Rare tumors: a blue ocean of investigation / 医学前沿

Advances in novel drugs, therapies, and genetic techniques have revolutionized the diagnosis and treatment of cancers, substantially improving cancer patients' prognosis. Although rare tumors account for a non-negligible number, the practice of precision medicine and development of novel therapies are largely hampered by many obstacles. Their low incidence and drastic regional disparities result in the difficulty of informative evidence-based diagnosis and subtyping. Sample exhaustion due to difficulty in diagnosis also leads to a lack of recommended therapeutic strategies in clinical guidelines, insufficient biomarkers for prognosis/efficacy, and inability to identify potential novel therapies in clinical trials. Herein, by reviewing the epidemiological data of Chinese solid tumors and publications defining rare tumors in other areas, we proposed a definition of rare tumor in China, including 515 tumor types with incidences of less than 2.5/100 000 per year. We also summarized the current diagnosis process, treatment recommendations, and global developmental progress of targeted drugs and immunotherapy agents on the status quo. Lastly, we pinpointed the current recommendation chance for patients with rare tumors to be involved in a clinical trial by NCCN. With this informative report, we aimed to raise awareness on the importance of rare tumor investigations and guarantee a bright future for rare tumor patients.

Progress on clinical trials of cancer drugs in China, 2019 / 中华肿瘤杂志

Objective@#To deliver macro understanding of the latest research progress on clinical trials and approved products of cancer drugs in China in 2019.@*Methods@#The number of clinical trials and related investigational products by domestic and foreign enterprises in 2019 were acquired in the China Food and Drug Administration Registration and Information Disclosure Platform for Drug Clinical Studies, while listed drugs were obtained in the China Food and Drug Administration Query System for Domestic and Imported Drug. Characteristics on stage, scope, indication of those trials, classification and mechanism of involved products, as well as listed anticancer drugs were summarized and depicted.@*Results@#There were 474 cancer drug trials registered in China in 2019, accounting for 21.8% of the total, and 397 (83.8%) were initiated by domestic pharmaceutical enterprises. Overall, international multicenter trials accounted for 13.1%, and phase I trials accounted for 47.3%. Compared with global enterprises, the proportion of international multi-center trials initiated by domestic companies is lower (4.8% vs. 55.8%, P<0.001), and the proportion of phase I clinical trials and bioequivalence trials is higher (51.9% vs. 23.4%, 19.4% vs. 1.3%, P<0.001). An accumulative of 27 cancer types were involved for all the cancer drug trials, and lung cancer, solid tumor, and breast cancer were the most common cancer types, with 103, 95 and 49 trials, respectively. For the three cancer types unique to Chinese population, gastric, liver and esophageal cancer, the total number of initiated trials was 47. For all those trials, there were 335 cancer drug varieties, with 86.0% developed by domestic pharmaceutical enterprises, including 300 therapeutic drugs, 30 adjunctive drugs and 5 preventive drugs. In terms of mechanism, targeted drugs and immune drugs were the most popular, accounting for 74.6% and 20.3%, respectively. In addition, 17 anticancer drugs targeting on 11 cancer types were approved in China in 2019.@*Conclusions@#Clinical trials on cancer drugs in China have ushered a booming era, with large number of innovative agents represented by targeted drugs and immune drugs under clinical development or putting into clinical practice. Those local enterprises are playing more and more critical roles. Strengthening clinical research and development on Chinese unique cancer types is the key direction of future work.

A review of immune-related adverse events associated with immunotherapy / 中华肿瘤杂志

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have been approved for clinical application in China. However, the increased immune-related adverse event (irAE) needs more attention. This review summarized the incidence, characteristic clinical manifestation and treatment of irAEs associated with programmed cell death protein-1(PD-1) and programmed cell death ligand-1(PD-L1) inhibitors. To have a deep insight into irAE, the potential mechanisms, the different incidences of cancer types, influencing factors and the direction of future research were also discussed here to provide guidance for clinical oncologist to identify and monitor irAE.

