Phase II study of the PI3K inhibitor BKM120 in patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma: a stratified type I-type II study from the GINECO group.

Backround:Patients with metastatic endometrial carcinoma have a poor prognosis and PIK3CA mutations and amplifications are common in these cancers. This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of the pure PI3K inhibitor BKM120 in advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma. METHODS: This phase II, multicentre, single-arm, double strata (histological low grade (LG) or high grade (HG)) open-label study enrolled patients with histologically confirmed advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma who had received not more than one prior chemotherapy regimen. Patients received initially BKM120 100 mg tablets once daily. Primary end points were proportion of patients free of progression at 2 months (HG strata) or at 3 months (LG strata), objective response rate (ORR), and safety. RESULTS: A total of 40 patients were enrolled, of whom 16 patients had received BKM120 at 100 mg. Because of high toxicities (cutaneous rash (54%), depressive events (47%), and anxiety (40%), the IDMC has proposed to stop recruitment at 100 mg and to continue the clinical trial with a lower dose of 60 mg per day. In addition, 24 patients (median age 67 years old) were newly enrolled (14 in the LG strata and 10 in the HG strata). Rate of nonprogression at 2 months in the HG strata was 70% and at 3 months was 60% in the LG strata. Median progression-free survival (PFS) for all patients is 4.5 months (CI 95% 2.8-6.1), and the median PFS for LG strata is 8.3 months compared with 3.8 months for the HG strata. No response was reported. At 60 mg per day, the most commonly reported treatment-related adverse events (AEs) were hyperglycaemia (58%), cognitive (31%), digestive (28%), hepatic liver functions (26%), and rash (23%). The most commonly reported treatment-related grade ⩾3 AEs were HTA (17%), hyperglycaemia (17%), and increased alanine aminotransferase (24%). Five patients (21%) stopped BKM120 for toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: The BKM120 was associated with an unfavourable safety profile and minimal antitumour activity in monotherapy in advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma. The clinical trial was stopped before end of recruitment for toxicity.

[Normal tissue tolerance to external beam radiation therapy: small bowel]. / Dose de tolérance à l'irradiation des tissus sains: intestin grêle.

The small bowel is a hollow organ involved in the transit and absorption of food. In relation to its anatomical location, a significant amount of this organ is exposed in whole or in part to ionizing radiation in external radiotherapy during abdominal or pelvic irradiation either for primary cancers or metastasis. The acute functional changes during external beam radiation are mainly leading to diarrhea, abdominal pain and bloating. The main late side effects of irradiation of the small intestine are chronic diarrhea, malabsorption with steatorrhea, abdominal spasms, intestinal obstruction, bleeding and fistulas. The architecture of the small intestine may be considered as parallel with a significant correlation between the irradiated volume of small bowel and the likelihood of acute toxicity, whatever the dose. The literature analysis recommends to consider the volume of small bowel receiving 15 Gy (threshold of 100 to 200 cm(3)) but also 30 and 50 Gy (thresholds of 35 to 300 cm(3), depending on the level of dose considered). Modern techniques of conformal radiotherapy with modulated intensity will probably have beneficial impact on small bowel toxicity.