Browsing by Author "Zhang, Tian"
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Item Open Access A randomized phase 2 trial of pembrolizumab versus pembrolizumab and acalabrutinib in patients with platinum-resistant metastatic urothelial cancer.(Cancer, 2020-08-05) Zhang, Tian; Harrison, Michael R; O'Donnell, Peter H; Alva, Ajjai S; Hahn, Noah M; Appleman, Leonard J; Cetnar, Jeremy; Burke, John M; Fleming, Mark T; Milowsky, Matthew I; Mortazavi, Amir; Shore, Neal; Sonpavde, Guru P; Schmidt, Emmett V; Bitman, Bojena; Munugalavadla, Veerendra; Izumi, Raquel; Patel, Priti; Staats, Janet; Chan, Cliburn; Weinhold, Kent J; George, Daniel JBACKGROUND:Inhibition of the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) pathway has demonstrated clinical benefit in metastatic urothelial cancer (mUC); however, response rates of 15% to 26% highlight the need for more effective therapies. Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibition may suppress myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and improve T-cell activation. METHODS:The Randomized Phase 2 Trial of Acalabrutinib and Pembrolizumab Immunotherapy Dual Checkpoint Inhibition in Platinum-Resistant Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma (RAPID CHECK; also known as ACE-ST-005) was a randomized phase 2 trial evaluating the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab with or without the BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib for patients with platinum-refractory mUC. The primary objectives were safety and objective response rates (ORRs) according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, version 1.1. Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Immune profiling was performed to analyze circulating monocytic MDSCs and T cells. RESULTS:Seventy-five patients were treated with pembrolizumab (n = 35) or pembrolizumab plus acalabrutinib (n = 40). The ORR was 26% with pembrolizumab (9% with a complete response [CR]) and 20% with pembrolizumab plus acalabrutinib (10% with a CR). The grade 3/4 adverse events (AEs) that occurred in ≥15% of the patients were anemia (20%) with pembrolizumab and fatigue (23%), increased alanine aminotransferase (23%), urinary tract infections (18%), and anemia (18%) with pembrolizumab plus acalabrutinib. One patient treated with pembrolizumab plus acalabrutinib had high MDSCs at the baseline, which significantly decreased at week 7. Overall, MDSCs were not correlated with a clinical response, but some subsets of CD8+ T cells did increase during the combination treatment. CONCLUSIONS:Both treatments were generally well tolerated, although serious AE rates were higher with the combination. Acalabrutinib plus pembrolizumab did not improve the ORR, PFS, or OS in comparison with pembrolizumab alone in mUC. Baseline and on-treatment peripheral monocytic MDSCs were not different in the treatment cohorts. Proliferating CD8+ T-cell subsets increased during treatment, particularly in the combination cohort. Ongoing studies are correlating these peripheral immunome findings with tissue-based immune cell infiltration.Item Open Access Acute Myeloid Leukemia After Olaparib Treatment in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer.(Clinical genitourinary cancer, 2017-12) Zhu, Jason; Tucker, Matthew; Wang, Endi; Grossman, Joel S; Armstrong, Andrew J; George, Daniel J; Zhang, TianItem Open Access Biomarkers of immunotherapy in urothelial and renal cell carcinoma: PD-L1, tumor mutational burden, and beyond.(J Immunother Cancer, 2018-01-25) Zhu, Jason; Armstrong, Andrew J; Friedlander, Terence W; Kim, Won; Pal, Sumanta K; George, Daniel J; Zhang, TianImmune checkpoint inhibitors targeting the PD-1 pathway have greatly changed clinical management of metastatic urothelial carcinoma and metastatic renal cell carcinoma. However, response rates are low, and biomarkers are needed to predict for treatment response. Immunohistochemical quantification of PD-L1 was developed as a promising biomarker in early clinical trials, but many shortcomings of the four different assays (different antibodies, disparate cellular populations, and different thresholds of positivity) have limited its clinical utility. Further limitations include the use of archival specimens to measure this dynamic biomarker. Indeed, until PD-L1 testing is standardized and can consistently predict treatment outcome, the currently available PD-L1 assays are not clinically useful in urothelial and renal cell carcinoma. Other more promising biomarkers include tumor mutational burden, profiles of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, molecular subtypes, and PD-L2. Potentially, a composite biomarker may be best but will need prospective testing to validate such a biomarker.Item Open Access Clinical activity of nivolumab in patients with non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma.(Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 2018-01-29) Koshkin, Vadim S; Barata, Pedro C; Zhang, Tian; George, Daniel J; Atkins, Michael B; Kelly, William J; Vogelzang, Nicholas J; Pal, Sumanta K; Hsu, JoAnn; Appleman, Leonard J; Ornstein, Moshe C; Gilligan, Timothy; Grivas, Petros; Garcia, Jorge A; Rini, Brian INivolumab is approved for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) refractory to prior antiangiogenic therapy. The clinical activity of nivolumab in patients with non-clear cell RCC subtypes remains unknown as these patients were excluded from the original nivolumab trials.Patients from 6 centers in the United States who received at least one dose of nivolumab for non-clear cell mRCC between 12/2015 and 06/2017 were identified. A retrospective analysis including patient characteristics, objective response rate according to RECIST v1.1 and treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) was undertaken.Forty-one patients were identified. Median age was 58 years (33-82), 71% were male, and majority had ECOG PS 0 (40%) or 1 (47%). Histology included 16 papillary, 14 unclassified, 5 chromophobe, 4 collecting duct, 1 Xp11 translocation and 1 MTSCC (mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma). Among 35 patients who were evaluable for best response, 7 (20%) had PR and 10 (29%) had SD. Responses were observed in unclassified, papillary and collecting duct subtypes. In the entire cohort, median follow-up was 8.5 months and median treatment duration was 3.0 months. Median PFS was 3.5 months and median OS was not reached. Among responders, median time to best response was 5.1 months, and median duration of response was not reached as only 2 out of 7 responders had disease progression during follow-up. TRAEs of any grade were noted in 37% and most commonly included fatigue (12%), fever (10%) and rash (10%). Nivolumab treatments were postponed in 34% and discontinued in 15% of patients due to intolerance. No treatment-related deaths were observed.Nivolumab monotherapy demonstrated objective responses and was well tolerated in a heterogeneous population of patients with non-clear cell mRCC. In the absence of other data in this treatment setting, this study lends support to the use of nivolumab for patients with metastatic non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma.Item Open Access Development of a Novel c-MET-Based CTC Detection Platform.(Mol Cancer Res, 2016-06) Zhang, Tian; Boominathan, Rengasamy; Foulk, Brad; Rao, Chandra; Kemeny, Gabor; Strickler, John H; Abbruzzese, James L; Harrison, Michael R; Hsu, David S; Healy, Patrick; Li, Jing; Pi, Cinthia; Prendergast, Katherine M; Hobbs, Carey; Gemberling, Sarah; George, Daniel J; Hurwitz, Herbert I; Connelly, Mark; Garcia-Blanco, Mariano A; Armstrong, Andrew JUNLABELLED: Amplification of the MET oncogene is associated with poor prognosis, metastatic dissemination, and drug resistance in many malignancies. We developed a method to capture and characterize circulating tumor cells (CTC) expressing c-MET using a ferromagnetic antibody. Immunofluorescence was used to characterize cells for c-MET, DAPI, and pan-CK, excluding CD45(+) leukocytes. The assay was validated using appropriate cell line controls spiked into peripheral blood collected from healthy volunteers (HV). In addition, peripheral blood was analyzed from patients with metastatic gastric, pancreatic, colorectal, bladder, renal, or prostate cancers. CTCs captured by c-MET were enumerated, and DNA FISH for MET amplification was performed. The approach was highly sensitive (80%) for MET-amplified cells, sensitive (40%-80%) for c-MET-overexpressed cells, and specific (100%) for both c-MET-negative cells and in 20 HVs. Of 52 patients with metastatic carcinomas tested, c-MET CTCs were captured in replicate samples from 3 patients [gastric, colorectal, and renal cell carcinoma (RCC)] with 6% prevalence. CTC FISH demonstrated that MET amplification in both gastric and colorectal cancer patients and trisomy 7 with gain of MET gene copies in the RCC patient. The c-MET CTC assay is a rapid, noninvasive, sensitive, and specific method for detecting MET-amplified tumor cells. CTCs with MET amplification can be detected in patients with gastric, colorectal, and renal cancers. IMPLICATIONS: This study developed a novel c-MET CTC assay for detecting c-MET CTCs in patients with MET amplification and warrants further investigation to determine its clinical applicability. Mol Cancer Res; 14(6); 539-47. ©2016 AACR.Item Open Access Docetaxel Resistance in Prostate Cancer: Taking It Up a Notch.(Clin Cancer Res, 2015-10-15) Zhang, Tian; Armstrong, Andrew JNotch signaling is implicated in prostate cancer progression and docetaxel resistance. Cui and colleagues describe the additive efficacy and mechanisms of a γ-secretase inhibitor, PF-03084014, and docetaxel in preclinical models of prostate cancer, suggesting the need for further clinical development of Notch pathway modulators in men with metastatic prostate cancer.Item Open Access Evaluation of tumor microenvironment and biomarkers of immune checkpoint inhibitor response in metastatic renal cell carcinoma.(Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 2022-10) Brown, Landon C; Zhu, Jason; Desai, Kunal; Kinsey, Emily; Kao, Chester; Lee, Yong Hee; Pabla, Sarabjot; Labriola, Matthew K; Tran, Jennifer; Dragnev, Konstantin H; Tafe, Laura J; Dayyani, Farshid; Gupta, Rajan T; McCall, Shannon; George, Daniel J; Glenn, Sean T; Nesline, Mary K; George, Saby; Zibelman, Matthew; Morrison, Carl; Ornstein, Moshe C; Zhang, TianBackground