Awareness and Influencing Factors of Clinical Trial Among Cancer Patients in China / 中国肺癌杂志

BACKGROUND@#Early investigation suggested patients' level of awareness regarding clinical trials was related with willingness to participation. This study was intended to evaluate the level of awareness of cancer patients regarding clinical trials and related influencing factors, and to compare the differences of awareness between patients who attended clinical trials before and not.@*METHODS@#From Jun, 2018 to April, 2019, standardized question-naires were gathered from cancer patients (attended clinical trials vs not attended clinical trials) in our hospital regarding basic information and 10 other questions about awareness. The level of awareness was evaluated and patients were classified into "low cognition" and "high cognition" groups. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine whether certain characteristics would predict for awareness.@*RESULTS@#Of the 617 participants, 38.6% have attended clinical trials before. 338 (54.6%) patients had a correct overall understanding of clinical trials, while 44 (7.1%) patients still thought participants were the victim of scientific research. Except for the compensation of medical expenses (51.5% vs 48.7%) and related laws of clinical trials (52.3% vs 45.5%), other parts of understanding were elevated in patients attended clinical trials before comparing with patients who didn't, including significance (86.2% vs 77.6%), risk disclosure (91.2% vs 71.6%), confidentiality (73.2% vs 59.7%), voluntariness (95.8% vs 76.3%), withdrawal (86.6% vs 68.2%) and expenses (62.8% vs 39.2%). The proportion of participants who understand these components did not increase even in 239 patients who had attended clinical trials before. Participants who attended clinical trials before (OR=1.83, 95%CI: 1.11-3.00), unmarried/divorced (OR=5.04, 95%CI: 1.73-14.66), retired (OR=2.53, 95%CI: 1.16-5.50) had a higher level of awareness, while patients who had bad impression with doctors (OR=0.43, 95%CI: 0.26-0.72) had lower awareness.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The current level of awareness for clinical trials of cancer patients in our hospital was relatively low, even in patients who had attended clinical trials before. It's necessary to improve patients' awareness of clinical trial by promoting harmony relationship between patients and doctors, as well as by enhancing related propagation. Strengthening the adequacy and efficacy of informed consent in clinical trials also needs to be achieved in the future.

Acceptance and Related Causes of Clinical Trials among Cancer Patients in China / 中国肺癌杂志

BACKGROUND@#The clinical trials of new anti-tumor drugs are prospering in China. The acceptance of clinical trials in patients is an important factor affecting the speed and quality of clinical trials. Previous studies have investigated the acceptance of clinical trials in those cancer patients, who have never participated in a trial. This study is designed to investigate and compare the acceptance and related causes of clinical trials in cancer patients who have once participated in a clinical trial or not.@*METHODS@#From June 2018 to April 2019, a standardized questionnaire-based survey was conducted among two groups of cancer patients classified by history of clinical trial participation in Cancer hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science, mainly focusing on their overall acceptance of clinical trials and related considerations, including the role of attending doctors, as well as group differences between the two participants.@*RESULTS@#A total of 538 patients were enrolled with an average age of 53.5 years old, 51.1% of whom were males, and 43.3% of whom have never participated in a clinical trial. Overall, 502 patients (93.3%) were willing to or recommend their relatives or friends to participate in clinical trials, and patients with history of clinical trial participation had higher willingness (96.6% vs 90.8%, P=0.008). Patients were most likely to be motivated by expectation of optimal treatment (100.0% vs 99.3%) for both those who had once participated in a clinical trial or those not, respectively followed by financial burden reduction (56.0%) and recommendation by attending doctor (43.7%). The main reasons for unwillingness-to-participate for those who had once participated in a clinical trial were abandoning other treatment options, divided into control group or additional visits, while for those who had never participated in a clinical trial, ineffective treatment or serious adverse reactions were their main concerns. In the decision-making of clinical trial participation, 88% patients highly valued the role of recommendation by attending doctors. Among patients without trial participation history, 60.9% of those had no unwillingness-to-participate expressed that recommendation by attending doctors would change their decisions. The study also reported patients' preferences for information and access to clinical trials.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The acceptance of clinical trials in cancer patients in our hospital is generally high, especially in patients who had a history of trial participation. It's of substantial significance to give full play to the role of doctors in improving the acceptance of clinical trials of cancer patients in China.

