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Purpose: Fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) and FGFR2 amplifications are observed in approximately 10% of breast cancers and are related to poor outcomes. We evaluated whether dovitinib (TKI258), an inhibitor of FGFR1, FGFR2, and FGFR3, presented antitumor activity in FGFR-amplified breast cancers.Experimental Design: Preclinical activity of dovitinib was evaluated in both breast cancer cell lines and an FGFR1-amplified xenograft model (HBCx2). Dovitinib was then evaluated in a phase II trial that included 4 groups of patients with human EGF receptor 2–negative metastatic breast cancer on the basis of FGFR1 amplification and hormone receptor (HR) status. FGFR1 amplification was assessed by silver in situ hybridization. Preplanned retrospective analyses assessed predictive value of FGFR1, FGFR2, and FGF3 amplifications by quantitative PCR (qPCR).Results: Dovitinib monotherapy inhibits proliferation in FGFR1- and FGFR2-amplified, but not FGFR-normal, breast cancer cell lines. Dovitinib also inhibits tumor growth in FGFR1-amplified breast cancer xenografts. Eighty-one patients were enrolled in the trial. Unconfirmed response or stable disease for more than 6 months was observed in 5 (25%) and 1 (3%) patient(s) with FGFR1-amplified/HR-positive and FGFR1-nonamplified/HR-positive breast cancer. When qPCR-identified amplifications in FGFR1, FGFR2, or FGF3 were grouped to define an FGF pathway–amplified breast cancer in HR-positive patients, the mean reduction in target lesions was 21.1% compared with a 12.0% increase in patients who did not present with FGF pathway–amplified breast cancer.Conclusion: Dovitinib showed antitumor activity in FGFR-amplified breast cancer cell lines and may have activity in breast cancers with FGF pathway amplification. Clin Cancer Res; 19(13); 3693–702. ©2013 AACR.

PDF file - 20K, Dovitinib effectively targets FGFR1 in vivo. FGF23 levels were measured from plasma taken at baseline and during dovitinib treatment in 18, 33, and 20 patients from the FGFR1+/HR+, FGFR1-/HR+, and FGFR1-/HR- patient groups, respectively. Error bars represent the 95% confidence intervals.

Supplementary Data from ASCEND-7: Efficacy and Safety of Ceritinib Treatment in Patients with ALK-Positive Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Metastatic to the Brain and/or Leptomeninges

PDF file - 49K, Supplemental Table 1. Criteria for defining dose-limiting criteria

PDF file - 57KB, Supplemental Figure 1 contains the longitudinal plot of model-adjusted fold change from baseline for plasma VEGF.

Supplementary Figure from ASCEND-7: Efficacy and Safety of Ceritinib Treatment in Patients with ALK-Positive Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Metastatic to the Brain and/or Leptomeninges

PDF file - 61K, Growth Inhibition in FGFR1- and FGFR2-Amplified Cell Lines.

Purpose: Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling regulates tumor growth and vascularization and partly mediates antiangiogenic escape from VEGF receptor (VEGFR) inhibitors. Dovitinib (TKI258) is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that inhibits FGF receptor (FGFR), VEGFR, and platelet-derived growth factor receptor, which are known drivers of antiangiogenic escape, angiogenesis, and tumor growth in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).Experimental Design: Patients with advanced or metastatic RCC were treated with oral dovitinib 500 mg/day (5-days-on/2-days-off schedule). The study population was enriched for patients previously treated with a VEGFR TKI and an mTOR inhibitor.Results: Of 67 patients enrolled, 55 patients (82.1%) were previously treated with ≥1 VEGFR TKI and ≥1 mTOR inhibitor (per-protocol efficacy set). The 8-week overall response rate and disease control rate in this population were 1.8% and 52.7%, respectively. Disease control rate during the entire study period was 56.4% (50.9% ≥4 months). Median progression-free survival and overall survival in the entire population were 3.7 and 11.8 months, respectively. Pharmacodynamic analyses demonstrated dovitinib-induced inhibition of VEGFR (as determined by increased levels of placental growth factor and decreased levels of soluble VEGFR2) and FGFR (as determined by increased FGF23 serum measures). The most frequently reported treatment-related adverse events of all grades included nausea (65.7%), diarrhea (62.7%), vomiting (61.2%), decreased appetite (47.8%), and fatigue (32.8%).Conclusion: Dovitinib was shown to be an effective and tolerable therapy for patients with metastatic RCC who had progressed following treatment with VEGFR TKIs and mTOR inhibitors. Clin Cancer Res; 20(11); 3012–22. ©2014 AACR.