Immunotherapy combinations including ipilimumab and nivolumab are now the standard of care for untreated metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Biomarkers of response are lacking to predict patients who will have a favorable or unfavorable response to immunotherapy. This study aimed to use the OmniSeq transcriptome-based platform to develop biomarkers of response to immunotherapy.Methods
Two cohorts of patients were retrospectively collected. These included an investigational cohort of patients with mRCC treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy from five institutions, and a subsequent validation cohort of patients with mRCC treated with combination ipilimumab and nivolumab from two institutions (Duke Cancer Institute and Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center). Tissue-based RNA sequencing was performed using the OmniSeq Immune Report Card on banked specimens to identify gene signatures and immune checkpoints associated with differential clinical outcomes. A 5-gene expression panel was developed based on the investigational cohort and was subsequently evaluated in the validation cohort. Clinical outcomes including progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were extracted by retrospective chart review. Objective response rate (ORR) was assessed by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) V.1.1.Results
The initial investigation cohort identified 86 patients with mRCC who received nivolumab (80%, 69/86), ipilimumab/nivolumab (14%, 12/86), or pembrolizumab (6%, 5/86). A gene expression score was created using the top five genes found in responders versus non-responders (FOXP3, CCR4, KLRK1, ITK, TIGIT). The ORR in patients with high gene expression (GEhigh) on the 5-gene panel was 29% (14/48), compared with low gene expression (GElow) 3% (1/38, χ2 p=0.001). The validation cohort was comprised of 62 patients who received ipilimumab/nivolumab. There was no difference between GEhigh and GElow in terms of ORR (44% vs 38.5%), PFS (HR 1.5, 95% CI 0.58 to 3.89), or OS (HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.51 to 1.83). Similarly, no differences in ORR, PFS or OS were observed when patients were stratified by tumor mutational burden (high=top 20%), PD-L1 (programmed death-ligand 1) expression by immunohistochemistry or RNA expression, or CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocytes-associated protein 4) RNA expression. The International Metastatic RCC Database Consortium (IMDC) risk score was prognostic for OS but not PFS.Conclusion
A 5-gene panel that was associated with improved ORR in a predominantly nivolumab monotherapy population of patients with mRCC was not predictive for radiographic response, PFS, or OS among patients with mRCC treated with ipilimumab and nivolumab.Item Open Access LRP1B mutations are associated with favorable outcomes to immune checkpoint inhibitors across multiple cancer types.(Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 2021-03) Brown, Landon C; Tucker, Matthew D; Sedhom, Ramy; Schwartz, Eric B; Zhu, Jason; Kao, Chester; Labriola, Matthew K; Gupta, Rajan T; Marin, Daniele; Wu, Yuan; Gupta, Santosh; Zhang, Tian; Harrison, Michael R; George, Daniel J; Alva, Ajjai; Antonarakis, Emmanuel S; Armstrong, Andrew JBackground
Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1b (encoded by LRP1B) is a putative tumor suppressor, and preliminary evidence suggests LRP1B-mutated cancers may have improved outcomes with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI).Methods
We conducted a multicenter, retrospective pan-cancer analysis of patients with LRP1B alterations treated with ICI at Duke University, Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and University of Michigan (UM). The primary objective was to assess the association between overall response rate (ORR) to ICI and pathogenic or likely pathogenic (P/LP) LRP1B alterations compared with LRP1B variants of unknown significance (VUS). Secondary outcomes were the associations with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) by LRP1B status.Results
