Virtual Library

Start Your Search

R. Stahel



Author of

  • +

    ORAL 14 - Biology 2 (ID 112)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Oral Session
    • Track: Thymoma, Mesothelioma and Other Thoracic Malignancies
    • Presentations: 1
    • +

      ORAL14.05 - Intracavitary Cisplatin-Fibrin After Resection of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (ID 1165)

      17:28 - 17:39  |  Author(s): R. Stahel

      • Abstract
      • Slides

      Background:
      Local tumor recurrence is very frequent after resection of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Intracavitary chemotherapy has been shown to be a promising approach to improve local tumor control. Here, we present the results of a phase-I-dose-escalation trial with intracavitary application of cisplatin-fibrin after surgical tumor resection.

      Methods:
      Altogether 12 patients (75% IMIG stage III-IV) were treated with 4 different dose levels of cisplatin (11, 22, 33 and 44mg/m[2] body surface area (BSA)). Eight patients of 22, 33 and 44mg/m[2] groups received previous induction treatment with intravenous cisplatin/pemetrexed. Cisplatin-fibrin was sprayed on the surface of chest wall, diaphragm, mediastinum and lung after pleurectomy/decortication (P/D). Blood was taken before surgery and at several time points after the treatment. Tissue sampling was conducted before and at 90 minutes after the administration. Cisplatin levels were measured by inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry.

      Results:
      Serum cisplatin kinetics and AUC0-120 are depicted in figure 1. Induction intravenous chemotherapy contributed to >50% of total serum cisplatin levels compared to cisplatin-fibrin (figure 1B). The median AUC0-24 of the 3 patients in the highest dose level (44mg/m[2]BSA) including predoses from induction chemotherapy reached 23h*µg/g, which is still below the suggested renal toxicity risk level, 25h*µg/g (Royer 2008). Our serum cisplatin AUC levels stayed far below levels reported after intrapleural perfusion (approx. 89h*µg/g (Ried 2013)). Local cisplatin concentration in tissues varied from 12-133 (median: 36.5µg/g) and did not seem to be dose dependent. No dose limiting toxicity due to cisplatin was observed. Major morbidity was observed in 4 patients (33%). 30day- and 90day-mortality was 0%. The median follow up after surgery was 11 months (range: 5-28 months). In 8 patients receiving 11, 22, 33 mg/m[2]BSA, relapse was detected after a median freedom from recurrence (FFR) of 8 months (95% confidence interval (CI): 1-14 months). In three patients with early IMIG stage (I and II), no sign of relapse was observed at 28, 8 and 6 months after the treatment (11, 44, 44 mg/m[2]BSA, respectively). The last patient (44mg/m[2]BSA) with IMIG stage III tumor currently shows no sign of recurrence at 5 months after surgery. Figure 1



      Conclusion:
      The administration of intracavitary cisplatin-fibrin as high as 44mg/m[2]BSA is safe after P/D, also in combination with induction chemotherapy. Tissue cisplatin concentration was high whereas no dose limiting toxicity due to systemic distribution was detected. A confirmation of the safety and efficacy of the highest dosage, 44 mg/m[2]BSA, in a phase II trial is warranted.

      Only Active Members that have purchased this event or have registered via an access code will be able to view this content. To view this presentation, please login or select "Add to Cart" and proceed to checkout.

  • +

    ORAL 40 - Biology 1 (ID 154)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Oral Session
    • Track: Thymoma, Mesothelioma and Other Thoracic Malignancies
    • Presentations: 1
    • +

      ORAL40.06 - Sarcomatoid Differentiation During Progression of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (ID 1161)

      17:39 - 17:50  |  Author(s): R. Stahel

      • Abstract
      • Slides

      Background:
      Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a highly aggressive tumour with a high local recurrence rate and often a poor prognosis despite multimodal treatment. We evaluated the prognostic impact of morphological and immunohistochemical changes in sequential biopsies obtained from patients with MPM during disease progression.

      Methods:
      Tissue microarrays were constructed from paraffin-embedded tissue samples of 36 MPM patients (26 epithelioid, 6 biphasic and 4 sarcomatoid) taken before induction-chemotherapy, during surgery and at the time point of tumour recurrence. Immunohistochemical staining for calretinin, cytokeratin 5/6 (CK5/6) and Wilm’s tumor-1 (WT-1) as well as the biomarkers mesothelin, osteopontin, and fibulin-3 was performed, and staining intensity and percentage of positively stained tumour cells scored semi-quantitatively. The results were correlated with clinico-pathological characteristics of the patients including overall survival (OS). To determine the prognostic value of the markers at the different time points, a multivariate analysis including all factors that were significant in univariate analysis was performed.

