Low rate of severe-end-stage kidney disease after SABR for localised primary kidney cancer.

BACKGROUND: Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) is an emerging treatment for patients with primary renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, its impact on renal function is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate incidence and clinical factors predictive of severe to end-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) after SABR for RCC. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This was a Single institutional retrospective analysis of patients with diagnosed primary RCC receiving SABR between 2012-2020. Adult patients with no metastatic disease, baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of ≥ 30 ml/min/1.73 m2, and at least one post-SABR eGFR at six months or later were included in this analysis. Patients with upper tract urothelial carcinoma were excluded. Primary outcome was freedom from severe to end-stage CKD, determined using the Kaplan-Meier estimator. The impact of baseline CKD, age, hypertension, diabetes, tumor size and fractionation schedule were assessed by Cox proportional hazard models. RESULTS: Seventy-eight consecutive patients were included, with median age of 77.8 years (IQR 70-83), tumor size of 4.5 cm (IQR 3.9-5.8) and follow-up of 42.2 months (IQR 23-60). Baseline median eGFR was 58 mls/min; 55% (n = 43) of patients had baseline CKD stage 3 and the remainder stage 1-2. By last follow-up, 1/35 (2.8%) of baseline CKD 1-2, 7/27 (25.9%) CKD 3a and 11/16 (68.8%) CKD 3b had developed CKD stage 4-5. The estimated probability of freedom from CKD stage 4-5 at 1 and 5 years was 89.6% (CI 83.0-97.6) and 65% (CI 51.4-81.7) respectively. On univariable analysis, worse baseline CKD (p < 0.0001) and multi-fraction SABR (p = 0.005) were predictive for development of stage 4-5 CKD though only the former remained significant in multivariable model. CONCLUSION: In this elderly cohort with pre-existing renal dysfunction, SABR achieved satisfactory nephron sparing with acceptable rates of severe to end-stage CKD. It can be an attractive option in patients who are medically inoperable.

Head and neck mucoepidermoid carcinoma: does AFIP histological grading correlate with rate of nodal metastases?

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to retrospectively evaluate the presentation of head and neck mucoepidermoid carcinoma at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and identify the significance of AFIP histological grading on the risk of neck metastasis and cancer free survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is a retrospective cohort analysis of patients treated for head and neck mucoepidermoid carcinoma at the RMH between 2005 and 2022. Patient demographics, treatment, pathology, in particular the AFIP histological grading of the primary tumour, and outcomes were collected and tabulated. Time to recurrence was recorded, and survival outcomes were calculated with Kaplan-Meier method. Comparisons were made on different histological grading and regional metastases. RESULTS: Thirty-three patients were identified and thirty met the inclusion criteria. There was an age range of 18-77 years (median 54 years) with no significant sex difference. Our patients had a 94% 5-year survival and an 86% 10-year survival. Thirteen patients had elective neck dissection and 2 out of 13 (15%) of the patients had positive neck disease. Of the two patients with regional metastasis, the primary tumour was graded as intermediate and low grade. No high-grade MEC patients had regional metastasis. CONCLUSION: Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the head and neck is associated with a good disease-specific and overall survival despite the presence of regional metastasis. The AFIP histological grading system did not have a statistically significant correlation to the incidence of nodal metastasis.

Persisting Gaps in Optimal Care of Stage III Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: An Australian Patterns of Care Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Wide variation exists globally in the treatment and outcomes of stage III patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We conducted an up-to-date patterns of care analysis in the state of Victoria, Australia, with a particular focus on the proportion of patients receiving treatment with radical intent, treatment trends over time, and survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Stage III patients with NSCLC were identified in the Victorian Lung Cancer Registry and categorized by treatment received and treatment intent. Logistic regression was used to explore factors predictive of receipt of radical treatment and the treatment trends over time. Cox regression was used to explore variables associated with overall survival (OS). Covariates evaluated included age, sex, ECOG performance status, smoking status, year of diagnosis, Australian born, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander status, socioeconomic status, rurality, public/private status of notifying institution, and multidisciplinary meeting discussion. RESULTS: A total of 1396 patients were diagnosed between 2012 and 2019 and received treatment with radical intent 67%, palliative intent 23%, unknown intent 5% and no treatment 5%. Radical intent treatment was less likely if patients were >75 years, ECOG ≥1, had T3-4 or N3 disease or resided rurally. Surgery use decreased over time, while concurrent chemoradiotherapy and immunotherapy use increased. Median OS was 38.0, 11.1, and 4.4 months following radical treatment, palliative treatment or no treatment, respectively. CONCLUSION: Almost a third of stage III patients with NSCLC still do not receive radical treatment. Strategies to facilitate radical treatment and better support decision making between increasing multimodality options are required.

