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J. Remon-Masip



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    GR 03 - Extensive Small Cell with Excellent Response to 1st Line Rx (PCI, Chest and/or Oligomet RT) and Second Line and Treatment of Thymic Malignancies (ID 16)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Grand Rounds
    • Track: Small Cell Lung Cancer
    • Presentations: 1
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      GR03.05 - Thymic Epithelial Tumors: New Hope on the Horizon with Novel Therapeutic Strategies (ID 1843)

      15:30 - 15:40  |  Author(s): J. Remon-Masip

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      • Presentation

      Abstract:
      Thymic Epithelial Tumors (TET) comprised of thymoma (T) and thymic carcinoma (TC) are rare cancers with an incidence of 1.7 and 1.3 per million per year in Europe[i] and the US[ii], respectively. Five-year overall survival (OS) varies significantly sitting at > 80% for T compared with ~40% for TC[iii],[iv]. Surgery remains the treatment of choice for operable TET, whereas chemotherapy is standard of care for metastatic or inoperable / recurrent disease. The response rate (RR) of TET to current chemotherapy agents differs by histological features: T responds better to first-line platinum based chemotherapy than TC (69% vs. 41%)[v]. No standard treatments are available for advanced TET after failure of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy, although single agents are generally used with modest benefit. For example pemetrexed, has been associated with a 17% partial response (PR) rate in T and 10% of PR in TC, with a median progression free survival (PFS) of 13.8 months and 6.5 months, respectively[vi]. Other drugs have recently been tested in second-line with promising results. In a phase II trial which recruited 14 T and 19 TC patients, amrubicin (a topoisomerase II inhibitor) was administered at 35 mg/m[2] IV days 1-3 on a 21-day cycle, producing an 18% RR (n=6, all PR: 29% in T and 11% in TC) without unexpected toxicity or cardiotoxicity[vii]. Another phase II trial investigated the combination of capecitabine plus gemcitabine in 30 pretreated TET patients (22 T and 8 TC). Overall RR was 40% (3 CR and 8 PR, with 3 PR in TC 3), PFS for T and TC was 11 months and 6 months, respectively and median OS was 16 months[viii]. In octreoscan positive patients with TET, somatostatin analogs with or without prednisone have also been shown to be effective as maintenance or as second-line treatment[ix][,[x]]. Given the poor survival of advanced TET, especially TC, there is a clear need for new treatment options. However, the molecular pathogenesis of TET is poorly understood at present. Profiled somatic genetic variations in 78 advanced-TET[xi] cases showed higher a incidence of somatic non-synonymous mutations in TC compared to T (62% vs. 13%; p<0.0001). TP53 was the most frequently mutated gene (overall in TET was 17% and especially in TC, 26%) and was associated with poorer OS (p<0.0001). Moreover, genes invovlved with histone modification (e.g. BAP1), chromatin remodelling, DNA methylation genes and c-KIT were also frequently mutated in advanced TCs. Although the presence of activating mutations is low in TET, the SPECTA-lung trial (NCT02214134) will allow analysis of more than 360 genes in patients with thoracic tumors, including T and TC. In this EORTC/ETOP umbrella study, eighteen European centres will allocate patients to different treatment arms based on the molecular characteristics of their disease, suggesting that basket trials allow the study of the genetics of less common malignancies[xii]. Despite data demonstrating EGFR and KIT overexpression in TET, EGFR and c-KIT mutations are rare, reported at 2%-10% and 9%, respectively[xiii]. This low percentage could explain the lack of RR observed in phase II studies evaluating Gefitinib, Erlotinib plus bevacizumab, and Glivec. In a recent retrospective analysis of 48 TC and thymic neuroendocrine tumors, the probability to finding c-KIT mutations was higher in CD117-positive thymic squamous cell carcinoma with poorly-differentiation and co-expression of CD5 and p63 in the absence of neuroendocrine markers (6 out of 23, 26%)[xiv], suggesting that a subgroup of TC might respond to c-KIT inhibitors. Recently SRC inhibitors (AZD0530) reported no RR in a phase II trial[xv]. Angiogenesis is another relevant pathway in TET. VEGF-A, -C, -D and VEGFR-1,-2,-3- are all overexpressed in high risk T and TC[xvi]. Sunitinib is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) of VEGFR, KIT, and PDGFR. In a single arm phase 2 trial of sunitinib (50 mg/day for 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off) after at least one previous line of chemotherapy, a PR was reported in 26% of TC and 6% in T, with a mPFS of 7.2 months and 8.5 months, respectively. Main adverse events (AE) reported were lymphocytopenia, fatigue, and oral mucositis[xvii]. Although response was mainly limited to TC, sunitinib demonstrated an unprecedented activity for a targeted agent so far. Other antiangiogenic compounds that could be of value include Lucitanib, a selective TKI of FGFR1-3, VEGFR1-3, and PDGFR α/β. Efficacy data in 15 patients will be reported for this drug at the WCLC 2015. Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) over-expression has been reported in 86% of TC and 43% of T[xviii], and carries poor prognosis. In a recent phase II trial of 49 patients with recurrent TET (37 T and 12 TC), single agent cixutumumab (a fully human IgG1 monoclonal antibody anti-IGF-1R, 20 mg/kg every 3 weeks), reported clinical activity only in T (14% PR, 28% SD, TTP 9 months and OS 27.5 months). No activity was recorded in the TC cohort (42% SD, TTP 1.7 months and OS 8.4 months). The most common toxicity in both groups was hypoglycemia (10%). Of note, 9 patients with T experienced autoimmune disorders[xix]. A phase II trial, Belinostat (PXD101, a pan-histone deacetylase inhibitor, 1g/m2 on days 1 through 5 in a 3-week schedule) among 41 patients (25 T and 16 TC) has reported only modest activity, with an 8% RR in T and no responses observed in TC. However, based on the duration of response and disease stabilization (median TTP and OS were 5.8 and 19.1 months, respectively), additional testing of belinostat in this disease may be warranted[xx]. Milciclib (PHA-848125AC) is an inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase2/cyclin A and SRC family members. Milciclib (150 mg/d 7 days on / 7 days off, 2-week cycles) has been evaluated in a phase II trial with 43 patients (26 TC and 9 B3-T). Out of 30 patients, 14 cases (46.7%) reached the primary end point and were PFS at 3 months, including PR. Five cases of SD lived longer than 1 year. The median PFS was 8.2 months and median OS has not been yet reached. The toxicity profile appeared favourable with nausea, asthenia and neutropenia (8.3%) reported as the most common severe AEs[xxi]. The mTOR inhibitor everolimus (10 mg/d) has been tested in a phase II trial in 50 patients with advanced or recurrent T (n=30) or TC (n=19) previously treated with cisplatin-containing chemotherapy. Preliminary data among the 43 evaluable patients showed a disease control rate (DCR) of 86% (1 CR, 10 PR, 32 SD) that was beyond the pre-specified endpoint of 40% DCR. The median PFS was 11.3 months (T not reached vs. 5.5 months in TC), and median OS was 18.6 months for TC and not reached for T. Few severe AEs were reported (asthenia, dyspnoea, neutropenia and hyperglycemia)[xxii]. Blockade of the immune checkpoint programmed death receptor ligand-1 (PD-L1)/PD-1 pathway has clinical activity in many tumors types. In a cohort of 139 TET, retrospective PDL-1 expression by IHC with the E1L3N antibody has been reported in 70% of TC and 23% of T, respectively. PDL-1 expression was not a significant prognostic factor in multivariable analysis[xxiii], although in other reported cohorts overexpression of PD-L1 was associated with worse prognosis [xxv, xxiv]. These results generally support immunotherapeutic strategies in TET (NCT02364076). At present, antiangiogenics, mTOR and CDK inhibitors, are the most promising drugs in TET treatment. Consensus on meaningful end-points, and knowledge of predictive biomarkers are challenges in this disease. [i] Siesling S, van der Zwan JM, Izarzugaza I et al. Rare thoracic cancers, including peritoneum mesothelioma. Eur J Cancer 2012; 48: 949-60. [ii] Engels EA. Epidemiology of thymoma and associated malignancies. J Thorac Oncol 2010; 5 (10 Suppl 4): S260–S265. [iii] Mariano C, Ionescu DN, Cheung WY et al. Thymoma. A population-based study of the management and outcomes for the province of British Columbia. J Thorac Oncol 2013; 8: 109–117. [iv] de Jong WK, Blaauwgeers JLG, Schaapveld M et al. Thymic epithelial tumours: a population-based study of the incidence, diagnostic procedures and therapy. Eur J Cancer 2008; 44(1): 123–130. [v] Okuma Y, Saito M, Hosomi Y et al. Key components of chemotherapy for thymic malignancies: a systemic review and pooled analysis for anthracyclines-, carboplatin- or cisplatin-based chemotherapy. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 2015; 141: 323-31 [vi] Liang Y, Padda SK, Riess JW et al. Pemetrexed in patients with thymic malignancies previously treated with chemotherapy. Lung Cancer 2015, 87: 34-8 [vii] Wakelee HA, Padda SK, Burns M et al. Phase II trial of single agent amrubicin in patients with previously treated advanced thymic malignancies. J Clin Oncol 2015; 33 (suppls; abstr 7580) [viii] Palmieri G, Buonerba C, Ottaviano M, et al. Capecitabine plus gemcitabine in thymic epithelial tumors: Final analysisof a phase II trial. Future oncology 2014; 10: 2141-7 [ix] Palmieri G, Ottaviano M, Nappi L et al. Somatostatin analogs as maintenance therapy in heavily pretreated thymic epithelial tumors. J Clin Oncol 2015; 33 (suppl; abstract 7581) [x] Ottaviano M, Damiano V, Nappi L et al. Effectiveness of somatotstain analogs plus prednisone in aggressive histotype and advanced stage of thymic epithelial tumors. J Clin Oncol 2015; 33 (suppl; abstract 7582) [xi] Wang Y, Thomas A, Lau Ch et al. Mutations of epigenetic regulatory genes are common in thymic carcinomas. Scientific Reports 2014; 4: 7336 [xii] Lopez-Chavez A, Thomas A, Rajan A et al. Molecular profiling and targeted therapy for advanced thoracic malignancies: A biomarker-derived, multiarm, multihistology phase II basket trial. J Clin Oncol 2015; 33: 1000-7 [xiii] Yoh K, Nishiwaki Y, Ishii G et al. Mutational status of EGFR and KIT in thymoma and thymic carcinoma. Lung Cancer 2008; 62: 31-20 [xiv] Schirosi L, Nannini N, nociloi D et al. Activating c-KIT mutations in a subset of thymic carcinoma and response to different c-KIT inhibitors. Ann Oncol 2012; 23: 2409-14 [xv] Gubens MA, Burns M, Perkins SM et al. A phase II study of saracatinib (AZD0530), a SRC inhibitor, administered orally daily to patients with advanced thymic malignancies. Lung Cancer 2015; 89: 57-60 [xvi] Lattanzio R, La Sorda R, Facciolo F et al. Thymic epithelial tumors express vascular endothelial growth factors and their receptors as potential targets of antiangiogenic therapy: A tissue micro array-based multicenter study. Lung Cancer 2014; 85: 191-6 [xvii] Thomas A, Rajan A, Berman A et al. Sunitinib in patients with chemotherapy-refrtactory thymoma and thymic carcinoma: an open-label phase 2 trial Lancet Oncol 2015; 16: 177-86 [xviii] Girard N, Teruya-Feldstein J, Payabyab EC et al. Insulin-like growth factor-1 rceptor expression in thymic malignancies. J Thorac Oncol 2010; 5: 1439-46 [xix] Rajan A, Carter CA, Berman A et al. Cixutumumab for patients with recurrent or refractory advanced thymic epithelial tumours: a multicentre, open-label, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol 2014; 15:191–200. [xx] Giaccone G, Rajan A, Berman A et al. Phase II study of belinostat in patients with recurrent or refractory advanced thymic epithelial tumors. J Clin Oncol 2011; 29: 2052-9 [xxi] Besse B, Garassino MA, Rajan A et al. A phase II study of milciclib (PHA-848125AC) in patients with thymic carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 2014; 32 (suppl; abstract 7526) [xxii] Zucali PA, Martino de Pas T, Palmieri G et al. Phase II study of everolimus in patients with thymoma and thymic carcinoma previously treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy. J Clin Oncol 2014; 32 (suppl; abstract 7527) [xxiii] Katsuya Y, Fujita Y, Horinouchi H et al. Immunohistochemical status of PD-L1 in thymoma and thymic carcinoma. Lung Cancer 2015; 88: 154-9 [xxiv] Programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) expression in thymic epithelial tumors (TETs): Impact on the treatment efficacy and alteration in expression after chemotherapy (C) J Clin Oncol 2015; 33 (suppl; abstr 7515) [xxv] Padda SK, Riess JW, Schwartz EJ et al. Diffuse high intensity PDL-1 staining in thymic epithelial tumors. J Thorac Oncol 2015; 10: 500-8

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