhance tolerance and minimize treatment-related toxicities when intolerance is anticipated. Prior studies of EV monotherapy suggest that starting dose 1.25 mg/kg resulted in exposure that maximized chance of response. We hypothesize that upfront EV dose reductions would not compromise EVP efficacy. Methods: Pts with aUC treated with EVP in the multi-site UNITE database were analyzed. Upfront dose reduction was defined as starting dose < 1.25 mg/kg. Correlation between clinical features and EV dose reduction were assessed using Fisher’s Exact test. Endpoints include progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) from EVP initiation, assessed by Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox models. Multivariable Cox analysis (MVA) included age (< 75 vs ≥ 75), ECOG performance status (PS) (0-1 vs 2-3), hemoglobin level (< 10 vs ≥ 10), and liver metastases (present vs absent), chosen in accordance with Bellmunt criteria. Correlation with investigator-assessed observed response rate (ORR) was determined using logistic regressions. All tests were 2-sided with p < 0.05 considered significant. Results: A total of 456 pts across 17 sites were included (median age 72; 77% Caucasian; 75% male; 26% upper tract primary; 66% pure UC; 77% ECOG PS 0-1; 17% with liver metastasis; 89% 1 st line EVP). Upfront dose reduction occurred in 96 pts (21%); 76 pts (79%) started at 1.0 mg/kg and 20 pts (21%) at 0.75 mg/kg. Upfront dose reduction was significantly associated with age ≥ 75 (p = 0.002), ECOG PS 2/3 (p = 0.04), and hemoglobin < 10 (p = 0.01) but not with liver metastasis (p = 0.9). Lower starting EV dose correlated with shorter median PFS (5 vs 6 months) and OS (9 vs 10 months), and lower ORR (28% vs. 60%) when compared to full dose (Table). In MVA adjusting for prognostic factors for PFS and OS, these associations were no longer statistically significant. Conclusions: In this real-world analysis, upfront EV dose reductions were most frequently used in pts with factors associated with frailty and poor prognosis, e.g. older age and ECOG PS 2/3, and were associated with lower ORR. When adjusted for these factors, upfront EV dose reductions were not associated with shorter PFS/OS though a trend towards inferior outcomes persisted. These differences in outcomes may reflect baseline risk factors rather than dose intensity; however, prospective investigation is required to validate our hypothesis-generating results. Association of upfront EV dose reduction with outcomes. Outcome (Upfront dose reduction vs no upfront dose reduction) Univariable analysis Multivariable analysis PFS: HR (95% CI), p 1.50 (1.11 – 2.02), 0.008 1.33 (0.95-1.86), 0.09 OS: HR (95% CI), p 1.56 (1.11-2.20), 0.01 1.41 (0.96-2.06), 0.08 ORR: OR (95% CI), p 0.35 (0.21-0.60), 0.0001 0.38 (0.21-0.67), 0.0009

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) has been identified as a protective factor for dementia, but the mechanisms linking PA to brain health are unclear. To elucidate potential pathways linking PA to brain health, we tested the hypothesis that higher levels of late-life PA are associated with a lower burden of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology, cerebrovascular disease, and neurodegeneration measured through brain imaging and plasma biomarkers. Methods: ARIC-NCS participants without dementia in 2011-13 and with measures of PA, 3T brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and stored plasma samples were examined (n=1,771; mean age: 76.5 years; 40.5% male; 27.6% Black). Participants were classified as meeting or not meeting 2018 aerobic PA guidelines based on a standardized interviewer-administered questionnaire. MRI biomarkers included white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume (cm 3 ), total brain volume (TBV) (cm 3 ), and cortical thickness (CT) (mm). Plasma biomarkers of the ratio of amyloid beta 42 to 40 (Aβ42/Aβ40), phosphorylated Tau-181 (p-Tau181), neurofilament light chain (NfL), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were measured using Quanterix Simoa immunoassays. All biomarkers were standardized to measures in 2011-13 to facilitate comparisons. Covariate-adjusted linear regression models estimated cross-sectional associations of PA with MRI or plasma biomarkers. Covariate-adjusted linear mixed effects models quantified associations of PA with the 5-year rate of change in a subset of participants with MRI (n=669) or plasma (n=651) biomarkers at both baseline and follow-up from 2011-19 (median follow-up: 5.4 years). Results: Meeting versus not meeting aerobic PA guidelines was cross-sectionally associated with lower volumes of WMH (β = -0.16, 95% CI: -0.25, -0.07), higher TBV (β = 0.09; 95% CI: 0.05, 0.13), and lower plasma NfL (β = -0.102, 95% CI: -0.184, -0.021) ( Figure ). Late-life PA was not associated with 5-year rates of change in MRI or plasma biomarkers. Conclusions: Late-life PA was cross-sectionally associated with less neurodegeneration and cerebrovascular disease. Associations with 5-year changes in imaging and plasma biomarkers of AD pathology, cerebrovascular disease, or neurodegeneration were not statistically supported. Longitudinal biomarker studies with wearable devices that quantify other daily intensity-based movement metrics (e.g., light PA) and larger sample sizes are needed to further examine mechanisms linking PA to brain health.

