Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on a Cancer Fast-Track Programme.

INTRODUCTION: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many aspects of clinical practice in oncology, particularly regarding early cancer diagnosis, sparking public health concerns that possible delays could increase the proportion of patients diagnosed at advanced stages. In 2009, a cancer fast-track program (CFP) was implemented at the Clinico-Malvarrosa Health Department in Valencia, Spain with the aim of shortening waiting times between suspected cancer symptoms, diagnosis and therapy initiation. OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to explore the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our cancer diagnosis fast-track program. METHODS: The program workflow (patients included and time periods) was analysed from the beginning of the state of alarm on March 16th, 2020 until March 15th, 2021. Data was compared with data from the same period of time from the year before (2019). RESULTS: During the pandemic year, 975 suspected cancer cases were submitted to the CFP. The number of submissions only decreased during times of highest COVID-19 incidence and stricter lockdown, and overall, referrals were slightly higher than in the previous 2 years. Cancer diagnosis was confirmed in 197 (24.1%) cases, among which 33% were urological, 23% breast, 16% gastrointestinal and 9% lung cancer. The median time from referral to specialist appointment was 13 days and diagnosis was reached at a median of 18 days. In confirmed cancer cases, treatment was started at around 30 days from time of diagnosis. In total, 61% of cancer disease was detected at early stage, 20% at locally advanced stage, and 19% at advanced stage, displaying time frames and case proportions similar to pre-pandemic years. CONCLUSIONS: Our program has been able to maintain normal flow and efficacy despite the challenges of the current pandemic, and has proven a reliable tool to help primary care physicians referring suspected cancer patients.

Pre-Treatment Levels of ctDNA for Long-Term Survival Prediction in Stage IIIA NSCLC Treated With Neoadjuvant Chemo-Immunotherapy

Introduction: There are currently no predictive biomarkers for long-term survival after neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy. However, the identification of non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who obtain long-term benefit from chemoimmunotherapy is essential to optimize therapies. Methods: Using samples from NADIM clinical trial (NCT03081689), in which resectable stage IIIA NSCLC patients were treated with neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy with nivolumab, we have evaluated the capacity of ctDNA levels before treatment initiation to predict overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) by calculating Harrell’s C-statistic and we compare its predictive value with classical survival surrogates as the pathological response and clinical response assessed according to RECIST criteria v.1.1. The ctDNA was analyzed by NGS, using the Oncomine Pan-Cancer Cell-Free Assay™ (Thermo Fisher Scientific®). To explore the prognostic value of the amount of ctDNA at baseline, for each positive plasma sample, we calculated the sum of the mutant allele frequency (MAF) for all detected mutations. Patients who died from COVID19 were excluded from this analysis. Results: In our study, clinical responses based on RECIST criteria were not predictive for OS or PFS. On the contrary, in the multivariate analysis, patients with low ctDNA levels (<1% MAF), in the baseline sample, had significantly improved PFS and OS than patients in whom the opposite situation occurred (adjusted HR: 0.22;95%CI: 0.06-0.75;P=0.016 and adjusted HR: 0.04;95%CI: 0.00-0.45;P=0.008 for PFS and OS, respectively). The adjusted C-statistic (c) to predict PFS for ctDNA was 0.68 (95%CI: 0.51-0.84), which was superior to that of RECIST criteria (c=0.61;95%CI: 0.45-0.78) and similar to that of pathological response (c=0.68;95%CI: 0.52-0.84). Similarly, baseline ctDNA levels predicted OS (c=0.85;95%CI: 0.72-0.99) better than RECIST criteria (c=0.68;95%CI: 0.44-0.93). Conclusion: Pre-treatment ctDNA levels predicted more accurately long-term survival than radiological assessments in NADIM study and might be useful for the design of new clinical trials.

Long Term Survival in Operable Stage Iiia Nsclc Patients Treated With Neoadjuvant Nivolumab Plus Chemotherapy - Nadim Study

Introduction: Neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy been shown to be highly effective in resectable stage IIIA NSCLC. Now we provide long term survival data Methods: This was an open-label, multicentre, single-arm phase 2 trial in which patients with histologically or cytologically documented stage IIIA NSCLC and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0 or 1 and who were deemed locally to be surgically resectable by a multidisciplinary clinical team were treated with neoadjuvant intravenous paclitaxel (200 mg/m2) and carboplatin (area under curve 6;6 mg/mL per min) plus nivolumab (360 mg) on day 1 of each 21-day cycle, for three cycles before surgical resection, followed by adjuvant intravenous nivolumab monotherapy for 1 year (240 mg every 2 weeks for 4 months, followed by 480 mg every 4 weeks for 8 months). Here we report progression-free survival (PFS) and Overall survival (OS) at 36 and 42 months, assessed in the modified intention-to-treat population (ITT), which included all patients who received neoadjuvant treatment, and in the per-protocol population (PP), which included all patients who had tumour resection and received at least one cycle of adjuvant treatment. Results: Median follow-up time was 37.9 months (95%CI: 36.7-40.7), with a 94% maturity at 36 months. Among the ITT population (N=46), 37 patients, constituting the PP population, received subsequent adjuvant therapy. Of them, 27 (58.7%) patients completed the adjuvant treatment (16 cycles), 10 (21.7%) patients received between 3 and 15 cycles of adjuvant therapy, and 9 (19.6%) patients did not receive adjuvant therapy. At the time of data cutoff (March 2021), progression disease was diagnosed in 14 patients and 9 deaths were recorded in the ITT population. Of these, three deaths corresponded to patients who did not undergo surgery and had disease progression, four deaths corresponded to patients who underwent surgery and had disease progression, and the two remaining deaths corresponded to patients who were diagnosed as being disease free but died from COVID19 infection. Notably, among patients who could not undergo surgery (N=5), one of them is still alive and with no evidence of disease. PFS at 36 and 42 months in the ITT population were 69.6% (95%CI: 54.1-80.7), in both cases. Similarly, PFS at 36 and 42 in the PP population were 81.1% (95%CI: 64.4-90.5) in both cases. The percentage of patients who were alive at 36 and 42 months in the modified ITT population were 81.86% (95% CI: 66.8-90.6) and 78.94% (95%CI: 63.1-88.6), respectively. Likewise, OS at 36 and 42 months in the PP population was 91.0% (95%CI: 74.2-97.0) and 87.3% (95%CI: 69.3-95.1), respectively. Conclusion: The efficacy of nivolumab in combination with platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with resectable stage IIIA NSCLC is clearly supported by long term survival data. Keywords: NADIM trial, neoadjuvant chemo-therapy, long term survival