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PDF file - 22KB, Supplemental Table 1 contains the pharmacokinetic results from the study.

Purpose: Signaling through the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) pathway may account for tumor resistance to antiangiogenic therapies targeting the VEGF pathway. Here, dovitinib (TKI258), a potent oral inhibitor of FGF receptor, VEGF receptor (VEGFR), and platelet-derived growth factor receptor tyrosine kinases, is studied in a dose escalation trial.Experimental Design: Patients with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with predominant clear cell histology were treated with oral dovitinib 500 or 600 mg/day (5-days-on/2-days-off schedule).Results: Twenty heavily pretreated patients (median 3 prior regimens) were enrolled, with 16, 11, and 12 patients having previously received at least 1: VEGFR inhibitor, mTOR inhibitor, and immunotherapy, respectively. Fifteen and 5 patients were treated in 500- and 600-mg cohorts, respectively. Three patients experienced dose-limiting toxicities: grade 2 bradycardia (500 mg), grade 4 hypertensive crisis (600 mg), and grade 3 asthenia with grade 2 nausea and vomiting (600 mg). The most common adverse events related to dovitinib were nausea (75%), diarrhea (70%), vomiting (70%), and asthenia (50%), the majority of which were mild (grade 1 or 2), with grade 3 events 5% or less (except asthenia, 15%) and only one grade 4 event (hypertensive crisis). Two patients achieved a partial response (500 mg), and 12 patients had stable disease, including 2 patients with long lasting disease stabilizations (>1 year) in the 500-mg cohort.Conclusions: Dovitinib was tolerable and showed antitumor activity at a maximum tolerated dose of 500 mg on a 5-days-on/2-days-off schedule in heavily pretreated RCC patients. Clin Cancer Res; 19(5); 1257–68. ©2012 AACR.

PDF file - 25KB, Supplemental Table 2 contains a summary of the newly occurring qualitative ECG abnormalities.

Purpose:Central nervous system metastases are a prominent cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with ALK-positive (ALK+) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The phase II ASCEND-7 (NCT02336451) study was specifically designed to assess the efficacy and safety of the ALK inhibitor (ALKi) ceritinib in patients with ALK+ NSCLC metastatic to the brain and/or leptomeninges.Patients and Methods:Patients with active brain metastases were allocated to study arms 1 to 4 based on prior exposure to an ALKi and/or prior brain radiation (arm 1: prior radiotherapy/ALKi-pretreated; arm 2: no radiotherapy/ALKi-pretreated; arm 3: prior radiotherapy/ALKi-naïve; arm 4: no radiotherapy/ALKi-naïve). Arm 5 included patients with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis. Patients received ceritinib 750 mg once daily (fasted condition). Primary endpoint was investigator-assessed whole-body overall response rate (ORR) per RECIST v1.1. Secondary endpoints included disease control rate (DCR) and intracranial/extracranial responses.Results:Per investigator assessment, in arms 1 (n = 42), 2 (n = 40), 3 (n = 12), and 4 (n = 44), respectively: whole-body ORRs [95% confidence interval (CI)] were 35.7% (21.6–52.0), 30.0% (16.6–46.5), 50.0% (21.1–78.9), and 59.1% (43.2–73.7); whole-body DCR (95% CI): 66.7% (50.5–80.4), 82.5% (67.2–92.7), 66.7% (34.9–90.1), and 70.5% (54.8–83.2); intracranial ORRs (95% CI): 39.3% (21.5–59.4), 27.6% (12.7–47.2), 28.6% (3.7–71.0), and 51.5% (33.5–69.2). In arm 5 (n = 18), whole-body ORR was 16.7% (95% CI, 3.6–41.4) and DCR was 66.7% (95% CI, 41.0–86.7). Paired cerebrospinal fluid and plasma sampling revealed that ceritinib penetrated the human blood–brain barrier.Conclusions:Ceritinib showed antitumor activity in patients with ALK+ NSCLC with active brain metastases and/or leptomeningeal disease, and could be considered in the management of intracranial disease.See related commentary by Murciano-Goroff et al., p. 2477