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) has been identified as a modifiable factor inversely associated with cognitive decline and dementia risk. However, most longitudinal studies to date have short follow-up and report inconsistent results on the benefit of PA to support brain health among older adults. In this study, we hypothesized that higher levels of PA measured in late life would be associated with slower rates of global and domain-specific cognitive decline and a lower risk of dementia over ~10 years in late life. Methods: Dementia-free participants (n=5,982; mean age: 76 years; 42% male, 23% Black) who completed the interviewer-administered Modified Baecke PA Questionnaire at ARIC visit 5 (2011-2013) were included. Using the PA component of the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7, participants’ PA levels were categorized as ideal, intermediate, or poor. Cognitive tests were administered at ARIC visits 5 (2011-13), 6 (2016-17), 7 (2018-19), 8 (2020), and 9 (2021-22), and were used to calculate factor scores for global cognitive function and the domains of memory, language, and executive function. Linear mixed models estimated the association of PA with change in cognitive function. Dementia cases were defined by adjudicated review, telephone interviews, informant interviews, hospitalization records, and death certificates. Dementia risk was estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression models. All models adjusted for age, sex, race-center, education, APOE-ε4 allele, smoking, hypertension, body mass index, and diabetes. Results: Participants with ideal or intermediate PA, compared to poor PA, had slower rates of decline in global cognition, but no significant differences in rates of decline across individual cognitive domains. Over a median follow-up of 7.8 years, participants with ideal (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.60, 0.67) or intermediate (adjusted HR = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.80, 0.91) PA had a reduced risk of dementia compared to participants with poor PA. Conclusions: Higher PA levels in late life demonstrated a protective association with long-term global cognitive decline and incident dementia. Although further research with more frequent and objective measures of PA is needed to determine the duration, frequency, and intensity of PA recommended to promote brain health in older adults, our findings suggest that promoting PA among aging populations offers a non-invasive and accessible approach to support brain health.

INTRODUCTION: The recent US Food and Drug Administration approval of resmetirom for treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis in patients necessitates patient selection for significant fibrosis or higher (≥F2). No existing vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE) algorithm targets ≥F2. METHODS: The mAchine Learning ADvanceD fibrosis and rIsk metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis Novel predictor (ALADDIN) study addressed this gap by introducing a machine-learning-based web calculator that estimates the likelihood of significant fibrosis using routine laboratory parameters with and without VCTE. Our study included a training set of 827 patients, a testing set of 504 patients with biopsy-confirmed metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease from 6 centers, and an external validation set of 1,299 patients from 9 centers. Five algorithms were compared using area under the curve (AUC) in the test set: ElasticNet, random forest, gradient boosting machines, XGBoost, and neural networks. The top 3 (random forest, gradient boosting machines, and XGBoost) formed an ensemble model. RESULTS: In the external validation set, the ALADDIN-F2-VCTE model, using routine laboratory parameters with VCTE (AUC 0.791, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.764–0.819), outperformed VCTE alone (0.745, 95% CI 0.717–0.772, P < 0.0001), FibroScan-aspartate aminotransferase (0.710, 0.679–0.748, P < 0.0001), and Agile-3 model (0.740, 0.710–0.770, P < 0.0001) regarding the AUC, decision curve analysis, and calibration. The ALADDIN-F2-Lab model, using routine laboratory parameters without VCTE, achieved an AUC of 0.706 (95% CI: 0.668–0.749) and outperformed Fibrosis-4, steatosis-associated fibrosis estimator, and LiverRisk scores. DISCUSSION: Along with the steatosis-associated fibrosis estimator model developed to target significant fibrosis or higher, ALADDIN-F2-VCTE (https://aihepatology.shinyapps.io/ALADDIN1) uniquely supports a refined noninvasive approach to patient selection for resmetirom without the need for liver biopsy. In addition, ALADDIN-F2-Lab (https://aihepatology.shinyapps.io/ALADDIN2) offers an effective alternative when VCTE is unavailable.

