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Crizotinib successfully overcomes MET amplification in ROS1-rearranged NSCLC after entrectinib failure.

The current targeted therapy for BRAF V600E -mutant lung cancer consists of a dual blockade of RAF/MEK kinases often combining dabrafenib/trametinib (D/T). This regimen extends survival when compared to single-agent treatments, but disease progression is unavoidable. By using whole-genome CRISPR screening and RNA sequencing, we characterize the vulnerabilities of both persister and D/T-resistant cellular models. Oxidative stress together with concomitant induction of antioxidant responses is boosted by D/T treatment. However, the nature of the oxidative damage, the choice of redox detoxification systems, and the resulting therapeutic vulnerabilities display stage-specific differences. Persister cells suffer from lipid peroxidation and are sensitive to ferroptosis upon GPX4 inhibition in vivo. Biomarkers of lipid peroxidation are detected in clinical samples following D/T treatment. Acquired alterations leading to mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) reactivation enhance cystine transport to boost GPX4-independent antioxidant responses. Similarly to BRAF V600E -mutant melanoma, histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors decrease D/T-resistant cell viability and extend therapeutic response in vivo., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests D.S. received research fees from Aelin Therapeutics. C.A. received research fees from Revolution Medicines, Aelin Therapeutics, Verastem, Roche, and Boehringer Ingelheim. E.N. reports research funding from Pfizer and Roche. P.L. is listed as an inventor on patent applications filed by MSKCC that describe approaches to treat KRAS or BRAF-mutant tumors. P.A.J. has received consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pfizer, Roche/Genentech, Takeda Oncology, ACEA Biosciences, Eli Lilly and Company, Araxes Pharma, Ignyta, Mirati Therapeutics, Novartis, Loxo Oncology, Daiichi Sankyo, Sanofi Oncology, Voronoi, SFJ Pharmaceuticals, Takeda Oncology, Transcenta, Silicon Therapeutics, Syndax, Nuvalent, Bayer, Eisai, Biocartis, Allorion Therapeutics, Accutar Biotech, Monte Rosa, Scorpion Therapeutics, Merus, Frontier Medicines, Hongyun Biotechnology, Duality, and AbbVie; post-marketing royalties from DFCI-owned intellectual property on EGFR mutations licensed to Lab Corp; sponsored research agreements with AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, Puma, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly and Company, Revolution Medicines, and Astellas Pharmaceuticals; and stock ownership in Gatekeeper Pharmaceuticals. M.M.A. reports grants and personal fees from Genentech, grants and personal fees from Bristol Myers Squibb, personal fees from Merck, grants and personal fees from AstraZeneca, grants from Lilly, and personal fees from Maverick, Blueprint Medicine, Syndax, Ariad, Nektar, Gritstone, ArcherDX, Mirati, NextCure, Novartis, EMD Serono, and Panvaxal/NovaRx, outside the submitted work., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Single-agent PD-(L)1 blockade (IO) alone or in combination with chemotherapy (Chemotherapy-IO) is approved first-line therapies in patients with advanced lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs) with PD-L1 expression ≥1%. These regimens have not been compared prospectively. The primary objective was to compare first-line efficacies of single-agent IO to Chemotherapy-IO in patients with advanced LUADs. Secondary objectives were to explore if clinical, pathological, and genomic features were associated with differential response to Chemotherapy-IO versus IO., Methods: This was a multicenter retrospective cohort study. Inclusion criteria were patients with advanced LUADs with tumor PD-L1 ≥1% treated with first-line Chemotherapy-IO or IO. To compare the first-line efficacies of single-agent IO to Chemotherapy-IO, we conducted inverse probability weighted Cox proportional hazards models using estimated propensity scores., Results: The cohort analyzed included 866 patients. Relative to IO, Chemotherapy-IO was associated with improved objective response rate (ORR) (44% vs 35%, p=0.007) and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with tumor PD-L1≥1% (HR 0.84, 95% CI 0.72 to 0.97, p=0.021) or PD-L1≥50% (ORR 55% vs 38%, p<0.001; PFS HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.87, p=0.002). Using propensity-adjusted analyses, only never-smokers in the PD-L1≥50% subgroup derived a differential survival benefit from Chemotherapy-IO vs IO (p=0.013). Among patients with very high tumor PD-L1 expression (≥90%), there were no differences in outcome between treatment groups. No genomic factors conferred differential survival benefit to Chemotherapy-IO versus IO., Conclusions: While the addition of chemotherapy to PD-(L)1 blockade increases the probability of initial response, never-smokers with tumor PD-L1≥50% comprise the only population identified that derived an apparent survival benefit with treatment