Mapping disadvantage: identifying inequities in functional outcomes for prostate cancer survivors based on geography.

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer is the most common internal malignancy in Australian men, and although most patients have good survival outcomes, treatment toxicities can impair function, leading to diminished quality of life for prostate cancer survivors. Socioeconomic disadvantage and geographical remoteness have been shown to be related to worse oncologic outcomes, and it is expected that they would similarly influence functional outcomes in prostate cancer. METHODS: Using data from the Victorian Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (n = 10,924), we investigated functional outcomes as measured by the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite-26 (EPIC-26) following prostate cancer treatment, focusing on associations with socioeconomic status and geographical remoteness and controlling for clinicopathologic characteristics. A single composite score was developed from the five separate EPIC-26 domains for use in geo-mapping. RESULTS: A total of 7690 patients had complete EPIC-26 data, allowing mapping hotspots of poor function using our composite score. These hotspots were observed to relate to areas of socioeconomic disadvantage. Significant heterogeneity in outcomes was seen in urban areas, with hotspots of good and poor function. Both socioeconomic disadvantage and geographical remoteness were found to predict for worse functional outcomes, although only the former is significant on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Geo-mapping of functional outcomes in prostate cancer has the potential to guide health care service provision and planning. A nuanced policy approach is required so as not to miss disadvantaged patients who live in urban areas. We have demonstrated the potential of geo-mapping to visualise population-level outcomes, potentially allowing targeted interventions to address inequities in quality of care.

Accuracy of after-hours trauma cervical spine CT reporting by radiology trainees: Experiences from two Australian teaching hospitals.

INTRODUCTION: Like many teaching hospitals in Australia, after-hours computed tomography (CT) reporting at our institution is undertaken by the on-call radiology registrar. The accuracy of these reports is important as management is often initiated based on the interim findings, prior to review by the consultant radiologist. A common exception to this approach is cervical CT (CCT), as many hospital protocols recommend patients to remain in spinal precautions until the report is finalised by a consultant, although there are very few studies to support this practice. METHODS: The interim registrar reports for all CCTs performed after-hours over a 12-month period were retrospectively reviewed. The final consultant report was used as the gold standard to establish accuracy of the registrar report. The primary outcome was discrepancy between the provisional and final reports. Any discrepancy was classified as either an 'overcall' or 'miss'. Discrepancies were graded by the RADPEER scoring system. RESULTS: A total of 1084 after-hours CCT studies were reviewed. The number of cases positive for injury was 37 (3.4%). The total number of discrepancies was 14 (discrepancy rate 1.3%), including 4 overcalls (0.3%) and 10 misses (0.9%). The discrepancy rates for junior and senior registrars were 1.7% and 0.7% respectively. Only 5 misses (0.5%) were considered clinically significant. CONCLUSION: Registrars reporting after-hours CCT have low rates of discrepancy with very few clinically significant misses. However, the reduced registrar sensitivity for detection of cervical injury highlights the ongoing importance of consultant review in the process of cervical spine clearance pathways.

A Systematic Review of MicroRNA Signatures Associated with the Progression of Leukoplakia with and without Epithelial Dysplasia.

Oral cancer is a significant public health issue, being the eighth most common cancer worldwide with over 300,000 cases diagnosed annually. Early diagnosis and adequate management of oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) before transformation into oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is critical to reduce deaths, morbidity, and to improve overall prognosis. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs involved in the post-transcriptional regulation of protein expression and implicated in the control of numerous cellular pathways and impacting physiological, developmental, and pathological processes. Dysregulation of miRNAs has been reported in many cancers and has been demonstrated to play a critical role in cancer initiation, progression, apoptosis, invasion and metastasis. This systematic review provides a comprehensive summary of the prevailing literature on miRNA signatures in OPMDs, specifically leukoplakia with or without oral epithelial dysplasia, and their utility in predicting malignant transformation into OSCC. Eighteen articles describing 73 unique and differentially expressed microRNAs met the criteria for inclusion in this review. We reviewed the characteristics and methodology for each of these studies and assessed the sensitivity and specificity of the studied miRNAs in predicting malignant transformation. This systematic review highlights the significant interest in miRNAs and their tremendous potential as prognostic markers for predicting the malignant transformation of OPMDs into OSCC.