Background: Surufatinib (S, a small-molecule inhibitor of VEGFR 1-3, FGFR1 and CSF-1R) plus toripalimab (T, an anti-PD-1 antibody) showed encouraging antitumor activity in solid tumors (Cao YS, 2022). Programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression is the established biomarker for 1L immune checkpoint inhibitors therapy in advanced NSCLC. We conducted an open-label, multi-cohort, single-arm phase 2 study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of S+T in patients (pts) with advanced solid tumors. Here, we reported the results of advanced NSCLC with PD-L1 positive expression cohort. Methods: Eligible pts had histologically confirmed advanced NSCLC with no prior systemic chemotherapy, PD-L1 positive (defined as PD-L1 TPS expression ≥1% [sp263]), and without EGFR, ALK or ROS1 genetic alteration if non-sq-NSCLC. Enrolled pts received 21-day cycles of S (250 mg orally QD) plus T (240 mg IV, Q3W) until disease progression or intolerable toxicity or the maximum duration of treatment with toripalimab is 24 months. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) per RECIST 1.1. Results: From July 2020 to September 2021, 55 pts were screened, of whom 23 pts were enrolled and received the treatment of S+T. Median age was 66 years (range: 49-73), 16 (69.6%) were male and 12 (52.2%) had squamous histology. Pts with PD-L1 TPS ≥50% and Conclusion: Surufatinib and toripalimab combination showed a promising antitumor activity in 1L therapy for advanced PD-L1 positive NSCLC with manageable toxicity. This study might represent a potential treatment option for these pts. Clinical trial information: NCT04169672. Citation Format: Ying Cheng, Lin Shen, Zhendong Chen, Feng Ye, Xianjun Yu, Xing Zhang, Dongmei Ji, Baorui Liu, Lijie Song, Chunjiao Wu, Ming Lu, Wei Chen, Jingxun Wu, Heli Gao, Desheng Weng, Weina Shen, Rutian Li, Minjie Yang, Jinghong Zhou, Haiyan Shi, Panfeng Tan, Songhua Fan, Michael Shi, Weiguo Su. Surufatinib plus toripalimab for first-line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with PD-L1 positive expression: A multicenter, single-arm phase 2 study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 2 (Clinical Trials and Late-Breaking Research); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(8_Suppl):Abstract nr CT225.

Introduction: Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK), a member of the Tec family, plays a crucial role in signaling through B-cell receptor (BCR). BTK inhibition blocks BCR signals and prevents B-cell activation and growth. First-generation BTK inhibitors such as ibrutinib covalently binds to a cysteine residue (C481) of BTK. Their most frequent acquired resistance is the development of a serine mutation in the binding site (C481S). Next generation BTK inhibitors such as LOXO-305 and ARQ 531 are being developed to overcome this resistance to first-generation inhibitors. Methods: HMPL-760 was tested in biochemical assays using recombinant human wild type (WT) and C481S mutant BTKs. Its selectivity was carried out using Eurofins Cerep KinaseProfilerTM panel. Cellular activity of HMPL-760 was evaluated in HEK293 cells stably transfected with BTKWT or BTKC481S, and other tumor cell lines, which are either human diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) or mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) cell lines. The in vivo antitumor activity and PKPD correlation of HMPL-760 was studied in HBL-1 xenograft mouse models bearing BTKWT or BTKC481S respectively. Results: In biochemical assays, HMPL-760 strongly inhibits BTK kinase activities towards wild-type BTK (BTKWT) and C481S mutant (BTKC481S), and binds to BTK in a reversible way. HMPL-760 demonstrates high selectivity in a panel containing 413 kinases. In cellular assays, HMPL-760 displays strong anti-proliferative activities in B-cell lymphoma cells (TMD-8, OCI-LY10, REC-1, HBL-1 and HBL-1-BTKC481S) harboring either BTKWT or BTKC481S (GI50: 0.0015-0.046 μM). In human whole blood assay, HMPL-760 inhibits activation of B-cells at nanomolar concentrations measured by inhibition of immunoglobulin-induced CD69 expression in CD19+cells. HMPL-760 shows ≥ 10-fold inhibitory potency than ARQ 531 in both BTKWT and BTKC481S cells, and ~3-fold higher inhibitory potency than that of LOXO-305 in BTKC481S cells. In cellular assay by detecting p-BTK after compound washout, HMPL-760 maintains a longer duration of target inhibition than LOXO-305 in both BTK wild type (HBL-1) and BTK mutant (HBL-1-BTKC481S) cell lines. HMPL-760 displays dose-dependent antitumor efficacy in multiple human B cell lymphoma xenograft models in mice when orally administered at 3~50 mg/kg once daily. Complete tumor regression occurs in most of the tested models at the high dose levels. HMPL-760 shows much stronger antitumor efficacy than LOXO-305 and ARQ 531 at similar dose level, which may be associated with HMPL-760’s higher drug exposures and more sustainable inhibition on BTK phosphorylation in the tumor tissues. Conclusion: HMPL-760 is a reversible, selective, highly potent, BTK inhibitor targeting both BTKWT and BTKC481S. The first-in-human Phase 1 clinical trials of HMPL-760 are under way in patients with r/r B-NHL (NCT05190068, NCT05176691). Citation Format: Linfang Wang, Junqing Liang, Zhihu Gao, Jia Hu, Weigang He, Xianwen Yang, Fangfang Mao, Wei Zhang, Ying Yu, Qihang Zhang, Na Yang, Chun Zhang, Jian Wang, Yu Cai, Xiong Li, Weiguo Qing, Guangxiu Dai, Yongxin Ren, Michael Shi, Weiguo Su. HMPL-760 is a highly potent and selective reversible BTK inhibitor, targeting BTK and BTKC481S in B-cell malignancies. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 4020.