intensification., Competing Interests: Competing interests: JEC has consulted for: AstraZeneca, BMS, Genentech, Merck, Flame Biosciences, Regeneron-Sanofi, Guardant Health, Arcus Biosciences and also declared research funding to institution from: AstraZeneca, BMS, Genentech, Merck, Novartis. CMR has consulted with AbbVie, Amgen, Astra Zeneca, D2G, Daiichi Sankyo, Epizyme, Genentech/Roche, Ipsen, Jazz, Kowa, Lilly, Merck, and Syros. He serves on the scientific advisory boards of Bridge Medicines, Earli, and Harpoon Therapeutics. GJR reports institutional research support from Mirati, Lilly, Takeda, Merck, Roche, Pfizer, and Novartis. MGK reports honoraria from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Merus, and BerGenBio. MDH reports grants from BMS; and personal fees from Achilles; Adagene; Adicet; Arcus; AstraZeneca; Blueprint; BMS; DaVolterra; Eli Lilly; Genentech/Roche; Genzyme/Sanofi; Janssen; Immunai; Instil Bio; Mana Therapeutics; Merck; Mirati; Natera; Pact Pharma; Shattuck Labs; and Regeneron; as well as equity options from Factorial, Immunai, Shattuck Labs, Arcus, and Avail Bio. A patent filed by Memorial Sloan Kettering related to the use of tumor mutational burden to predict response to immunotherapy (PCT/US2015/062208) is pending and licensed by PGDx. Subsequent to the completion of this work, MDH began as an employee (and equity holder) at AstraZeneca. MA reports that he was a consultant to: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Genentech, AstraZeneca, Mirati, Novartis, Blueprint Medicine, Abbvie, Gritstone, NextCure, EMD Serono and received research funding (to institute) from: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Genentech, AstraZeneca, Amgen. AS reports consulting/advising role to J&J, KSQ therapeutics, BMS, Merck, Enara Bio, Perceptive Advisors, Oppenheimer and Co, Umoja Biopharma, Legend Biotech, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Lyell Immunopharma and Heat Biologics, research funding from GSK (Inst), PACT pharma (Inst), Iovance Biotherapeutics (Inst), Achilles therapeutics (Inst), Merck (Inst), BMS (Inst), Harpoon Therapeutics (Inst) and Amgen (Inst). AS reports consulting/advising role to J&J, KSQ therapeutics, BMS, Merck, Enara Bio, Perceptive Advisors, Oppenheimer and Co, Umoja Biopharma, Legend Biotech, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Lyell Immunopharma and Heat Biologics. Research funding: GSK (Inst), PACT pharma (Inst), Iovance Biotherapeutics (Inst), Achilles therapeutics (Inst), Merck (Inst), BMS (Inst), Harpoon Therapeutics (Inst) and Amgen (Inst)., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: KEAP1 mutations have been associated with reduced survival in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), particularly in the presence of STK11/KRAS alterations. We hypothesized that, beyond co-occurring genomic events, clonality prediction may help identify deleterious KEAP1 mutations and their counterparts with retained sensitivity to ICIs., Patients and Methods: Beta-binomial modelling of sequencing read counts was used to infer KEAP1 clonal inactivation by combined somatic mutation and loss of heterozygosity (KEAP1 C-LOH) versus partial inactivation [KEAP1 clonal diploid-subclonal (KEAP1 CD-SC)] in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) MetTropism cohort (N = 2550). Clonality/LOH prediction was compared to a streamlined clinical classifier that relies on variant allele frequencies (VAFs) and tumor purity (TP) (VAF/TP ratio). The impact of this classification on survival outcomes was tested in two independent cohorts of LUAD patients treated with immunotherapy (MSK/Rome N = 237; DFCI N = 461). Immune-related features were studied by exploiting RNA-sequencing data (TCGA) and multiplexed immunofluorescence (DFCI mIF cohort)., Results: Clonality/LOH inference in the MSK MetTropism cohort overlapped with a clinical classification model defined by the VAF/TP ratio. In the ICI-treated MSK/Rome discovery cohort, predicted KEAP1 C-LOH mutations were associated with shorter progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared to KEAP1 wild-type cases (PFS log-rank P = 0.001; OS log-rank P < 0.001). Similar results were obtained in the DFCI validation cohort (PFS log-rank P = 0.006; OS log-rank P = 0.014). In both cohorts, we did not observe any significant difference in survival outcomes when comparing KEAP1 CD-SC and wild-type tumors. Immune deconvolution and multiplexed immunofluorescence revealed that KEAP1 C-LOH and KEAP1 CD-SC differed for immune-related features., Conclusions: KEAP1 C-LOH mutations are associated with an immune-excluded phenotype and worse clinical outcomes among advanced LUAD patients treated with ICIs. By contrast, survival outcomes of patients whose tumors harbored KEAP1 CD-SC mutations were similar to those with KEAP1 wild-type LUADs., Competing Interests: Disclosure PV reports travel grants from Eisai, Roche, Pfizer, Novartis; speaker fees/advisory boards from Roche, Pfizer, Novartis, Gentili. RDM reports serving as a scientific advisory board member at Exosomics SpA (Siena IT), HiberCell Inc. (New York, NY), Kiromic Inc. (Houston, TX) and Exiris Inc. (Rome, IT). FC reports personal fees from Roche/Genentech, AstraZeneca, Takeda, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Lilly, and Bayer. MMA reported serving as a consultant for Achilles, AbbVie, Neon, Maverick, Nektar, and Hegrui; receiving grants and personal fees from Genentech, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, AstraZeneca, and Lilly; and receiving personal fees from Maverick, Blueprint Medicine, Syndax, Ariad, Nektar, Gritstone, ArcherDx, Mirati, NextCure, Novartis, EMD Serono, and NovaRx. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest. Data sharing Data concerning the Rome cohort are disclosed in our previous work.(8) MSK studies are available at www.cbioportal.org. The DFCI cohort is available from the authors upon reasonable request (B. Ricciuti and M.M. Awad)., (Copyright © 2022 European Society for Medical Oncology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: STK11 and KEAP1 mutations (STK11 mutant [STK11 MUT ] and KEAP1 MUT ) are among the most often mutated genes in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Although STK11 MUT has been associated with resistance to programmed death-(ligand)1 (PD-[L]1) inhibition in KRAS MUT LUAD, its impact on immunotherapy efficacy in KRAS wild-type (KRAS WT ) LUAD is currently unknown. Whether KEAP1 MUT differentially affects outcomes to PD-(L)1 inhibition in KRAS MUT and KRAS WT LUAD is also unknown., Methods: Clinicopathologic and genomic data were collected from September 2013 to September 2020 from patients with advanced LUAD at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Massachusetts General Hospital cohort and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center/MD Anderson Cancer Center cohort. Clinical outcomes to PD-(L)1 inhibition were analyzed according to KRAS, STK11, and KEAP1 mutation status in two independent cohorts. The Cancer Genome Atlas transcriptomic data were interrogated to identify differences in tumor gene expression and tumor immune cell subsets, respectively, according to KRAS/STK11 and KRAS/KEAP1 comutation status., Results: In the combined cohort (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Massachusetts General Hospital + Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center/MD Anderson Cancer Center) of 1261 patients (median age = 61 y [range: 22-92], 708 women [56.1%], 1065 smokers [84.4%]), KRAS mutations were detected in 536 cases (42.5%), and deleterious STK11 and KEAP1 mutations were found in 20.6% (260 of 1261) and 19.2% (231 of 1202) of assessable cases, respectively. In each independent cohort and in the combined cohort, STK11 and KEAP1 mutations were associated with significantly worse progression-free (STK11 hazard ratio [HR] = 2.04, p < 0.0001; KEAP1 HR = 2.05, p < 0.0001) and overall (STK11 HR = 2.09, p < 0.0001; KEAP1 HR = 2.24, p < 0.0001) survival to immunotherapy uniquely among KRAS MUT but not KRAS WT LUADs. Gene expression ontology and immune cell enrichment analyses revealed that the presence of STK11 or KEAP1 mutations results in distinct immunophenotypes in KRAS MUT , but not in KRAS WT , lung cancers., Conclusions: STK11 and KEAP1 mutations confer worse outcomes to immunotherapy among patients with KRAS MUT but not among KRAS WT LUAD. Tumors harboring concurrent KRAS/STK11 and KRAS/KEAP1 mutations display distinct immune profiles in terms of gene expression and immune cell infiltration., (Copyright © 2021 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Lung carcinogenesis is a complex and stepwise process involving accumulation of genetic mutations in signaling and oncogenic pathways via interactions with environmental factors and host susceptibility. Tobacco exposure is the leading cause of lung cancer, but its relationship to clinically relevant mutations and the composite tumor mutation burden (TMB) has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we investigated the dose-response relationship in a retrospective observational study of 931 patients treated for advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) between April 2013 and February 2020 at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Doubling smoking pack-years was associated with increased KRAS G12C and less frequent EGFR del19 and EGFR L858R mutations, whereas doubling smoking-free months was associated with more frequent EGFR L858R . In advanced lung adenocarcinoma, doubling smoking pack-years was associated with an increase in TMB, whereas doubling smoking-free months was associated with a decrease in TMB, after controlling for age, gender, and stage. There is a significant dose-response association of smoking history with genetic alterations in cancer-related pathways and TMB in advanced lung adenocarcinoma. SIGNIFICANCE: This study clarifies the relationship between smoking history and clinically relevant mutations in non-small cell lung cancer, revealing the potential of smoking history as a surrogate for tumor mutation burden., (©2021 American Association for Cancer Research.)