The Role of Glucose Transporters in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is a prevalent malignancy associated with a poor prognosis. The Warburg effect can be observed in OSCCs, with tumours requiring a robust glucose supply. Glucose transporters (GLUTs) and sodium-glucose co-transporters (SGLTs) are overexpressed in multiple malignancies, and are correlated with treatment resistance, clinical factors, and poor overall survival (OS). We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the differences in GLUT/SGLT expression between OSCC and normal oral keratinocytes (NOK), as well as their role in the pathophysiology and prognosis of OSCC. A total of 85 studies were included after screening 781 papers. GLUT-1 is regularly expressed in OSCC and was found to be overexpressed in comparison to NOK, with high expression correlated to tumour stage, treatment resistance, and poor prognosis. No clear association was found between GLUT-1 and tumour grade, metastasis, and fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake. GLUT-3 was less thoroughly studied but could be detected in most samples and is generally overexpressed compared to NOK. GLUT-3 negatively correlated with overall survival (OS), but there was insufficient data for correlations with other clinical factors. Expression of GLUT-2/GLUT-4/GLUT-8/GLUT-13/SGLT-1/SGLT-2 was only evaluated in a small number of studies with no significant differences detected. GLUTs 7 and 14 have never been evaluated in OSCC. In conclusion, the data demonstrates that GLUT-1 and GLUT-3 have a role in the pathophysiology of OSCC and represent valuable biomarkers to aid OSCC diagnosis and prognostication. Other GLUTs are comparatively understudied and should be further analysed because they may hold promise to improve patient care.

De-escalation of anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (Rituximab) protocols in Pemphigus Vulgaris - a systematic review.

Introduction: This review assesses current evidence supporting dose de-escalated rituximab therapy in pemphigus vulgaris, compared to standard protocols. Primary outcome measures were remission and relapse rates. Adverse effects, cumulative steroid dosages, and serological markers of disease activity were also reported.Areas covered: A literature search was performed to look for reports describing the use of de-escalated rituximab therapy in pemphigus vulgaris. Results from heterogenous studies showed a large variation in remission and relapse rates. Complete remission rates from de-escalated treatment ranged from 41.7 to 100.0%, while rates in the control groups ranged from 60.0 to 90.9%. Relapse rates varied from 8.0 to 81.3% in the de-escalated group and from 0.0 to 72.4% in the control group. Of the 165 patients included in this report, only two major adverse effects were reported.Expert Opinion: Overall, dose de-escalated rituximab protocols reported to date appear effective and safe. However, it is unclear if treatment effect parallels that of standard regimens in regard to disease control in the long term. A lower limit of effective dosing for rituximab in pemphigus vulgaris has not yet been reached or defined. The role for and timing of repeated cycles of low-dose rituximab therapy require further exploration.

Temporal determinants of tumour response to neoadjuvant rectal radiotherapy.

INTRODUCTION: In locally advanced rectal cancer, longer delay to surgery after neoadjuvant radiotherapy increases the likelihood of histopathological tumour response. Chronomodulated radiotherapy in rectal cancer has recently been reported as a factor increasing tumour response to neoadjuvant treatment in patients having earlier surgery, with patients receiving a larger proportion of afternoon treatments showing improved response. This paper aims to replicate this work by exploring the impact of these two temporal factors, independently and in combination, on histopathological tumour response in rectal cancer patients. METHODS: A retrospective review of all patients with rectal adenocarcinoma who received long course (≥24 fractions) neoadjuvant radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy at a tertiary referral centre was conducted. Delay to surgery and radiotherapy treatment time were correlated to clinicopathologic characteristics with a particular focus on tumour regression grade. A review of the literature and meta-analysis were also conducted to ascertain the impact of time to surgery from preoperative radiotherapy on tumour regression. RESULTS: From a cohort of 367 patients, 197 patients met the inclusion criteria. Complete pathologic response (AJCC regression grade 0) was seen in 46 (23%) patients with a further 44 patients (22%) having at most small groups of residual cells (AJCC regression grade 1). Median time to surgery was 63 days, and no statistically significant difference was seen in tumour regression between patients having early or late surgery. There was a non-significant trend towards a larger proportion of morning treatments in patients with grade 0 or 1 regression (p = 0.077). There was no difference in tumour regression when composite groups of the two temporal variables were analysed. Visualisation of data from 39 reviewed papers (describing 27379 patients) demonstrated a plateau of response to neoadjuvant radiotherapy after approximately 60 days, and a meta-analysis found improved complete pathologic response in patients having later surgery. CONCLUSIONS: There was no observed benefit of chronomodulated radiotherapy in our cohort of rectal cancer patients. Review of the literature and meta-analysis confirms the benefit of delayed surgery, with a plateau in complete response rates at approximately 60-days between completion of radiotherapy and surgery. In our cohort, time to surgery for the majority of our patients lay along this plateau and this may be a more dominant factor in determining response to neoadjuvant therapy, obscuring any effects of chronomodulation on tumour response. We would recommend surgery be performed between 8 and 11 weeks after completion of neoadjuvant radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.

