RESUMO
Cancer patients frequently receive immune checkpoint therapies (ICT) which may modulate immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines. Recently, cytokine release syndrome (CRS) was observed in a cancer patient who received the BTN162b2 vaccine under ICT. Here, we analyzed adverse events (AEs) in patients of various solid tumor types undergoing (n=64) or not undergoing (n=26) COVID-19 vaccination under ICT as an exploratory endpoint of a prospectively planned cohort study. We did not observe clinically relevant CRS after vaccination (95% CI [0,0.056]). Short term (<4 weeks) serious AEs were rare (12.5%) and overall AEs under ICT were comparable to unvaccinated patients. Despite the absence of CRS symptoms, we observed a pairwise-correlated set of CRS-associated cytokines upregulated in 42% of patients after vaccination and ICT (>1.5fold). Hence, clinically meaningful CRS appears to be rare in cancer patients under ICT and elevated serum cytokine levels are common but not sufficient to establish CRS diagnosis.
RESUMO
PURPOSE: First-line treatment of patients with recurrent, metastatic prostate cancer involves hormone therapy with or without additional systemic therapies. Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) allows the detection of oligometastatic disease that may be amenable to image-guided radiotherapy. The current study classifies the type and localization of metastases and the clinical outcome of PSMA-PET/CT-guided radiotherapy to selected metastases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between 2011 and 2019, 86 patients with recurrent, oligometastatic prostate carcinoma were identified by PSMA-PET/CT and were treated with image-guided radiotherapy of their metastases. Sites of relapse were characterized, and the primary endpoint overall survival (OS), biochemical progression-free survival (bPFS), and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT)-free survival were tabulated. RESULTS: In total, 37% of the metastases were bone metastases, 48% were pelvic nodal metastases, and 15% were nodal metastases outside of the pelvis. After PSMA-guided radiotherapy, a biochemical response was detected in 83% of the cohort. A statistically significant decrease in the standard uptake value (SUV) was seen in irradiated metastases. After a median follow-up of 26 months, the 3-year OS and bPFS were 84% and 55%, respectively. The median time of ADT-free survival was 13.5 months. A better clinical outcome was observed for patients receiving concomitant ADT or more than 24 fractions of radiation. CONCLUSION: PSMA-guided radiotherapy is a promising therapeutic approach with excellent infield control for men with oligorecurrent prostate carcinoma. However, prospective, randomized trials are necessary to determine if this approach confers a survival advantage.