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Background: Life-threatening immune-related adverse events (irAEs) that require hospital admission are not uncommon in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). The clinical and hematological parameters are attractive biomarkers as potential predictors of irAE. Methods: This is a retrospective study of patients with melanoma and lung cancer treated with ICIs between 2015 and 2019 at the University of South Alabama Mitchell Cancer Institute. Fisher’s exact test, Pearson Chi-squared test, log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazard model were used to evaluate clinical and hematological parameters as possible predictors of irAE. Results: The cohort consisted of 160 patients treated with at least two doses of ICI, of which 54 (33.8%) patients had melanoma and 106 (66.3%) had lung cancer. Incidence of irAE did not have any bearing on the overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) of the cohort. The clinical factors associated with irAE were dual-agent therapy (ipilimumab/nivolumab combination) and high disease burden (? 2 metastatic sites). The irAE-group had a lower mean platelet-to-lymphocyte ration (PLR, 200 vs. 257, P = 0.04). Although not statistically significant at the level of 0.05, other factors such as type of cancer (lung cancer > melanoma (P = 0.06)), stage at treatment (stage IV > stage II and III disease (P = 0.06)), and higher absolute lymphocyte counts (P = 0.07) showed a considerable association with irAE and warrants further review with different patient data. Conclusions: Irrespective of ICI used to treat lung cancer and melanoma, patients with high disease burden and dual-agent ICI therapy were more prone to irAE. The only hematological parameter that may predict the incidence of irAE is low baseline PLR. J Clin Med Res. 2021;13(5):268-275 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jocmr4511

Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors have become an important therapy for untreated and previously treated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Despite improved outcomes, rare adverse events, such as invasive fungal infections, have been reported with the use of first-generation BTK inhibitors. Invasive fungal infections carry a high morbidity and mortality risk. There have been several case reports describing the association between aspergillosis and ibrutinib treatment, but none with acalabrutinib, to our knowledge. In this case report, we describe a patient with CLL who developed an intracranial Aspergillus fumigatus infection while receiving acalabrutinib.

e15159 Background: Immune-related adverse events (irAE) remain a significant challenge with the expansion of checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) indications. Unlike previous studies published, we investigated risk factors for irAE development, including lymphocytes and neutrophils counts in lung cancer and melanoma treated with all available ICIs in current clinical practice. Methods: This is a retrospective study conducted at the University of South Alabama Mitchell Cancer Institute. Between 2015-2019. A total of 160 patients with a diagnosis of melanoma (N = 54) or lung cancer (N = 106) who received at least two doses of ICI including ipilimumab (15%), nivolumab (32%), pembrolizumab (35%), dual nivolumab/ipilimumab (5%), durvalumab (9%) and atezolizumab (4%). The patient's baseline characteristics were extracted with irAE (grade 3/4) details and survival outcomes. Descriptive statistics were used, Fisher exact test to compare categorical variables, and Wilcoxon rank sum test for continuous variables using JMP software. Results: The median age at diagnosis was 64 years (range 17-93), with 51% females. Race distribution with 76% Caucasians and 26% African Americans. Around 30% of the cohort was treated for recurrence, and 39% did receive prior systemic chemotherapy. Median overall survival (OS) was 13.5 months (m) for melanoma and 16 m for lung cancer with CI 95% [16-24] and [15-23], respectively. Twenty-nine (29%) percent of the cohort (N = 46) had grade 3/4 irAEs. Median of baseline hematological parameters including total white blood count (WBC), absolute neutrophil count (ANC), absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), ANC to ALC ratio, and platelet to ALC ratio of these patients were not statistically different from the cohort without grade 3/4 irAEs. Interestingly, if a patient has baseline ALC < 1K/μL, the risk of irAE recurrence is low when ICI is re-initiated, p = .0143 (after symptomatic recovery from irAEs). Conclusions: Irrespective of ICI used, baseline lymphocyte count, and its relation to other blood counts have no clear impact on irAE. Larger cohorts or prospective studies are needed to make stronger conclusions about the relationship between the immune system and the occurrence of irAEs

The Forkhead box M1 (FOXM1) is a transcription factor that has been implicated in normal cell growth and proliferation through control of cell cycle transition and mitotic spindle. It is implicated in carcinogenesis of various malignancies where it is activated by either amplification, increased stability, enhanced transcription, dysfunction of regulatory pathways, or activation of PI3K/AKT, epidermal growth factor receptor, Raf/MEK/MAPK, and Hedgehog pathways. This review describes the role of FOXM1 in breast cancer. This includes how FOXM1 impacts on different subtypes of breast cancer, that is, luminal/estrogen receptor positive (ER+), expressing human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), basal-like breast cancer (BBC), and triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). The review also describes different tested preclinical therapeutic strategies targeting FOXM1. Developing clinically applicable therapies that specifically inhibit FOXM1 activity is a logical next step in biomarker-driven approaches against breast cancer but will not be without its challenges due to the unique properties of this transcription factor.