Genomic Signature of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas from Non-Smoking Non-Drinking Patients.

Molecular alterations in 176 patients with oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC) were evaluated to delineate differences in non-smoking non-drinking (NSND) patients. Somatic mutations and DNA copy number variations (CNVs) in a 68-gene panel and human papilloma virus (HPV) status were interrogated using targeted next-generation sequencing. In the entire cohort, TP53 (60%) and CDKN2A (24%) were most frequently mutated, and the most common CNVs were EGFR amplifications (9%) and deletions of BRCA2 (5%) and CDKN2A (4%). Significant associations were found for TP53 mutation and nodal disease, lymphovascular invasion and extracapsular spread, CDKN2A mutation or deletion with advanced tumour stage, and EGFR amplification with perineural invasion and extracapsular spread. PIK3CA mutation, CDKN2A deletion, and EGFR amplification were associated with worse survival in univariate analyses (p < 0.05 for all comparisons). There were 59 NSND patients who tended to be female and older than patients who smoke and/or drink, and showed enrichment of CDKN2A mutations, EGFR amplifications, and BRCA2 deletions (p < 0.05 for all comparisons), with a younger subset showing higher mutation burden. HPV was detected in three OSCC patients and not associated with smoking and drinking habits. NSND OSCC exhibits distinct genomic profiles and further exploration to elucidate the molecular aetiology in these patients is warranted.

Inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase-2 modulates malignant behaviour of oral squamous cell carcinoma cells.

BACKGROUND: Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play a crucial role in the malignant phenotype of cancer cells. In particular, active levels of MMP2 in cancer cells have been associated with invasion and metastasis through the degradation of basement membrane extracellular matrix proteins. However, little is known about the role of this potential biomarker in oral cancer. Our aim was to investigate the effect of MMP2 inhibition on OSCC activity in vitro, as well as to assess MMP2 dysregulation in oral cancer samples. METHODS: Human OSCC cell lines H357 and H400 were tested with the selective MMP2 inhibitor ARP101 and the MMP2 neutralising monoclonal antibody MA5-13590 to assess cell proliferation in vitro using MTS assay. Cell migration at 12/24 h was assessed using a Transwell migration assay. Cell invasion was assessed at 24 h using a Corning Matrigel invasion assay. MMP2 expression was assessed in 208 tissue samples (related to 60 OSCC cases and nine normal control) using tissue microarray (TMA) and further analysed via TCGA. RESULTS: Both ARP101 and MA5-13590 monoclonal antibody reduced cell proliferation in both the cell lines tested. Treatment with 4µg/mL of MMP2 monoclonal antibody showed a significant decrease in cell migration at 24 hours. The administration of ARP101 and monoclonal antibody to H357 and H400 cell lines induced a drastic reduction in cell invasion at 24 h compared to the control. In patients, TCGA analysis demonstrated that oral cancer tissues express significantly higher levels of MMP2 mRNA compared to normal oral tissues. Further, IHC analysis on TMA showed significant difference in MMP2 protein expression between low and high histopathological grade OSCC. CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated, for the first time, that MMP2 inhibition affects oral cancer cells ability to survive, migrate and invade in vitro. Differences between MMP2 expression in normal and malignant tissues varied. Further research on the role of MMP2 in OSCC and novel mechanisms to inhibit MMP2-dependent pathways should be encouraged.

Non-smoking, non-drinking elderly females, a 5 year follow-up of a clinically distinct cohort of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients.

