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Abstract: Background: Programmed cell death 1/programmed death ligand 1 (PD-1/PD-L1) immune-checkpoint blockade is a promising new therapeutic strategy in cancer. However, expression patterns and prognostic significance of PD-L1 and PD-1 are still controversial in human malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Methods: Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor samples from 203 MPM patients receiving standard treatment without immunotherapy were collected from 5 European centers. PD-L1 and PD-1 expression of tumor cells (TCs) and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were measured by immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinical parameters and long-term outcome. Results: High (>10%) PD-L1 TC and PD-1 TILs expressions were found in 18 (8%) and 39 (24%) patients, respectively. PD-L1 was rarely expressed by TILs [>/=1%, n=13 (8%); >10%, n=1]. No significant associations were found between the PD-L1 or PD-1 expression of TCs or TILs and clinicopathological parameters such as stage or histological subtype. Notably, patients with high (>10%) TC-specific PD-L1 expression exhibited significantly worse median overall survival (OS) (6.3 vs. 15.1 months of those with low TC PD-L1 expression; HR: 2.51, P<0.001). In multivariate cox regression analysis adjusted for clinical parameters, high TC PD-L1 expression (>10%) proved to be an independent negative prognostic factor for OS (HR: 2.486, P=0.005). There was no significant correlation between PD-L1 or PD-1 expression of TILs and OS. Conclusions: In this multicenter cohort study, we demonstrate that high (>10%) PD-L1 expression of TCs independently predicts worse OS in MPM. Further studies are warranted to investigate the value of PD-L1/PD-1 expression as a marker for treatment response in MPM patients receiving immunotherapy.
Keywords: mesothelioma - anatomy and histology - analysis, 1malignant pleural mesothelioma, programmed death-ligand 1, programmed cell death 1, PD-L1
Published in DiRROS: 31.03.2021; Views: 1234; Downloads: 529
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Abstract: Asthma is a common chronic disease, with different underlying inflammatory mechanisms. Identification of asthma endotypes, which reflect a variable response to different treatments, is important for more precise asthma management. T2 asthma is characterized by airway inflammation driven by T2 cytokines including interleukins IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13. This study aimed to determine whether induced sputum samples can be used for gene expression profiling of T2-high asthma classified by IL4, IL5, and IL13 expression. Induced sputum samples were obtained from 44 subjects, among them 36 asthmatic patients and eight controls, and mRNA expression levels of IL4, IL5, and IL13 were quantified by RT-qPCR. Overall, gene expression levels of IL4, IL5, and IL13 were significantly increased in asthmatic patients' samples compared to controls and there was a high positive correlation between expressions of all three genes. T2 gene mean was calculated by combining the expression levels of all three genes (IL4, IL5, and IL13) and according to T2 gene mean expression in controls, we set a T2-high/T2-low cutoff value. Twenty-four (67%) asthmatic patients had T2-high endotype and those patients had significantly higher eosinophil blood and sputum counts. Furthermore, T2-high endotype was characterized as a more severe, difficult-to-treat asthma, and often uncontrolled despite the use of inhaled and/or oral corticosteroids. Therefore, the majority of those patients (15 [63%] of 24) needed adjunct biological therapy to control their asthma symptoms/exacerbations. In conclusion, we found that interleukins IL4, IL5, and IL13 transcripts could be effectively detected in sputum from asthmatic patients. Implementation of T2 gene mean can be used as sputum molecular biomarker to categorize patients into T2-high endotype, characterized by eosinophilia and severe, difficult-to-treat asthma, and often with a need for biological treatment.