A descriptive retrospective study was conducted using the Flatiron Health-Foundation Medicine Inc. (FMI) clinico-genomic database. Patients withOf 91The median time from biopsy to test results appears 1 week shorter for PD-L1 than for FMI NGS. Chemotherapy and IO monotherapy were the most common regimens utilized but with limited PFS.

Summary X-linked juvenile retinoschisis (XLRS), linked to mutations in the RS1 gene, is a degenerative retinopathy with a retinal splitting phenotype. We generated human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from patients to study XLRS in a 3D retinal organoid in vitro differentiation system. This model recapitulates key features of XLRS including retinal splitting, defective retinoschisin production, outer-segment defects, abnormal paxillin turnover, and impaired ER-Golgi transportation. RS1 mutation also affects the development of photoreceptor sensory cilia and results in altered expression of other retinopathy-associated genes. CRISPR/Cas9 correction of the disease-associated C625T mutation normalizes the splitting phenotype, outer-segment defects, paxillin dynamics, ciliary marker expression, and transcriptome profiles. Likewise, mutating RS1 in control hiPSCs produces the disease-associated phenotypes. Finally, we show that the C625T mutation can be repaired precisely and efficiently using a base-editing approach. Taken together, our data establish 3D organoids as a valid disease model., Highlights • hiPSC-derived retinal organoid model recapitulates key features of XLRS • CRISPR/Cas9 correction normalizes RS1 secretion and retinal development • Transcriptome analysis links XLRS to other hereditary retinopathies, Chiou, Schlaeger, and colleagues use hiPSC-derived retinal organoids to model X-linked juvenile retinoschisis. They show that patient hiPSC-derived retinal organoids replicate key pathologies observed in patients, including retinal splitting and photoreceptor deficit. The observed abnormalities were normalized in organoids derived from isogenic CRISPR/Cas9 gene-corrected hiPSCs. This validated XLRS in vitro model could be used to test and optimize therapeutic approaches.

A common approach for minimizing a smooth nonlinear function is to employ finite-difference approximations to the gradient. While this can be easily performed when no error is present within the function evaluations, when the function is noisy, the optimal choice requires information about the noise level and higher-order derivatives of the function, which is often unavailable. Given the noise level of the function, we propose a bisection search for finding a finite-difference interval for any finite-difference scheme that balances the truncation error, which arises from the error in the Taylor series approximation, and the measurement error, which results from noise in the function evaluation. Our procedure produces reliable estimates of the finite-difference interval at low cost without explicitly approximating higher-order derivatives. We show its numerical reliability and accuracy on a set of test problems. When combined with L-BFGS, we obtain a robust method for minimizing noisy black-box functions, as illustrated on a subset of unconstrained CUTEst problems with synthetically added noise., Comment: 39 pages, 20 tables, 6 figures

Introduction In the phase 3 ASCEND-4 study, ceritinib exhibited improved progression-free survival (PFS) by Blinded Independent Review Committee (BIRC) assessment versus the standard first-line chemotherapy in patients with advanced ALK-rearranged NSCLC. Here, we assessed the efficacy and safety of ceritinib in the subgroup of Asian patients from the ASCEND-4 trial. Methods Treatment-naive patients with stage IIIB or IV ALK-rearranged nonsquamous NSCLC were randomized in a one-to-one ratio to receive either oral ceritinib 750 mg/day (fasted) daily or intravenous chemotherapy ([cisplatin 75 mg/m2 or carboplatin area under the curve 5–6 plus pemetrexed 500 mg/m2] every three wk, followed by pemetrexed maintenance). The primary end point was PFS by BIRC assessment. Results Of 376 randomized patients, 158 (42.0%) were Asian (ceritinib arm: N = 76; chemotherapy arm: N = 82). The median time from randomization to the cutoff date (June 24, 2016) was 18.3 months (range = 13.5–34.2) in the Asian subgroup. The median PFS (by BIRC assessment) was 26.3 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 8.6–not estimable) and 10.6 months (95% CI: 6.7–15.0), with an estimated 34% risk reduction in PFS (hazard ratio = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.41–1.05) in the ceritinib arm versus chemotherapy arm. The most common adverse events of any grade were diarrhea (85.5%), increased alanine aminotransferase and vomiting (73.7% each), and increased aspartate aminotransferase and nausea (69.7% each) in the ceritinib arm, and nausea (49.3%), vomiting (42.7%), and anemia (40.0%) in the chemotherapy arm. Conclusion Ceritinib was effective and safe in treatment-naive Asian patients with advanced ALK-rearranged NSCLC. The findings were largely consistent with that of the overall study population.