To examine differences in survival and clinical outcomes of elderly patients without traditional risk factors presenting with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Retrospective review of 287 consecutive patients divided into 2 treatment period cohorts treated for oral SCC between the 1st Jan 2007 and 31st Dec 2012. Patients were classified as either smoker-drinkers (SD) or non-smoking, non-drinking (NSND). Only patients with oral sub-site primaries according to ICD-10 were included. Carcinomas of the lip, tonsil, base of tongue and oro-pharyngeal subsites were excluded. Of the study population (N = 287), 24.4% were NSND and 9.75% were NSND elderly (older than 70 years) females. >50% of tumours arose from the oral tongue in NSND patients (p = 0.022) and there was a higher rate of recurrent and persistent disease (42.9% vs 27.6%, p = 0.005). Disease specific survival at 5 years was significantly reduced when NSND elderly females were compared to all other patients (p < 0.001) as well as age matched controls (p = 0.006). This effect was verified independently in each cohort.The results of this study suggest that NSND elderly females are a distinct patient population with poorer disease specific survival outcomes.

Predicting the Presence of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Using Commonly Dysregulated MicroRNA in Oral Swirls.

Oral swirls are a noninvasive, rapidly collected source of salivary microRNA (miRNA) potentially useful in the early detection of disease states, particularly oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The aim of this study was to predict the presence of OSCC using a panel of OSCC-related dysregulated miRNA found in oral swirls, identified jointly in data from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) and fresh-frozen specimens. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to determine miRNA fold changes in FFPE OSCC specimens relative to histologically normal epithelium. These data were placed with NGS of fresh-frozen tissue data of The Cancer Genome Atlas database to select a panel of commonly dysregulated miRNA. This panel was then analyzed by RT-qPCR in RNA extracted from oral swirls collected from 30 patients with OSCC and 30 controls. Upregulation of miR-31 and miR-21 and downregulation of miR-99a, let-7c, miR-125b, and miR-100 were found between OSCC and controls in both FFPE and fresh-frozen samples. These miRNAs were studied in a training set of 15 OSCC versus 15 control oral swirls to develop a dysregulation score [AUC, 0.95; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.88-1.03] and classification tree. A test cohort of 15 OSCC versus 15 control oral swirls yielded a dysregulation score AUC of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.79-1.00) with the classification tree identifying 100% (15/15) of OSCC and 67% (10/15) of controls. This study debuts the use of OSCC-associated miRNA, commonly dysregulated in both FFPE and frozen specimens, in oral swirls to indicate the presence of OSCC with high accuracy. Cancer Prev Res; 11(8); 491-502. ©2018 AACR.

The role of human papillomavirus in p16-positive oral cancers.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to identify the presence and frequency of human papillomavirus (HPV) nucleic acid in p16-positive oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs), to assess whether the virus was transcriptionally active and to assess the utility of p16 overexpression as a surrogate marker for HPV in OSCC. METHODS: Forty-six OSCC patients treated between 2007 and 2011 with available formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens were included. Twenty-three patients were positive for p16 by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and these were matched with 23 patients with p16-negative tumours. Laser capture microdissection of the FFPE OSCC tissues was undertaken to isolate invasive tumour tissue. DNA was extracted and tested for high-risk HPV types using a PCR-ELISA method based on the L1 SPF10 consensus primers, and a real-time PCR method targeting HPV-16 and HPV-18 E6 region. Genotyping of HPV-positive cases was performed using a reverse line blot hybridization assay (Inno-LiPA). RNAScope® (a chromogenic RNA in situ hybridization assay) was utilized to detect E6/E7 mRNA of known high-risk HPV types for detection of transcriptionally active virus. RESULTS: HPV DNA was found in 3 OSCC cases, all of which were p16 IHC-positive. Two cases were genotyped as HPV-16 and one as HPV-33. Only one of the HPV-16 cases was confirmed to harbour transcriptionally active virus via HPV RNA ISH. CONCLUSION: We have shown that the presence of transcriptionally active HPV rarely occurs in OSCC and that p16 is not an appropriate surrogate marker for HPV in OSCC cases. We propose that non-viral mechanisms are responsible for the majority of IHC p16 overexpression in OSCC.

Mapping supramedullary pathways involved in cough using functional brain imaging: comparison with pain.

Several indications suggest that supramedullary brain regions receive sensory information from the airways and provide motor control to the brainstem neurons that control coughing. However, the organization of this circuitry has not been described in any detail. In this short review we will discuss how state-of-the-art functional brain imaging techniques in humans and animals will enable unprecedented insights into the supramedullary brain regions that help control coughing. In addition we will describe the likely similarities between cough-related higher brain networks and those involved in the processing of other aversive sensory modalities, such as pain.