      Results:
      In 28% of patients with epithelioid or biphasic MPM, a transition towards biphasic or sarcomatoid growth pattern during disease progression was observed (Figure 1). This dedifferentiation was associated with significantly decreased immunoreactivity for WT-1 (p=0.03), calretinin (p=0.005), mesothelin (p=0.01) as well as a shorter OS (p=0.04). Figure 1 Overall, patients with epithelioid or biphasic MPM in the diagnostic biopsy had a significantly better OS (29 months; 95% confidence interval (CI): range 27-32 months) in comparison to patients with sarcomatoid MPM (5 months; 95% CI: 3-7 months) (p<0.0005). On multivariate analysis, male gender (p=0.04) and high fibulin-3 (p=0.02) in the pre-chemotherapy samples were found to be associated independently with shorter OS.



      Conclusion:
      In patients with epithelioid or biphasic MPM, high fibulin-3 expression in pretreatment samples and gender are independent predictors of shorter OS. In up to one third of patients disease progression is accompanied by sarcomatoid differentiation, suggesting that factors such as molecular alterations involved in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) are contributing to disease course and clinical outcome. Alternatively, induction chemotherapy might contribute to this transition by promoting selection and outgrowth of therapy resistant tumor cells. Eventually, the different tumor biology of this subgroup of patients may be taken into account for the consideration of alternative patient handling.

      Only Active Members that have purchased this event or have registered via an access code will be able to view this content. To view this presentation, please login or select "Add to Cart" and proceed to checkout.

  • +

    P3.04 - Poster Session/ Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing (ID 235)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Poster
    • Track: Biology, Pathology, and Molecular Testing
    • Presentations: 1
    • +

      P3.04-009 - Evaluation of RT-PCR Methodology for ALK Assessment in Patients with NSCLC in Europe: Results from the ETOP Lungscape Project (ID 1506)

      09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): R. Stahel

      • Abstract
      • Slides

      Background:
      ALK rearrangement is documented in 2%-7% of NSCLC, depending on the population studied and detection method used. Although the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was the first used and published method, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has become the primary standard diagnostic method. Recently, immunohistochemistry (IHC) has also proven to be a reproducible, faster and sensitive technique. This is one of the first studies concurrently comparing all three techniques in resected lung adenocarcinomas from the large ETOP Lungscape cohort.

      Methods:
      95 cases from the ETOP Lungscape iBiobank, selected based on any degree of IHC staining (clone 5A4 antibody, Novocastra, UK), were examined by ALK FISH (Abbott Molecular, Inc.; Blackhall, JCO 2014) and central RT-PCR. For the latter, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) unstained slides were collected from participating centers. Slides were de-paraffinized, Toluidine Blue stained, and tumors macro-dissected. Tissue digestion and RNA extraction were performed (Qiagen RNeasy FFPE Kit). Using primers described in the literature covering most of ALK known translocations, RT-PCR (Superscript One-Step RT-PCR with Platinum Taq – 40 loops) was performed, followed by capillary electrophoresis in two separate mixes. Co-amplification of B-actin was done to validate the procedure and RNA quality. All tests were duplicated.

      Results:
      76 of 95 RT-PCR had adequate RNA quality (B-actin co-amplification present). Among these, 18 were FISH positive, 16 were RT-PCR positive, including EML4-ALK V3a/b in 7, V1 in 5, V2 in one, and undetermined variants in 3 cases. 53 of 54 FISH negative cases were also RT-PCR negative (98%). 15 of 18 FISH positives harbored a translocation by RT-PCR (83%). Among the 4 discrepant cases, 2 FISH+/RT-PCR- cases had IHC H-scores of 180 and 260, and 98.3% and 95% of rearranged cells by FISH, probably corresponding to variants not covered by the RT-PCR. One had an IHC H-score of 5, and 16% cells rearranged on FISH, most probably corresponding to a FISH false positive case. The last had an IHC H-score of 200, 13% rearranged cells by FISH, and, thus is defined as a false negative FISH result. Provided IHC is defined as positive by an H-score above 120, all but one case (H-Score 20, FISH and RT-PCR positive) gave concordant results by a combination of FISH and RT-PCR. Overall, using as true negative or true positive the concordant result of two of the methods, the third method is characterized by high specificity and sensitivity with corresponding values of 100/98/100% and 94/94/89% for IHC/FISH/RT-PCR, respectively.

      Conclusion:
      RT-PCR is a very good tool for sorting discordant IHC/FISH cases, however, we do not recommend using this technique as single method due to the lower sensitivity of RT-PCR, as not all variants are covered, and also due to the limitations with RNA preservation.

      Only Active Members that have purchased this event or have registered via an access code will be able to view this content. To view this presentation, please login or select "Add to Cart" and proceed to checkout.