This letter is focused on quantized Compressed Sensing, assuming that Lasso is used for signal estimation. Leveraging recent work, we provide a framework to optimize the quantization function and show that the recovered signal converges to the actual signal at a quadratic rate as a function of the quantization level. We show that when the number of observations is high, this method of quantization gives a significantly better recovery rate than standard Lloyd-Max quantization. We support our theoretical analysis with numerical simulations.

Modern deep learning-based recommendation systems exploit hundreds to thousands of different categorical features, each with millions of different categories ranging from clicks to posts. To respect the natural diversity within the categorical data, embeddings map each category to a unique dense representation within an embedded space. Since each categorical feature could take on as many as tens of millions of different possible categories, the embedding tables form the primary memory bottleneck during both training and inference. We propose a novel approach for reducing the embedding size in an end-to-end fashion by exploiting complementary partitions of the category set to produce a unique embedding vector for each category without explicit definition. By storing multiple smaller embedding tables based on each complementary partition and combining embeddings from each table, we define a unique embedding for each category at smaller memory cost. This approach may be interpreted as using a specific fixed codebook to ensure uniqueness of each category's representation. Our experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach over the hashing trick for reducing the size of the embedding tables in terms of model loss and accuracy, while retaining a similar reduction in the number of parameters., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

For hypertensive women in CHIPS (Control of Hypertension in Pregnancy Study), we assessed whether the maternal benefits of tight control could be achieved, while minimizing any potentially negative effect on fetal growth, by delaying initiation of antihypertensive therapy until later in pregnancy. For the 981 women with nonsevere, chronic or gestational hypertension randomized to less-tight (target diastolic blood pressure, 100 mm Hg), or tight (target, 85 mm Hg) control, we used mixed-effects logistic regression to examine whether the effect of less-tight (versus tight) control on major outcomes was dependent on gestational age at randomization, adjusting for baseline factors as in the primary analysis and including an interaction term between gestational age at randomization and treatment allocation. Gestational age was considered categorically (quartiles) and continuously (linear or quadratic form), and the optimal functional form selected to provide the best fit to the data based on the Akaike information criterion. Randomization before (but not after) 24 weeks to less-tight (versus tight) control was associated with fewer babies with birth weight P interaction =0.005), but more preterm birth ( P interaction =0.043), and no effect on perinatal death or high-level neonatal care >48 hours ( P interaction =0.354). For the mother, less-tight (versus tight) control was associated with more severe hypertension at all gestational ages but particularly so before 28 weeks ( P interaction =0.076). In women with nonsevere, chronic, or gestational hypertension, there seems to be no gestational age at which less-tight (versus tight) control is the preferred management strategy to optimize maternal or perinatal outcomes. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: https://www.isrctn.com . Unique identifier: ISRCTN71416914.