Analysis and discussion on the facet of the spinal column, spiral CT lock multiplanar reconstruction and 3D reconstruction / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the imaging appearances and diagnostic value of axial CT scanning, spiral CT multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) and three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction in vertebral facet joints locking.
@*METHODS@#A total of 31 cases of vertebral facet joints locking, with injuries in different parts, were recruited to explore their CT features, and to evaluate their advantages in diagnosis against each other.
@*RESULTS@#Among the CT images of 31 cases with "Hamburger" sign in axial view, there were 21 cases of cervical spine and 10 cases of thoracolumbar segment; in vertical plane of MPR, "top to top" form was formed below the inferior and the superior articular process, accompanied by I° spondylolisthesis and inferior articular process tip fracture; 5 cases were unilateral locked cervical spine; none case for thoracolumbar segment. The inferior articular process was crossed with the superior articular process below and moved forward, formed "back to back" form, accompanied by II°-III° spondylolisthesis. 9 or 6 cases were bilateral or unilateral locking cervical spine, 10 cases were thoracolumbar segment, accompanied by teardrop fracture in the vertebral body below cervical spine. In coronal plane of MPR, inferior articular process showed ingression in different extent, and relied on the superior articular process below or locked in the articular fossa (21 cases for cervical spine); inferior articular process displayed upward displacement or appeared with the superior articular process at the same time, which meant joint structure disappearing thoracolumbar segment (10 cases). In 3D reconstruction, 31 cases displayed clearly in the spatial form of vertebral facet joints locking and the degree of spondylolisthesis of vertebral body.
@*CONCLUSION@#MPR and 3D image were more clear and intuitive in vertebral facet joints locking comparing to axial CT scan image. Spiral CT MPR and 3D reconstruction contributed to the diagnosis of vertebral facet joints locking and the reduction of misdiagnoses rates.

Relationship between EGFR protein phosphorylation,EGFR mutation and EGFR-TKI efifcacy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer / 中国癌症杂志

Background and purpose:EGFR-TKI (EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors), represented by geiftinib and erlotinib, have exhibited signiifcant antiproliferative effects against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with low toxicity.EGFR gene mutation was discovered to be a predictive biomarker for EGFR-TKI treatment. Although the efifcacy of EGFR-TKI is limited toEGFR wild-type patients, it is still noticeable suggesting that some other mechanisms are responsible for it. The current study is aimed at evaluating the expression of phosphorylated EGFR in advanced NSCLC, investigating its relationship withEGFR mutations and EGFR-TKI efifcacy.Methods:EGFR gene mutations were detected by denaturing high performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) in 205 stageⅢB-ⅣNSCLC patients. The expressions of phosphorylated tyrosine 1068 (pTyr1068) and 1173 (pTyr1173) were detected by immunohistochemistry.Results:The positive expressions of pTyr1068 and pTyr1173 were 80.0% (164/205) and 57.6% (95/165) respectively. None of them were related to clinical pathological characteristics (age, gender, pathological type, smoking status, disease stage).EGFR gene mutation rate was 44.9% (92/205), which was only related to smoking status (P=0.024) compared to other clinical pathological characteristics.EGFR gene mutations were poorly related to pTyr1068 expression (P<0.001) and not related to pTyr1173 expression (P=0.297). The objective response rate (ORR),disease control rate (DCR), and progressive free survival (PFS) of EGFR-TKI treatment in patients withEGFR mutations were 48.3% (43/89), 80.9% (72/89) and 8 months (95%CI: 6.11-11.42) respectively, which were signiifcantly higher than that ofEGFR wild-type patients [ORR=16.2% (17/105,P<0.001); DCR=56.2%(59/105,P<0.001); Median PFS: 2.1 months, (95%CI: 0.89-3.24;P=0.001)]. Superior ORR: DCR and PFS appeared in patients with pTyr1068 positive expression compared to negative [ORR: 37.7% (58/154)vs 5.0% (2/40,P<0.001); DCR: 74.7% (115/154)vs 40.0% (16/40,P<0.001); Median PFS: 7.0 monthsvs 1.2 months,P<0.001)]. Inversely, the patients with pTyr1173 positive expression had lower ORR, DCR and shorter PFS [ORR: 27.8% (25/90)vs 37.9%(25/66,P=0.123); DCR: 64.4% (58/90)vs 83.3% (55/66,P=0.007); Median PFS: 4.8 monthsvs 7.7 months (P=0.016)]. In subgroup ofEGFR wild-type patients, positive expression of pTyr1068 was 69.0% (69/100).EGFR wild-type patients with pTyr1068 positive expression had a prolonged PFS and elevated ORR and DCR compared to negative [median PFS: 3.6 monthsvs 1.2 months (P<0.001); ORR: 23.2%vs 3.2% (P=0.010); DCR: 69.6%vs 35.5% (P=0.001)]. Sixteen patients with pTyr1068 positive expression who responded to EGFR-TKI treatment in this subgroup had a remarkable PFS [median PFS: 15.6 months (95%CI:7.28-23.9)]. Multiple factor analysis showed that the expression of pTyr1068 was an independence predictor factor for EGFR-TKI treatment (OR=0.24, 95%CI: 0.16~0.37,P<0.001). Conclusion:Phosphorylation at Tyr1068 of EGFR might be a potential predictive factor for clinical response and survival of EGFR-TKI treatment in patients with advanced NSCLC, especially inEGFR wild-type patients.