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J. He



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    MINI 02 - Immunotherapy (ID 92)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI02.04 - Sequential Assessment of DNA Damage Response and PD-L1 Expression in Circulating Tumor Cells of Lung Cancer Patients during Radiotherapy (ID 2511)

      10:45 - 12:15  |  Author(s): J. He

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      Recent evidence suggests that PD-L1 expression can be induced with radiotherapy and may be a mechanism for resistance to radiotherapy and immunotherapy. Sequentially assessing PD-L1 expression on cancer associated cells in circulation during treatment regimens may be a way to assess the efficacy of radiotherapy and immunotherapy in clinical trials. For this feasibility study, we evaluated the association of RAD50 induction, and PD-L1 expression, on CTCs and Cancer Associated Macrophage-Like Cells (CAMLs) in lung cancer patients (pts) before and during radiotherapy to determine expression changes of these markers.

      Methods:
      Eleven pts with stage I-IV lung cancer were included in this pilot study. Three pts received Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) for stage I disease and 8 other pts received chemoradiation for stage II-IV disease. Baseline blood samples (7.5 ml) were drawn prior to the start of radiotherapy (T0) and a second blood sample was drawn at a follow up visit during radiotherapy; or for three pts, after completing SBRT (T1); for a total of 22 samples. Blood was processed using CellSieve™ microfiltration (Creatv Microtech), stained for cytokeratin 8, 18 & 19 and CD45, and imaged. Using the QUAS-R (Quench, Underivatize, Amine-Strip and Restain) technique to remove fluoresce signal, all cells were restained for RAD50-AlexaFluor550 and PD-L1-AlexaFluor 488, along with DAPI nuclear stain. The RAD50 foci numbers within nuclear regions were quantified. PD-L1 pixel intensity was measured by the ZenBlue software and grouped into 4 IHC groups: 0-negative (pixel average 0-215), 1-low (pixel average 216-300), 2-medium (pixel average 301-750), and 3-high (pixel average 751+).

      Results:
      There was at least one cytokeratin positive cell (i.e. CTC or CAMLs) found in each of the samples. Specifically CTCs were found in 82% of T0 and 64% of T1 samples, and CAMLs were found in 91% of T0 and 100% of T1 samples. RAD50 foci ranged from 0-16 per cell, with an average of 0.69 at T0 that increased to 3.46 at T1 (p=0.002) during radiotherapy. Distinctively, there were 6 pts with greater than 2 fold RAD50 foci increase at T1 and 5 pts with ≤ 2 fold induction. PD-L1 expression ranged from 34-2004 pixel intensity, with an average of 170 at T0 and 336 at T1 (p=0.08). Interestingly, 4 pts had no PD-L1 expression at T0 but an increase to 2 to 3+ at T1, 4 pts with low/no PD-L1 expression remained low at T1, and 3 pts had high PD-L1 expression that remained high or decreased at T1. There was no correlation between RAD50 induction and PD-L1 expression.

      Conclusion:
      Both RAD50 foci and PD-L1 expression were quantifiable in both CTCs and CAMLs, and had variable responses to radiotherapy +/- chemotherapy. These data suggest that sequential tracking of CTCs or immune-related cells from the primary lung tumor is feasible using microfiltration and potentially can serve as predictive biomarkers for cancer therapy.

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    MINI 07 - ChemoRT and Translational Science (ID 110)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Treatment of Locoregional Disease – NSCLC
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI07.04 - Dynamic Changes in Cell-Free Circulating Tumor DNA to Track Tumor Response and Risk of Recurrence in Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (ID 2499)

      16:45 - 18:15  |  Author(s): J. He

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      While the curative management of unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is definitive chemoradiotherapy, clinical outcomes remain poor. Cellular heterogeneity in tumors is correlated with therapeutic resistance and poor prognosis. We hypothesize that tumor-specific mutant allelic frequency in cell-free DNA from plasma quantifies tumor heterogeneity and that tracking allelic evolution via blood from patients during and after treatment can serve as a non-invasive means to monitor treatment response and recurrence.

      Methods:
      Between 2009-2013, 156 patients with unresectable NSCLC who received definitive radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy were consented to have blood drawn at baseline before starting radiotherapy, once or twice during treatment, and once or twice during follow up visits. Cell-free plasma DNA was sequenced using a cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) next generation sequencing (NGS) assay (Guardant360) that uses digital sequencing to report single nucleotide variants (SNVs) in 68 genes and amplifications in 16 genes. This ctDNA assay has high sensitivity (detects 85%+ of the SNVs detected in tissue in advanced cancer patients) and analytic specificity (>99.9999%). Over 670 serial samples were collected from these patients. Here we report the initial analysis of the first 26 patients of this ongoing study.

      Results:
      Among this initial cohort, 23 (88%) had a recurrence (PFS ranged from 1.2 – 27.9 months) and three (12%) had no evidence of recurrence as of last contact (32.8 – 42.8 months post-radiotherapy completion). Twenty-one patients (81%) had ctDNA alterations present pre-radiotherapy, of which six had a classic driver mutation: KRAS G12F x2; KRAS G12S; PIK3CA E545K x2; PIK3CA H1047R. These six patients had significantly shorter PFS compared to patients without a driver mutation present pre-radiotherapy: average PFS of 4.2 months (1.2 - 8.3) vs. 18.6 months (4.4 - 42.8) respectively (p=0.002). All six had the driver mutation disappear during radiotherapy, four had new alterations appear during and/or post-treatment. One patient had the driver mutation reappear in ctDNA post-radiotherapy and had the shortest PFS (1.2 months) of all patients. Ten patients (38%) had no ctDNA alterations present in the post-radiotherapy blood sample and a trend was observed of improved PFS among patients without ctDNA alterations post-treatment (average PFS 52.3 vs. 75.5 months respectively) however this was not statistically significant (p=0.1). Of note, the three patients without evidence of recurrence as of last contact had no ctDNA alterations identified in the post-treatment sample. This trend is anticipated to become significant with larger sample size.

      Conclusion:
      In this interim analysis, we found that the dynamic alterations of specific mutant alleles strongly correlated with clinical response and that persistence of ctDNA mutant allele concentrations post-definitive treatment is likely a marker of early metastatic recurrence. Undetectable ctDNA in post-treatment sample was seen in the three patients with approximately three years of PFS. These initial results suggest that serial ctDNA analysis may be useful to monitor treatment response and identify patients at high risk for early recurrence who may benefit from additional systemic therapy.

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