We identified 101 patients (44 Duke, 35 JHU, 22 UM) with LRP1B alterations who were treated with ICI. The most common tumor types by alteration (P/LP vs VUS%) were lung (36% vs 49%), prostate (9% vs 7%), sarcoma (5% vs 7%), melanoma (9% vs 0%) and breast cancer (3% vs 7%). The ORR for patients with LRP1B P/LP versus VUS alterations was 54% and 13%, respectively (OR 7.5, 95% CI 2.9 to 22.3, p=0.0009). P/LP LRP1B alterations were associated with longer PFS (HR 0.42, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.68, p=0.0003) and OS (HR 0.62, 95% CI 0.39 to 1.01, p=0.053). These results remained consistent when excluding patients harboring microsatellite instability (MSI) and controlling for tumor mutational burden (TMB).Conclusions
This multicenter study shows significantly better outcomes with ICI therapy in patients harboring P/LP versus VUS LRP1B alterations, independently of TMB/MSI status. Further mechanistic and prospective validation studies are warranted.Item Open Access Snail promotes resistance to enzalutamide through regulation of androgen receptor activity in prostate cancer.(Oncotarget, 2016-08-02) Ware, Kathryn E; Somarelli, Jason A; Schaeffer, Daneen; Li, Jing; Zhang, Tian; Park, Sally; Patierno, Steven R; Freedman, Jennifer; Foo, Wen-Chi; Garcia-Blanco, Mariano A; Armstrong, Andrew JTreatment with androgen-targeted therapies can induce upregulation of epithelial plasticity pathways. Epithelial plasticity is known to be important for metastatic dissemination and therapeutic resistance. The goal of this study is to elucidate the functional consequence of induced epithelial plasticity on AR regulation during disease progression to identify factors important for treatment-resistant and metastatic prostate cancer. We pinpoint the epithelial plasticity transcription factor, Snail, at the nexus of enzalutamide resistance and prostate cancer metastasis both in preclinical models of prostate cancer and in patients. In patients, Snail expression is associated with Gleason 9-10 high-risk disease and is strongly overexpressed in metastases as compared to localized prostate cancer. Snail expression is also elevated in enzalutamide-resistant prostate cancer cells compared to enzalutamide-sensitive cells, and downregulation of Snail re-sensitizes enzalutamide-resistant cells to enzalutamide. While activation of Snail increases migration and invasion, it is also capable of promoting enzalutamide resistance in enzalutamide-sensitive cells. This Snail-mediated enzalutamide resistance is a consequence of increased full-length AR and AR-V7 expression and nuclear localization. Downregulation of either full-length AR or AR-V7 re-sensitizes cells to enzalutamide in the presence of Snail, thus connecting Snail-induced enzalutamide resistance directly to AR biology. Finally, we demonstrate that Snail is capable of mediating-resistance through AR even in the absence of AR-V7. These findings imply that increased Snail expression during progression to metastatic disease may prime cells for resistance to AR-targeted therapies by promoting AR activity in prostate cancer.Item Open Access Standardizing and Evaluating Transitions of Care in the Era of Duty Hour Reform: One Institution's Resident-Led Effort.(Journal of graduate medical education, 2013-12) Boggan, Joel C; Zhang, Tian; Derienzo, Chris; Frush, Karen; Andolsek, KathrynBACKGROUND: Compliance with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education duty hour standards may necessitate more frequent transitions of patient responsibility. INTERVENTION: We created a multidisciplinary Patient Safety and Quality Council with a Task Force on Handoffs (TFH), engaging residents at a large, university-based institution. METHODS: The TFH identified core content of effective handoffs and patterned institutional content on the SIGNOUTT mnemonic. A web-based module highlighting core content was developed for institutional orientation of all trainees beginning summer 2011 to standardize handoff education. The TFH distributed handoff material and catalogued additional program initiatives in teaching and evaluating handoffs. A standard handoff evaluation tool, assessing content, culture, and communication, was developed and "preloaded" into the institution-wide electronic evaluation system to standardize evaluation. The TFH developed questions pertaining to handoffs for an annual institutional survey in 2011 and 2012. Acceptability of efforts was measured by program participation, and feasibility was measured by estimating time and financial costs. RESULTS: Programs found the TFH's efforts to improve handoffs acceptable; to date, 13 program-specific teaching initiatives have been implemented, and the evaluation tool is being used by 5 programs. Time requirements for TFH participants average 2 to 3 h/mo, and financial costs are minimal. More residents reported having education on handoffs (58% [388 of 668] versus 42% [263 of 625], P < .001) and receiving adequate signouts (69% [469 of 680] versus 61% [384 of 625], P = .004) in the 2012 survey, compared with 2011. CONCLUSIONS: Use of a multispecialty resident leadership group to address content, education, and evaluation of handoffs was feasible and acceptable to most programs at a large, university-based institution.