Two novel tumours with NTRK2 fusion in the methylation class of extraventricular neurocytomas, including one intraventricular.

We report here about two novel tumours classified as extraventricular neurocytomas (EVN) using DNA-methylation profiling, associated with NTRK2 fusions instead of the usual FGFR1 alterations so far attributed to this tumoural entity. We present the second detailed case of an intraventricular presentation in the MC EVN. Our findings broaden the spectrum of MC EVN and have implications in terms of diagnosis, therapy and terminology.

Anti-fibrotic effects of nintedanib on lung fibroblasts derived from patients with Progressive Fibrosing Interstitial Lung Diseases (PF-ILDs).

The tyrosine kinase inhibitor nintedanib has been recently approved for the treatment of Interstitial Lung Diseases (ILDs) that manifest a progressive fibrosis phenotype other than Idiopathic pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Nintedanib reduces the development of lung fibrosis in various animal models resembling features of PF-ILD and in vitro, it inhibits the fibrosing phenotype of human lung fibroblasts (HLFs) isolated from patients with IPF. To get insight on the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive the clinical efficiency of nintedanib in patients with non-IPF PF-ILD, we investigated its effects on the fibrosing functions of HLFs derived from patients with PF-hypersensitivity pneumonitis (PF-HP, n = 7), PF-sarcoidosis (n = 5) and pleuroparenchymal fibroelastosis (PPFE, n = 4). HLFs were treated with nintedanib (10 nM-1 µM) and then stimulated with PDGF-BB (25-50 ng/ml) or TGF-ß1 (1 ng/ml) for 24-72 h to assess proliferation and migration or differentiation. At nanomolar concentrations, nintedanib reduced the levels of PDGF receptor and ERK1/2 phosphorylation, the proliferation and the migration of PF-HP, PF-sarcoidosis and PPFE HLFs stimulated with PDGF-BB. Moreover, nintedanib also attenuates the myofibroblastic differentiation driven by TGF-ß1 but only when it is used at 1 µM. The drug reduced the phosphorylation of SMAD2/3 and decreased the induction of collagen, fibronectin and α-smooth muscle actin expression induced by TGF-ß1. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that nintedanib counteracts fundamental fibrosing functions of lung fibroblasts derived from patients with PF-HP, PF-sarcoidosis and PPFE, at concentrations previously reported to inhibit control and IPF HLFs. Such effects may contribute to its clinical benefit in patients suffering from these irreversible ILDs.

Clinico-pathological and epigenetic heterogeneity of diffuse gliomas with FGFR3::TACC3 fusion.

BACKGROUND: Gliomas with FGFR3::TACC3 fusion mainly occur in adults, display pathological features of glioblastomas (GB) and are usually classified as glioblastoma, IDH-wildtype. However, cases demonstrating pathological features of low-grade glioma (LGG) lead to difficulties in classification and clinical management. We report a series of 8 GB and 14 LGG with FGFR3:TACC3 fusion in order to better characterize them. METHODS: Centralized pathological examination, search for TERT promoter mutation and DNA-methylation profiling were performed in all cases. Search for prognostic factors was done by the Kaplan-Meir method. RESULTS: TERT promoter mutation was recorded in all GB and 6/14 LGG. Among the 7 cases with a methylation score > 0.9 in the classifier (v12.5), 2 were classified as glioblastoma, 4 as ganglioglioma (GG) and 1 as dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor (DNET). t-SNE analysis showed that the 22 cases clustered into three groups: one included 12 cases close to glioblastoma, IDH-wildtype methylation class (MC), 5 cases each clustered with GG or DNET MC but none with PLNTY MC. Unsupervised clustering analysis revealed four groups, two of them being clearly distinct: 5 cases shared age (< 40), pathological features of LGG, lack of TERT promoter mutation, FGFR3(Exon 17)::TACC3(Exon 10) fusion type and LGG MC. In contrast, 4 cases shared age (> 40), pathological features of glioblastoma, and were TERT-mutated. Relevant factors associated with a better prognosis were age < 40 and lack of TERT promoter mutation. CONCLUSION: Among gliomas with FGFR3::TACC3 fusion, age, TERT promoter mutation, pathological features, DNA-methylation profiling and fusion subtype are of interest to determine patients' risk.