Keywords: asthma, gene expression, interleukin-4, interleukin-5, interleukin-13, severe asthma, endotype, IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, biologic treatment
Published in DiRROS: 02.02.2021; Views: 1288; Downloads: 855
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Abstract: The standard treatment for inoperable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA NSCLC) includes concurrent or sequential chemotherapy (ChT) and radiation therapy (RT). Long term survival rates with these approaches remains only in the order of 15%, therefore new treatment strategies, including immunotherapy, are under investigation, with programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) as one of the major players. We evaluated the clinical significance of PD-L1 expression in tumor samples from patients with inoperable LA NSCLC who underwent concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) in our institution between 2005 and 2010 and correlated their expression with clinicopathological parameters and outcome of treatment. Among 107 patients treated with concurrent CRT, a total of 43 (36 males and 7 females) had sufficient tissue for immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. The expression of PD-L1 was demonstrated in 7 tumors, in 6 males and 1 female. No statistical significant differences in patient characteristics, including age, smoking status and gender, were found according to the PD-L1 expression. After a median follow up of 103.6 months, median progression free survival (PFS) was 19.9 months in patients without and 10.1 months in patients with PD-L1 expression (p=0.008). Median overall survival (OS) was 28.4 and 12.1 months for PD-L1 negative and PD-L1 positive patients, respectively (p=0.012). In conclusions, patients with PD-L1 expression had shorter PFS and OS after concurrent CRT in LA NSCLC. Unfortunately, only small number of patients had tissue available for the IHC testing, therefore no firm conclusions could be made and further investigation is warranted.
Keywords: non-small cell lung cancer, lung cancer, chemoradiotherapy, survival
Published in DiRROS: 17.12.2020; Views: 1324; Downloads: 417
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Abstract: Context. Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare tumor with poor prognosis. Several studies have analyzed potential prognostic markers, but histologic type remains the single most important prognostic factor. Histologic subtypes of epithelioid MPM seem to have prognostic and therapeutic implications. Interobserver agreement in histologic pattern classification should be high. Objective. To assess interobserver and intraobserver reproducibility in histologic differentiation between the main types of MPMs, and in further subtyping of epithelioid-type mesothelioma. Design. One representative hematoxylin-eosin-stained slide was selected from the archive for each of 200 patients with MPM. They were reviewed independently by 3 pathologists and classified according to the current World Health Organization classification of pleural tumors. After the first round of evaluations, a consensus meeting was organized where problems were addressed and representative images for each histologic category were selected. Two months later, cases were reevaluated by all 3 pathologists. Results. After the first round, overall interobserver agreement for histologic subtyping of mesothelioma was fair (k, 0.36). The agreement was increased to substantial (k, 0.63) in the second round. Improvement was found in interobserver agreement for all types of MPM, and for most epithelioid subtypes. Conclusions. Moderate to substantial agreement in histologic typing and subtyping of MPM can be achieved. However, training with additional clarification of diagnostic criteria, their strict application, and help from consensus-based illustrative images is needed.
Keywords: connective and soft tissue neoplasms -- pathology, malignant pleural mesothelioma, histopathology
Published in DiRROS: 30.11.2020; Views: 5895; Downloads: 440
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Abstract: Molecular testing of EGFR is required to predict the response likelihood to targeted therapy in non-small cell lung cancer. Analysis of circulating tumor DNA in plasma may complement limitations of tumor tissue. This study evaluated the interlaboratory performance and reproducibility of a real-time PCR EGFR mutation test (cobas EGFR Mutation Test v2) to detect EGFR variants in plasma. Fourteen laboratories received two identical panels of 27 single-blinded plasma samples. Samples were wild type or spiked with plasmid DNA to contain seven common EGFR variants at six predefined concentrations from 50 to 5000 copies per milliliter. The circulating tumor DNA was extracted by a cell-free circulating DNA sample preparation kit (cobas cfDNA Sample Preparation Kit), followed by duplicate analysis with the real-time PCR EGFR mutation test (Roche Molecular Systems, Pleasanton, CA). Lowest sensitivities were obtained for the c.2156G>C p.(Gly719Ala) and c.2573T>G p.(Leu858Arg) variants for the lowest target copies. For all other variants, sensitivities varied between 96.3% and 100.0%. All specificities were 98.8% to 100.0%. Coefficients of variation indicated good intralaboratory and interlaboratory repeatability and reproducibility but increased for decreasing concentrations. Prediction models revealed a significant correlation for all variants between the predefined copy number and the observed semiquantitative index values, which reflect the samples' plasma mutation load. This study demonstrates an overall robust performance of the real-time PCR EGFR mutation test kit in plasma. Prediction models may be applied to estimate the plasma mutation load for diagnostic or research purposes.
Keywords: non-small cell lung cancer, plasma, EGFR, molecular testing
Published in DiRROS: 23.11.2020; Views: 1350; Downloads: 265
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