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Objectives ABIGAIL, a phase II, randomized, open-label, multicenter study evaluated the correlation between biomarkers and best overall response (BOR) to bevacizumab with chemotherapy in patients with advanced or recurrent non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Exploratory analyses of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) clinical genotyping data are presented. Materials and methods A total of 303 patients with NSCLC were randomized to receive bevacizumab 7.5 mg/kg or 15 mg/kg until progression or unacceptable toxicity (plus six cycles of chemotherapy). Patients provided blood samples for biomarker analysis. Exploratory analyses were conducted to assess whether genetic variants in VEGF-A or VEGFR-1/-2 act as efficacy or safety biomarkers. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were determined using individual genotyping assays. DNA analysis for 12 SNPs across three genes is reported: VEGF-A (five SNPs), VEGFR-1 (three SNPs), and VEGFR-2 (four SNPs). Results VEGF-A: c.+405/c.−634 (CG), VEGF-A: c.−460 >C; c−1498 >C (CT), and VEGF-A: c.−2578 C>A were associated with >50% higher odds of responding to treatment. VEGFR-1: rs9554316 (GT) was associated with >30% higher risk of progression and >40% higher risk of death. VEGF-A: c.+936 C>T was associated with higher incidence of hypertension. Conclusions Four genetic variants of VEGF-A and VEGFR-1 were associated with bevacizumab treatment outcome. Three variants in VEGF-A were associated with increased BOR, one variant in VEGFR-1 was associated with worse progression-free survival/overall survival. These associations were not statistically significant after correction for multiple testing. No genetic variant was associated with significantly higher risk of hypertension. Replication in additional studies may provide insight into the use of these variants to predict response to bevacizumab.

BackgroundThe incidence of candidemia varied between hospitals and different study periods. Few, if any, studies provide the reasons. This hospital-based population study aimed to describe and compare the patient population hospitalized in 2002 and 2010 and determine the disease-specific incidences of candidemia and evaluate the impact of time to initiate antifungal therapy on 30-day mortality.Patients and methodsAll patients hospitalized at a 2300-bed teaching hospital in Taiwan in 2002 and 2010 were analyzed for the distribution of age, sex, and type of underlying diseases (maximum of six diagnoses). All patients with blood isolates that were collected in 2002 and 2010 and yielded Candida species were included for analysis of the demographic and clinical characteristics, distribution of Candida species, length of hospital stay before candidemia, stay in the intensive care units at onset of candidemia, time of initiating systemic antifungal agent, antifungal regimen, and 30-day crude mortality.ResultsIn 2010, the hospitalized patients were older (p

Summary Background Afatinib is an irreversible ErbB-family blocker with preclinical activity in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with EGFR mutations. We aimed to assess the efficacy of afatinib in patients with lung adenocarcinoma and EGFR mutations. Methods In this phase 2 study, we enrolled patients from 30 centres in Taiwan and the USA with lung adenocarcinoma (stage IIIb with pleural effusion or stage IV) with EGFR mutations, who had no more than one previous chemotherapy regimen for advanced disease, an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0–2, and no previous treatment with EGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitors. We tested two afatinib starting doses: 50 mg daily and subsequently 40 mg daily, introduced to establish whether tolerability could be improved with retention of anti-tumour activity. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients with a confirmed objective response (complete response or partial response), on the basis of Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors 1.0 (independent review). This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00525148. Findings 129 patients were treated with afatinib, 99 with a starting dose of 50 mg and 30 with a starting dose of 40 mg. 79 (61%) of 129 patients had an objective response (two complete responses, 77 partial responses). 70 (66%) of the 106 patients with the two common activating EGFR mutations (deletion 19 or L858R) had an objective response, as did nine (39%) of 23 patients with less common mutations. Similar proportions of patients had an objective response when analysed by starting dose (18 [60%] of 30 patients at 40 mg vs 61 [62%] of 99 patients at 50 mg). Of the two most common adverse events (diarrhoea and rash or acne), grade 3 events were more common in patients receiving a 50 mg starting dose (22 [22%] of 99 patients for diarrhoea and 28 [28%] of 99 patients for rash or acne) than they were in those receiving a 40 mg starting dose (two [7%] of 30 patients for both diarrhoea and rash or acne); possibly treatment-related serious adverse events were also less common in patients receiving a 40 mg starting dose (two of 30 patients vs 14 of 99 patients). We recorded one possibly drug-related death (interstitial lung disease). Interpretation Afatinib shows activity in the treatment of patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma with EGFR mutations, especially in patients with deletion 19 or L858R mutations. The efficacy of afatinib 40 mg should be compared with chemotherapy or other EGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitors in EGFR-mutation-positive NSCLC. Funding Boehringer Ingelheim Inc.