Arsenic trioxide inhibits the functions of lung fibroblasts derived from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and fatal interstitial lung disease. Currently, no treatment can block or reverse the development of lung fibrosis in patients suffering from IPF. Recent studies indicate that arsenic trioxide (ATO), a safe, effective anti-cancer pro-oxidant drug, prevents the differentiation of normal human lung fibroblasts (NHLFs) in vitro and reduces experimental pulmonary fibrosis in vivo. In this context, we investigated the anti-fibrotic effects of ATO on the main fibrosis functions of human lung fibroblasts (HLFs) isolated from patients with IPF. IPF and non-IPF (control) HLFs were incubated with 0.01-1 µM ATO and stimulated with pro-fibrotic factors (PDGF-BB or TGF-ß1). We measured their rates of proliferation, migration and differentiation and the cell stress response triggered by ATO. ATO did not affect cell viability but strongly inhibited the proliferation and migration of PDGF-BB-stimulated IPF and control HLFs. ATO also prevented myofibroblastic differentiation, as assessed by the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and collagen-1, and the phosphorylation of SMAD2/3 in TGF-ß1-stimulated HLFs. These antifibrotic effects were associated with increased expression of the transcription factor NRF2 and its target genes NQO1 and HMOX1. Genetic silencing of NRF2 inhibited the ATO-induced cell stress response but did not prevent the ATO-dependent inhibition of α-SMA expression in TGF-ß1-stimulated HLFs. The results demonstrate that ATO, at concentrations similar to exposure in blood plasma of ATO-treated cancer patients, counteracted pro-fibrotic activities of HLFs from IPF patients. We propose to consider ATO for clinical exploration to define the therapeutic potential in patients with IPF.

Combining 18F-DOPA PET and MRI with perfusion-weighted imaging improves delineation of high-grade subregions in enhancing and non-enhancing gliomas prior treatment: a biopsy-controlled study.

PURPOSE: We aimed to compare spatial extent of high-grade subregions detected with combined [18F]-dihydroxyphenylalanine (18F-DOPA) PET and MRI to the one provided by advanced multimodal MRI alone including Contrast-enhanced (CE) and Perfusion weighted imaging (PWI). Then, we compared the accuracy between imaging modalities, in a per biopsy analysis. METHODS: Participants with suspected diffuse glioma were prospectively included between June 2018 and September 2019. Volumes of high-grade subregions were delineated respectively on 18F-DOPA PET and MRI (CE and PWI). Up to three per-surgical neuronavigation-guided biopsies were performed per patient. RESULTS: Thirty-eight biopsy samples from sixteen participants were analyzed. Six participants (38%) had grade IV IDH wild-type glioblastoma, six (38%) had grade III IDH-mutated astrocytoma and four (24%) had grade II IDH-mutated gliomas. Three patients had intratumoral heterogeneity with coexisting high- and low-grade tumor subregions. High-grade volumes determined with combined 18F-DOPA PET/MRI (median of 1.7 [interquartile range (IQR) 0.0, 19.1] mL) were larger than with multimodal MRI alone (median 1.3 [IQR 0.0, 12.8] mL) with low overlap (median Dice's coefficient 0.24 [IQR 0.08, 0.59]). Delineation volumes were substantially increased in five (31%) patients. In a per biopsy analysis, combined 18F-DOPA PET/MRI detected high-grade subregions with an accuracy of 58% compared to 42% (p = 0.03) with CE MRI alone and 50% (p = 0.25) using multimodal MRI (CE + PWI). CONCLUSIONS: The addition of 18F-DOPA PET to multimodal MRI (CE and PWI) enlarged the delineation volumes and enhanced overall accuracy for detection of high-grade subregions. Thus, combining 18F-DOPA with advanced MRI may improve treatment planning in newly diagnosed gliomas.