Background In global phase III ASCEND-4 study (NCT01283516), ceritinib 750 mg/day (fasted), demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in PFS by BIRC (median, 16.6 mos [95% CI: 12.6, 27.2] vs 8.1 mos [95% CI: 5.8, 11.1]; HR = 0.55; p Methods Pts with stage IIIB/IV, ALK + (centrally tested IHC), nonsquamous NSCLC, ≥1 measurable lesion per RECIST v1.1, and WHO PS 0–2 were eligible. Efficacy and safety were evaluated in Asian pts who had not received prior systemic anticancer therapy except neo-/adjuvant therapy. Data cutoff: June 24, 2016. Results Among 376 pts randomized (1:1) in the study, 158 pts were Asian, with 76 in ceritinib arm and 82 in chemotherapy arm. Of these, 25 pts (32.9%) in ceritinib arm and 21 (25.6%) in chemotherapy arm had brain metastases at baseline. Median duration of treatment exposure: 64.5 wks (ceritinib, N = 76) and 35.0 wks (chemotherapy, N = 75). Median duration from randomization to data cutoff: 18.3 mos. Ceritinib demonstrated superior PFS by BIRC (median, 26.3 mos; 95% CI: 8.6, NE; HR = 0.66) compared to chemotherapy (Table). Most common (≥50%; all grades; all-causality) AEs in ceritinib arm: diarrhea (85.5%), ALT increased (73.7%), vomiting (73.7%), AST increased (69.7%), and nausea (69.7%). Incidence of grade 3/4 AEs was Table . 1473P By BIRC (N * =158) Ceritinib 750mg N = 76 Chemotherapy N = 82 Overall response rate (ORR), % [95% CI] 65.8 [54.0, 76.3] 29.3 [19.7, 40.4] Best overall response, n (%) Complete response (CR) Partial response (PR) Stable disease (SD) Progressive disease (PD) Non-CR/Non-PD Unknown 0 50 (65.8) 11 (14.5) 11 (14.5) 2 (2.6) 2 (2.6) 0 24 (29.3) 38 (46.3) 6 (7.3) 3 (3.7) 11 (13.4) Disease control rate (DCR), % [95% CI] 82.9 [72.5, 90.6] 79.3 [68.9, 87.4] M ‡ =50 M ‡ =24 Median DOR, months [95% CI] NE [24.7, NE] 16.4 [7.8, NE] n/N (%) 14/50 (28.0) 8/24 (33.3) % Event-free probability estimates [95% CI] 9 months 81.2 [67.0, 89.8] 76.1 [48.0, 90.4] 12 months 79.0 [64.5, 88.1] 50.8 [22.5, 73.5] 15 months 70.4 [54.0, 81.9] 50.8 [22.5, 73.5] Median PFS, months [95% CI] 26.3 [8.6, NE] 10.6 [6.7, 15.0] n/N (%) 32/76 (42.1) 45/82 (54.9) % Event-free probability estimates [95% CI] 9 months 61.0 [48.4, 71.5] 54.7 [41.8, 65.8] 12 months 61.0 [48.4, 71.5] 49.8 [37.1, 61.2] 15 months 55.9 [43.2, 66.9] 39.0 [26.9, 51.0] * Total number of patients included in the full analysis set. ‡ Total number of patients with confirmed complete response or partial response. n: Total number of events included in the analysis. N: Total number of patients included in the analysis. Conclusions In Asian pts with ALK+ NSCLC, ceritinib demonstrated durable and clinically meaningful efficacy and a safety profile consistent with overall ASCEND-4 study results. Clinical trial identification NCT01828099. Editorial acknowledgement Shilpa Garg, Novartis Healthcare Pvt Ltd. Legal entity responsible for the study Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Funding Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Disclosure D.S. Tan: Honoraria (self): Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, Takeda; Advisory / Consultancy: Novartis, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, AstraZeneca, Eli-lily, Loxo; Research grant / Funding (self): Novartis, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, Pfizer; Travel / Accommodation / Expenses: Merck, Pfizer, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche,Takeda. S. Geater: Advisory / Consultancy: Boehringer Ingelheim; Honoraria (institution): AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim; Research grant / Funding (institution): AstraZeneca, Roche, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim; Full / Part-time employment: Prince of Songkla Univerisity. C.J. Yu: Honoraria (self): Roche, AstraZeneca, Ono pharma, Boehringer Ingelheim; Advisory / Consultancy: Roche, AstraZeneca, Ono pharma, Boehringer Ingelheim. T.C. Hsia: Advisory / Consultancy: Norvatis, Lilly, AZ, Roche local speaker. M.C. Lin: Advisory / Consultancy: AZ, Novartis, BI, Roche. V. Sriuranpong: Advisory / Consultancy, Speaker Bureau / Expert testimony: AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche, Pfizer, Eisai, Boehringer, Taiho, MSD, BMS, Amgen; Research grant / Funding (institution): AstraZeneca, Novartis, Roche, Pfizer, Boehringer, Eisai, Taiho, Lilly, MSD. P. Sen: Shareholder / Stockholder / Stock options, Full / Part-time employment: Novartis. F. Branle: Shareholder / Stockholder / Stock options, Full / Part-time employment: Novartis. M. Shi: Shareholder / Stockholder / Stock options: Novartis stock; Full / Part-time employment: Novartis. Y.L. Wu: Honoraria (self): AZ, Roche, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, MSD, BMS, BI; Advisory / Consultancy: AZ, Roche, BI; Research grant / Funding (institution): AZ, Roche. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

According to the official health statistics, Taiwan has the highest prevalence of end stage renal disease (ESRD) in the world. Each year, around 60,000 ESRD patients in Taiwan consume 6% of the national insurance budget for dialysis treatment. The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been climbing during 2008–2012. However, the spatial disparities and clustering of CKD at the public health level have rarely been discussed. The aims of this study are to explore the possible population level risk factors and identify any clusters of CKD, using the national health insurance database. The results show that the ESRD prevalence in females is higher than that in males. ESRD medical expenditure constitutes 87% of total CKD medical expenditure. Pre-CKD and pre-ESRD disease management might slow the progression from CKD to ESRD. After applying ordinary least-squares regression, the percentages of high education status and the elderly in the townships are positively correlated with CKD prevalence. Geographically weighted regression and Local Moran’s I are used for identifying the clusters in southern Taiwan. The findings can be important evidence for earlier and targeted community interventions and reducing the health disparities of CKD.