Background: ROS1 rearrangements define a subset of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) that are susceptible to therapeutic ROS1 kinase inhibition. Despite the fact that most patients initially respond to the first-generation ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) crizotinib, relapse invariably occurs, and therapeutic options upon disease progression are limited., Patients and Methods: We conducted a multicenter study of patients with ROS1-rearranged NSCLC who progressed on ROS1 TKIs and examined the clinical outcomes based on the post-progression treatment approaches., Results: Among 29 patients with ROS1-rearrangement who received at least 1 ROS1 inhibitor, the median age was 51 years (range, 30-80 years), 70.8% of patients were female, and 68.9% were never-smokers. Upon progression to the first TKI, 11 patients (37.9%) received treatment with TKIs beyond progression. The median second progression-free survival to TKIs in patents treated beyond progression was 5.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.1-9.1 months), whereas the post-progression survival was 21.0 months (95% CI, 5.5 months-not reached [NR]). Eleven (37.9%) patients received a sequential treatment with lorlatinib ROS1 TKIs following a first generation ROS1 TKI. The overall response rate, median progression-free survival, and median overall survival (OS) to next-generation TKIs were 41.7% (95% CI, 15.2%-72.3%), 12.7 months (95% CI, 8.5 months-NR), and 17.0 months (95% CI, 15.8 months-NR), respectively. Patients treated with sequential ROS1 TKIs had a significantly longer median OS compared with those who were not (NR vs. 16.1 months; hazard ratio, 0.26; 95% CI, 0.10-0.78; P = .017)., Conclusion: In this study, we reported that a subset of patients with ROS1-rearranged NSCLC may benefit from treatment with TKIs beyond progression and that sequential treatment with crizotinib followed by lorlatinib is associated with improved OS in patients with ROS1-rearranged NSCLC., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: The incidence of any and of severe-grade immune-related adverse events (irAEs) with second-line nivolumab monotherapy is 31-65 % and 2-5 % respectively. While potentially serious and even fatal, in the absence of an appropriate therapy, such events might be indicators of the activation of the immune system and, potentially, of efficacy., Materials and Methods: We collected the records of 1959 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with nivolumab in the Italian expanded access program, and we registered the appearance of any and of severe grade irAEs. We retrospectively searched for correlations between toxicity and efficacy parameters by using Cox's regression analysis., Results: Overall, 342 (17.8%) patients developed an irAE of any grade. We observed that patients developing irAE of any grade achieved a significantly higher response rate (RR 27.2% vs 15.2%; p < 0.0001), disease control rate (DCR 60.5% vs 40.2%; p < 0.0001), median progression-free survival (mPFS 6.0 months [95% CI 4.9-7.1] vs 3.0 [95% CI: 2.8-3.2], p < 0.0001) and median overall survival (mOS 16.7 months [95% CI: 13.5-19.9] vs 9.4 [95% CI: 8.4-10.4], p < 0.00001) compared to patients who did not. At multivariate analysis the development of an irAE remained an independent indicator of nivolumab efficacy (HR 1.44 [95% CI: 1.22-1.71] p < 0.0001)., Conclusions: This report, performed in Caucasian NSCLC patients, showed that the appearance of irAEs correlated with outcome., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: In non-small-cell lung cancers with programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression on ≥50% of tumor cells, first-line treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab improves survival compared with platinum-doublet chemotherapy. Whether higher PD-L1 levels within the expression range of 50%-100% predict for even greater benefit to pembrolizumab is currently unknown., Patients and Methods: In this multicenter retrospective analysis, we analyzed the impact of PD-L1 expression levels on the overall response rate (ORR), median progression-free survival (mPFS), and median overall survival (mOS) in patients who received commercial pembrolizumab as first-line treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a PD-L1 expression of ≥50% and negative for genomic alterations in the EGFR and ALK genes ., Results: Among 187 patients included in this analysis, the ORR was 44.4% [95% confidence interval (CI) 37.1% to 51.8%], the mPFS was 6.5 months (95% CI 4.5-8.5), and the mOS was not reached. The median PD-L1 expression level among patients who experienced a response to pembrolizumab was significantly higher than among patients with stable or progressive disease (90% versus 75%, P < 0.001). Compared with patients with PD-L1 expression of 50%-89% (N = 107), patients with an expression level of 90%-100% (N = 80) had a significantly higher ORR (60.0% versus 32.7%, P < 0.001), a significantly longer mPFS [14.5 versus 4.1 months, hazard ratio (HR) 0.50 (95% CI 0.33-0.74), P < 0.01], and a significantly longer mOS [not reached versus 15.9 months, HR 0.39 (95% CI 0.21-0.70), P = 0.002]., Conclusion: Among patients with NSCLC and PD-L1 expression of ≥50% treated with first-line pembrolizumab, clinical outcomes are significantly improved in NSCLCs with a PD-L1 expression of ≥90%. These findings have implications for treatment selection as well as for clinical trial interpretation and design., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)