[Low-grade eosinophilic unclassified renal cell carcinoma, a recently proposed entity in the spectrum of eosinophilic renal cells tumors: Report of one case and discussion]. / Le carcinome rénal inclassé de bas grade à cellules éosinophiles, une entité récemment proposée dans le spectre des tumeurs rénales à cellules éosinophiles : étude d'un cas et discussion.

Low-grade eosinophilic unclassified renal cell carcinoma is a rare kidney tumor recently described, not included in the WHO classification, which is very close to oncocytoma. It is unknown to most pathologists and clinicians. From a histopathological point of view, this tumor is composed of oncocytic cells arranged in a diffuse and solid pattern, without cell nests, that makes it possible to differentiate it from oncocytoma, and expresses cytokeratin 7 (CK7) heterogeneously. We report a case with a cranial vault metastasis, and present the features to differentiate this entity from oncocytoma. Furthemore, we discuss about unclassified renal cell carcinomas with oncocytic cells.

Clinicopathological characteristics of ROS1- and RET-rearranged NSCLC in caucasian patients: Data from a cohort of 713 non-squamous NSCLC lacking KRAS/EGFR/HER2/BRAF/PIK3CA/ALK alterations.

Targeted therapies have substantially changed the management of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with driver oncogenes. Given the high frequency, EGFR and ALK aberrations were the first to be detected and paved the way for tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatments. Other kinases such as ROS1 and more recently RET have emerged as promising targets, and ROS1 and RET TKIs are already available for precision medicine. We screened a large cohort of 713 Caucasian non-squamous NSCLC patients lacking EGFR/KRAS/BRAF/HER2/PI3KCA/ALK aberrations for ROS1 and RET rearrangements using fluorescence in situ hybridization to determine the frequency and clinicopathological characteristics of ROS1- and RET-positive patients. Frequencies of ROS1 and RET rearrangements were 2.1% and 2.52%, respectively. Contrary to common belief, both ROS1 and RET rearrangements were detected in patients with a history of smoking, and the RET-positive patients were not younger than the negative patients. Moreover, RET but not ROS1 rearrangement was associated with the female gender. Nearly half of the ROS1-rearranged patients were successfully treated with ROS1 TKIs. In contrast, only 5/18 RET-positive patients received off-label RET TKIs. Two patients had stable disease, and three experienced disease progression. In addition to the 18 RET-positive cases, 10 showed isolated 5' signals. The clinical relevance is unknown but if the frequency is confirmed by other groups, the question whether these patients are eligible to TKIs will arise. More potent RET TKIs are under development and may improve the response rate in RET-positive patients. Therefore, we recommend the routine implementation of RET testing in non-squamous NSCLC patients, including those with a history of smoking.

CD90 Expression Controls Migration and Predicts Dasatinib Response in Glioblastoma.

Purpose: CD90 (Thy-1) is a glycophosphatidylinositol-anchored glycoprotein considered as a surrogate marker for a variety of stem cells, including glioblastoma (GBM) stem cells (GSC). However, the molecular and cellular functions of CD90 remain unclear.Experimental Design: The function of CD90 in GBM was addressed using cellular models from immortalized and primary GBM lines, in vivo orthotopic mouse models, and GBM specimens' transcriptome associated with MRI features from GBM patients. CD90 expression was silenced in U251 and GBM primary cells and complemented in CD90-negative U87 cells.Results: We showed that CD90 is not only expressed on GSCs but also on more differentiated GBM cancer cells. In GBM patients, CD90 expression was associated with an adhesion/migration gene signature and with invasive tumor features. Modulation of CD90 expression in GBM cells dramatically affected their adhesion and migration properties. Moreover, orthotopic xenografts revealed that CD90 expression induced invasive phenotypes in vivo Indeed, CD90 expression led to enhanced SRC and FAK signaling in our GBM cellular models and GBM patients' specimens. Pharmacologic inhibition of these signaling nodes blunted adhesion and migration in CD90-positive cells. Remarkably, dasatinib blunted CD90-dependent GBM cell invasion in vivo and killed CD90high primary GSC lines.Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that CD90 is an actor of GBM invasiveness through SRC-dependent mechanisms and could be used as a predictive factor for dasatinib response in CD90high GBM patients. Clin Cancer Res; 23(23); 7360-74. ©2017 AACR.