Background Published data from UNOS demonstrated that donor hearts with transient LV dysfunction can be used without increasing the risk of poor transplant outcomes, but account for less than 3% of allocated donors. Our organ procurement organization (OPO) utilizes a centralized treatment and recovery facility allowing for aggressive protocol driven management and frequent assessment of organ function early after brain death declaration. Methods We retrospectively reviewed our OPO experience with cardiac allograft donors from 2013-2017. Clinical data (patient demographics, cause of death, medical management, biomarkers, and serial echocardiographic imaging) were extracted from the OPO EMR for all 168 allocated cardiac donors during this time period. Improved LV systolic function was defined as an initial LVEF ≤40% which later improved to ≥50% consistent with the definition used in the prior UNOS analysis. Results We found that 23% (38/168) of allocated cardiac allografts from our OPO had transient LV dysfunction with an EF ≤40% on the initial echocardiogram. This rate was consistent over the years examined. Moreover 55% of donors had an initial echocardiogram with an EF of less than 50%. Comparison of donors with an initial EF ≤40% to donors with normal LV function on initial examination revealed minimal differences. There was no difference in the average age or sex between the two groups. No differences were found in the dose of vasopressors used either at the time of arrival to the facility or at organ harvest. The average amount of blood transfused was not different between the two groups. Although peak ALT was significantly higher in donors with transient LV dysfunction (402 vs 175 Units/L), there was no differences found in peak AST, troponin, lactate, or creatinine. Conclusion We found a markedly higher percentage of cardiac donors with transient LV dysfunction in allografts coming from our OPO facility compared to the UNOS database. The extent to which this reflects increased recognition versus increased organ yield is unknown at this time. These donors did not differ significantly from donors with normal LV function on initial examination. Coupled with prior data that showed equivalent outcomes in donors with recovered LV function, these data suggest that additional efforts to recover cardiac allografts initially found to have LV dysfunction could be an important means of increasing the donor pool and further work is ongoing to understand the most important factors in the recovery process.

Purpose: Signaling through the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) pathway may account for tumor resistance to antiangiogenic therapies targeting the VEGF pathway. Here, dovitinib (TKI258), a potent oral inhibitor of FGF receptor, VEGF receptor (VEGFR), and platelet-derived growth factor receptor tyrosine kinases, is studied in a dose escalation trial. Experimental Design: Patients with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with predominant clear cell histology were treated with oral dovitinib 500 or 600 mg/day (5-days-on/2-days-off schedule). Results: Twenty heavily pretreated patients (median 3 prior regimens) were enrolled, with 16, 11, and 12 patients having previously received at least 1: VEGFR inhibitor, mTOR inhibitor, and immunotherapy, respectively. Fifteen and 5 patients were treated in 500- and 600-mg cohorts, respectively. Three patients experienced dose-limiting toxicities: grade 2 bradycardia (500 mg), grade 4 hypertensive crisis (600 mg), and grade 3 asthenia with grade 2 nausea and vomiting (600 mg). The most common adverse events related to dovitinib were nausea (75%), diarrhea (70%), vomiting (70%), and asthenia (50%), the majority of which were mild (grade 1 or 2), with grade 3 events 5% or less (except asthenia, 15%) and only one grade 4 event (hypertensive crisis). Two patients achieved a partial response (500 mg), and 12 patients had stable disease, including 2 patients with long lasting disease stabilizations (>1 year) in the 500-mg cohort. Conclusions: Dovitinib was tolerable and showed antitumor activity at a maximum tolerated dose of 500 mg on a 5-days-on/2-days-off schedule in heavily pretreated RCC patients. Clin Cancer Res; 19(5); 1257–68. ©2012 AACR.