Emerging data supports a potential role of neurotensin (NT) in the development of obesity, obesity-associated comorbidities, and certain cancers. The association of NT with colon cancer risk has not been explicitly explored. We determined plasma levels of pro-NT, a stable NT precursor fragment, in 223 incident colon cancer patients and 223 age-, gender-, BMI-matched population controls participating in a population-based case–control study of colon cancer. On average, the cases have significantly higher levels of pro-NT than the controls (median = 205.6 pmol/L vs 183.1 pmol/L, respectively; P = 0.02). Multivariate logistic regression models, adjusted for age, gender, BMI, family history of colorectal cancer, smoking, diabetes mellitus, alcohol, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs use, show statistically significant risk associations: for continuous measure of pro-NT, the OR estimate was 1.30 (95% CI =1.03–1.64; P = 0.026) for each increment of 175 pmol/L; for dichotomized measure of pro-NT, the OR estimate was 1.75 (95% CI = 1.12–2.74; P = 0.025) for those in the top quartile comparing to the other participants. Our results support circulating levels of pro-NT as a novel risk biomarker for colon cancer.

Abstract Purpose: NOTCH signaling is associated with tumorigenesis, mutagenesis, and immune tolerance in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), indicating its association with the clinical benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). We hypothesized that NOTCH mutation in NSCLC might be a robust predictor of immunotherapeutic efficacy. Experimental Design: Multiple-dimensional data including genomic, transcriptomic, and clinical data from cohorts of NSCLC internal and public cohorts involving immunotherapeutic patients were analyzed. Polymorphism Phenotyping v2 (PolyPhen-2) system was performed to determine deleterious NOTCH mutation (del-NOTCHmut). Further investigation on molecular mechanism was performed in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data via CIBERSORT and gene set enrichment analysis. Results: Our 3DMed cohort (n = 58) and other four cohorts (Rizvi, POPLAR/OAK, Van Allen, and MSKCC; n = 1,499) uncovered marked correlation between NOTCH1/2/3 mutation and better ICI outcomes in EGFR/ALKWT population, including objective response rate (2.20-fold, P = 0.001), progression-free survival [HR, 0.61; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.46–0.81; P = 0.001], and overall survival (HR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.32–0.96; P = 0.035). Del-NOTCHmut exhibited better predictive function than non-deleterious NOTCH mutation, potentially via greater transcription of genes related to DNA damage response and immune activation. Del-NOTCHmut was not linked with prognosis in TCGA cohorts and chemotherapeutic response, but was independently associated with immunotherapeutic benefit, delineating the predictive, but not prognostic, utility of del-NOTCHmut. Conclusions: This work distinguishes del-NOTCHmut as a potential predictor to favorable ICI response in NSCLC, highlighting the importance of genomic profiling in immunotherapy. More importantly, our results unravel a possibility of personalized combination immunotherapy as adding NOTCH inhibitor to ICI regimen in NSCLC, for the optimization of ICI treatment in clinical practice.

Cells that have evolved to produce large quantities of secreted proteins to serve the integrated functions of complex multicellular organisms are equipped to compensate for protein misfolding. Hepatocytes and plasma cells have well developed chaperone and proteasome systems to ensure that secreted proteins transit the cell efficiently. The number of neurodegenerative disorders associated with protein misfolding suggests that neurons are particularly sensitive to the pathogenic effects of aggregates of misfolded molecules because those systems are less well developed in this lineage. Aggregates of the amyloidogenic (Aβ 1–42 ) peptide play a major role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), although the precise mechanism is unclear. In genetic studies examining protein–protein interactions that could constitute native mechanisms of neuroprotection in vivo , overexpression of a WT human transthyretin (TTR) transgene was ameliorative in the APP23 transgenic murine model of human AD. Targeted silencing of the endogenous TTR gene accelerated the development of the neuropathologic phenotype. Intraneuronal TTR was seen in the brains of normal humans and mice and in AD patients and APP23 mice. The APP23 brains showed colocalization of extracellular TTR with Aβ in plaques. Using surface plasmon resonance we obtained in vitro evidence of direct protein–protein interaction between TTR and Aβ aggregates. These findings suggest that TTR is protective because of its capacity to bind toxic or pretoxic Aβ aggregates in both the intracellular and extracellular environment in a chaperone-like manner. The interaction may represent a unique normal host defense mechanism, enhancement of which could be therapeutically useful.