Clinical validation of the CE-IVD marked Therascreen MGMT kit in a cohort of glioblastoma patients.

BACKGROUND: Pyrosequencing is recognized as a strong technique to analyze the MGMT status of glioblastoma patients. The most commonly used assay, quantifies the methylation levels of CpGs 74 to 78. A more recent CE-marked In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Device (CE-IVD) assay, Therascreen, analyzes CpGs 76-79. METHODS: We performed a comparison of these two assays to evaluate the potential impact of this shift in analyzed CpGs. Therascreen analysis was centrally performed for 102 glioblastoma patients, who were part of a prospective multicenter trial. RESULTS: A strong correlation was observed for the mean values of the 4 or 5 analyzed CpGs, with lower values recorded using the Therascreen assay, especially for values greater than 20%. When considering a classification in 3 categories (> 12%: methylated; ⩽ 8%: unmethylated; 9-12%: grey zone), 93% of patients were identically classified between the two assays. Using a binary classification, 95% and 97% of patients were identically classified with cut-offs of 8% and 12%, respectively. A strong prognostic significance was observed for both assays: median overall survival were 15.9 months and 34.9 months for respectively unmethylated and methylated patients with either test. CONCLUSION: The results demonstrate that these assays may be used interchangeably.

Validation of the high-performance of pyrosequencing for clinical MGMT testing on a cohort of glioblastoma patients from a prospective dedicated multicentric trial.

BACKGROUND: The goal of this prospective multicentric trial was to validate a technique that allowed for MGMT promoter methylation analysis in routine clinical practice. METHODS: The MGMT status of 139 glioblastoma patients, whom had received standard first line treatment, was determined using pyrosequencing (PSQ) and a semi-quantitative Methylation-specific PCR (sqMS-PCR) method, using both frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded FFPE samples. Eight participating centers locally performed the analysis, including external quality controls. RESULTS: There was a strong correlation between results from FFPE and frozen samples. With cut-offs of 12% and 13%, 98% and 91% of samples were identically classified with PSQ and sqMS-PCR respectively. In 12% of cases frozen samples were excluded because they had a low percentage of tumor cells. In 5-6% of cases the analysis was not feasible on FFPE samples. The optimized risk cut-offs were higher in both techniques when using FFPE samples, in comparison to frozen samples. For sqMS-PCR, we validated a cut-off between 13-15% to dichotomize patients. For PSQ, patients with a low level of methylation (<= 8%) had a median progression-free survival under 9 months, as compared with more than 15.5 months for those with a level above 12%. For intermediate values (9-12%), more discordant results between FFPE and frozen samples were observed and there was not a clear benefit of temozolomide treatment, which indicated a "grey zone". CONCLUSIONS: MGMT status can reliably be investigated in local laboratories. PSQ is the ideal choice as proven by strong interlaboratory reproducibility, along with threshold agreements across independent studies.

Primary Leptomeningeal Gliomatosis in Children and Adults: A Morphological and Molecular Comparative Study With Literature Review.