We propose two practical non-convex approaches for learning near-isometric, linear embeddings of finite sets of data points. Given a set of training points $\mathcal{X}$, we consider the secant set $S(\mathcal{X})$ that consists of all pairwise difference vectors of $\mathcal{X}$, normalized to lie on the unit sphere. The problem can be formulated as finding a symmetric and positive semi-definite matrix $\boldsymbol{\Psi}$ that preserves the norms of all the vectors in $S(\mathcal{X})$ up to a distortion parameter $\delta$. Motivated by non-negative matrix factorization, we reformulate our problem into a Frobenius norm minimization problem, which is solved by the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) and develop an algorithm, FroMax. Another method solves for a projection matrix $\boldsymbol{\Psi}$ by minimizing the restricted isometry property (RIP) directly over the set of symmetric, postive semi-definite matrices. Applying ADMM and a Moreau decomposition on a proximal mapping, we develop another algorithm, NILE-Pro, for dimensionality reduction. FroMax is shown to converge faster for smaller $\delta$ while NILE-Pro converges faster for larger $\delta$. Both non-convex approaches are then empirically demonstrated to be more computationally efficient than prior convex approaches for a number of applications in machine learning and signal processing.

Background: In the 52-week SUSTAIN study, which compared the P-selectin inhibitor crizanlizumab with placebo in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg significantly reduced the frequency of vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) leading to healthcare utilization versus placebo (Ataga KI et al. N Engl J Med 2017;376:429-39). The overall incidences of adverse events and serious adverse events were similar among the patients treated with crizanlizumab and placebo. Aims: This post-hoc analysis from SUSTAIN evaluated key VOC-related endpoints in crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg and placebo groups in the per protocol (PP) population, as a way to assess the effect in patients who are able to follow the standard treatment regimen; data from the intention-to-treat (ITT) population will also be shown for context. Methods: The SUSTAIN study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase II study (NCT01895361) that enrolled patients aged 16-65 years with SCD who had experienced 2-10 VOC events in the previous 12 months. Patients were randomized 1:1:1 to receive crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg, 2.5 mg/kg or placebo 14 times intravenously over 52 weeks; here we focus on the 5.0 mg/kg dose of crizanlizumab versus placebo. The number and time of VOCs leading to healthcare utilization (e.g., hospital admission, emergency department visit) from randomization to end of treatment were measured for each individual patient. Analyses were conducted on the ITT population (i.e., all patients randomized) and PP population (i.e., all patients randomized who received at least 12/14 planned doses of treatment, and completed the study without major protocol violations that impacted the efficacy assessments). Results: In the crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg and placebo groups, there were 67 and 65 patients in the ITT population, and 40 and 41 patients in the PP population, respectively; the main reasons for exclusion from the PP population were associated with violations of the visit schedule. As shown previously (Ataga KI et al. N Engl J Med 2017;376:429-39), the median annual rate of VOCs was 1.63 in the crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg group versus 2.98 in the placebo group (stratified Wilcoxon Rank-Sum test, P=0.01; Table) in the ITT population. The median time to first on-treatment VOC was 4.07 versus 1.38 months (stratified log-rank test, P=0.001), respectively, in the crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg and placebo groups. Overall, 24/67 (35.8%) and 11/65 (16.9%) patients in the crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg and placebo groups (stratified Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test, P=0.013), respectively, did not experience any VOCs during treatment. In the PP population, the median annual rate of VOCs was 1.04 with crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg versus 2.18 with placebo (P=0.02; Table). The median time to first on-treatment VOC was 6.55 months with crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg and 1.58 months in the placebo group (P Conclusions: This post-hoc analysis of SUSTAIN shows that crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg provided benefit over placebo: nearly halving the median annual rate of VOCs, doubling the time to first VOC, and doubling the number of patients with no VOCs during treatment in the ITT population. The effect was even more pronounced in the PP population. This suggests that the superior VOC-related treatment outcomes of crizanlizumab 5.0 mg/kg versus placebo are further improved in patients who are able to follow the standard crizanlizumab treatment regimen. Disclosures Kanter: NHLBI: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Apopharma: Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding; bluebird bio: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Global Blood Therapeutics: Research Funding; ASH: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; AstraZeneca: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Sancilio: Research Funding; Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Kutlar:Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Personal fees, Research Funding; Sancilio: Other: DSMB Chair; Bluebird Bio: Other: DSMB Member. Bruederle:Novartis: Employment. Shi:Novartis: Employment, Other: Stock owner of Novartis. Campigotto:Novartis: Employment. Ataga:Pfizer: Research Funding; Global Blood Therapeutics: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Novartis Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria; Modus Therapeutics: Honoraria; Bioverativ: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

Pump thrombosis (PT) remains a life-threatening complication of LVAD therapy. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels, used to aid in the diagnosis of PT, may rise prior to overt clinical thrombosis. We investigated the predictive power of 30-day post implant LDH to predict future PT. Between 2006 and