BACKGROUND: Primary leptomeningeal gliomatosis (PLG) is a poorly recognized tumor of the central nervous system. OBJECTIVE: To describe the histopathological, immunohistochemical, and molecular features of PLG. METHODS: Results of our multicentric retrospective study of 6 PLG cases (3 pediatric and 3 adult) were compared with literature data. RESULTS: The mean age was 54.7 years for adults and 8.7 years for children, with 3 males and 3 females. Clinical symptoms were nonspecific. Cerebrospinal fluid analyses showed a high protein level often associated with pleocytosis but without neoplastic cells. On neuroimaging, diffuse leptomeningeal enhancement and hydrocephalus were observed, except in 1 case. PLG was mostly misinterpreted as infectious or tumoral meningitis. The first biopsy was negative in 50% of cases. Histopathologically, PLG cases corresponded to 1 oligodendroglioma without 1p19q codeletion and 5 astrocytomas without expression of p53. No immunostaining for IDH1R132H and no mutations of IDH1/2 and H3F3A genes were found. Overall survival was highly variable (2-82 months) but seems to be increased in children treated with chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: This study shows the difficulties of PLG diagnosis. The challenge is to achieve an early biopsy to establish a diagnosis and to begin a treatment, but the prognosis remains poor. PLG seems to have a different molecular and immunohistochemical pattern compared with intraparenchymal malignant gliomas.

Proteomic analysis underlines the usefulness of both primary adherent and stem-like cell lines for studying proteins involved in human glioblastoma.

Primary cell lines derived as neurospheres, enriched in cancer stem cells, are currently the focus of interest in glioblastoma to test new drugs, because of their tumor initiating abilities and resistance to conventional therapies. However, not all glioblastoma samples are propagatable under neurosphere culture and not all neurosphere cell lines are tumorigenic. These cells therefore cannot recapitulate the heterogeneity of glioblastoma samples. We have conducted a proteomic analysis of primary glioblastoma cell lines derived either as adherent cells in the presence of serum (n=11) or as neurospheres (n=12). A total of 963 proteins were identified by nano-LC/Q-TOF MS: 342 proteins were found only in neurosphere lines and were mostly implicated in various metabolic and cellular processes, while 112 proteins were found only in adherent cells and mostly linked to cell adhesion. A protein signature of 10 proteins, 9 of them involved in a cell adhesion pathway, characterized adherent lines. Neurospheres were characterized by 73 proteins mostly linked to DNA metabolic processes associated to cell cycle and protein metabolism. In the Repository of Molecular Brain Neoplasia Data, expression of genes coding for several proteins related to adherent cells or neurospheres were of prognostic relevance for glioblastoma. BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Primary cell lines enriched in cancer stem cells (CSC) have become popular models for testing new drugs for glioblastoma. In this proteomic study on an important number of cell lines obtained either as adherent cells in the presence of serum (a classic way to derive cell lines) or as neurospheres (enriched in CSC), we show that each type of cell line displays different GBM-specific features, highlighting that these two culture types are complementary tools for drug screening.

Parallel FISH and immunohistochemical studies of ALK status in 3244 non-small-cell lung cancers reveal major discordances.

INTRODUCTION: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements occur in 1% to 7% of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). Crizotinib, an ALK inhibitor, has been demonstrated to provide dramatic clinical benefits in ALK-positive advanced-stage NSCLC. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) has been established in clinical trials as the standard procedure method for detecting ALK rearrangements. Although the detection of ALK by immunohistochemistry (IHC) has been proposed for the screening of patients, large-scale studies are warranted to validate such a hierarchical approach. METHODS: In this article, we report the largest series thus far of parallel FISH and IHC ALK testing in 3244 consecutive NSCLC cases analyzed at two independent French centers. RESULTS: FISH-positive and/or IHC-positive results were demonstrated in 150 of 3244 cases (4.6%). An imbalanced sex ratio was detected, with women exhibiting a 2.2-fold relative risk for an alteration. Strikingly, only 80 of 150 specimens were classified as ALK positive by both techniques. The specimens with discordant FISH/IHC analyses were FISH-positive/IHC-negative (36), FISH-negative/IHC-positive (19), or FISH-noncontributive/IHC-positive (15). Thus, a single FISH or IHC analysis performed alone would have failed to detect approximately one-fourth of the ALK-positive cases with similar findings in our two centers. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the feasibility of systematic NSCLC testing by both FISH and IHC in routine practice. Many preanalytical factors may account for the apparent discrepancies between both methods, suggesting that hierarchical screening may underscore ALK-positive cases. This significant level of discrepancy supports the need of combined testing to optimize the detection of ALK-inhibitor-eligible patients given that some patients with discordant testing were found to respond to crizotinib.

Primary gliomatosis cerebri involving gray matter in pediatrics: a distinct entity? A multicenter study of 14 cases.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Gliomatosis cerebri (GC) is a rare neoplasm including a variety of tumors, with extremely variable evolution and heterogeneity of prognosis. It may appear either de novo or after a focal glioma, involve predominantly the white or the gray matter, and concern either pediatric or adult patients. We focused on primary GC involving exclusively gray matter in a pediatric population in order better to define the presentation and outcome of this disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed the databases of seven Departments of Pediatric Oncology to identify pediatric cases of GC between 1990 and 2007. Patients were included if they demonstrated a diffuse infiltrative process involving gray matter in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and histological tissue analyses, confirming a proliferative glial disorder. RESULTS: Fourteen patients with a median age of 8 years were identified. Epilepsy was the main presenting symptom. Brain MRI showed a lesion of the temporal and insular cerebral cortex associated with tumoral infiltration of the thalami and the basal ganglia. Histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of high-grade glioma. Prognosis was always very gloomy in the short term, with a median survival of less than a year. CONCLUSION: This rare entity, whose prognosis is appalling whatever the treatment proposed, should be clearly identified within the heterogeneous group of GC in the same way as diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas have been identified among brain stem tumors. Systematic biopsies appear essential to permit the molecular studies which will assist in guiding the choice of future targeted treatments.

Immune genes are associated with human glioblastoma pathology and patient survival.

BACKGROUND: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and lethal primary brain tumor in adults. Several recent transcriptomic studies in GBM have identified different signatures involving immune genes associated with GBM pathology, overall survival (OS) or response to treatment. METHODS: In order to clarify the immune signatures found in GBM, we performed a co-expression network analysis that grouped 791 immune-associated genes (IA genes) in large clusters using a combined dataset of 161 GBM specimens from published databases. We next studied IA genes associated with patient survival using 3 different statistical methods. We then developed a 6-IA gene risk predictor which stratified patients into two groups with statistically significantly different survivals. We validated this risk predictor on two other Affymetrix data series, on a local Agilent data series, and using RT-Q-PCR on a local series of GBM patients treated by standard chemo-radiation therapy. RESULTS: The co-expression network analysis of the immune genes disclosed 6 powerful modules identifying innate immune system and natural killer cells, myeloid cells and cytokine signatures. Two of these modules were significantly enriched in genes associated with OS. We also found 108 IA genes linked to the immune system significantly associated with OS in GBM patients. The 6-IA gene risk predictor successfully distinguished two groups of GBM patients with significantly different survival (OS low risk: 22.3 months versus high risk: 7.3 months; p < 0.001). Patients with significantly different OS could even be identified among those with known good prognosis (methylated MGMT promoter-bearing tumor) using Agilent (OS 25 versus 8.1 months; p < 0.01) and RT-PCR (OS 21.8 versus 13.9 months; p < 0.05) technologies. Interestingly, the 6-IA gene risk could also distinguish proneural GBM subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the immune signatures found in previous GBM genomic analyses and suggests the involvement of immune cells in GBM biology. The robust 6-IA gene risk predictor should be helpful in establishing prognosis in GBM patients, in particular in those with a proneural GBM subtype, and even in the well-known good prognosis group of patients with methylated MGMT promoter-bearing tumors.