scholarly journals Favorable Outcomes in FGFR Fusion-Positive Cholangiocarcinomas and Evolution on Treatment Noted on Circulating Tumor DNA Liquid Biopsies

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 941-947
Author(s):  
Pashtoon Murtaza Kasi

Cholangiocarcinoma is a very heterogenous cancer and “target-rich” disease. While the current classifications are based on the anatomic location of these tumors (intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and gallbladder cancer), tumors within and across these disease groups have unique and often mutually exclusive molecular aberrations. Amongst these, fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) fusion is one of the first amongst the list of “actionable” targets for which the US Food and Drug Administration just approved pemigatinib. This is for patients with cholangiocarcinoma who have received prior treatment and have FGFR2 fusion or another rearrangement. This was based on the results from the clinical trial FIGHT-202 (NCT02924376). At present, several FGFR inhibitors are actively being tested in several agnostic and tumor-specific clinical trials. Patients also have had the opportunity of getting access to some of these oral drugs through compassionate use programs. As a consequence, these patients have more options in addition to chemotherapy. These all tend to have “good” initial responses and improvement in performance status and later “acquired” mechanisms of resistance. The latter tend to often be gatekeeper mutations that bypass the inhibitory effects of these selective FGFR inhibitors and/or cause steric hindrance. These tumors, therefore, evolve on selective pressure (temporal heterogeneity). This can be captured noninvasively using “liquid biopsies” (circulating tumor DNA testing). Here we present cases (several years into treatment on average) showing the feasibility of using liquid biopsies (ctDNA testing) as well as the gain and later potential loss of intratumoral and temporal heterogeneity exhibited under selective pressure of these novel FGFR inhibitors, chemotherapy and/or locoregional therapies. Despite limitations in sample size and provider bias, it is important to identify these “exceptional responders” and/or better outcomes that may be inherent to the biology of FGFR fusion-positive cholangiocarcinomas.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e15018-e15018
Author(s):  
Cesar Augusto Perez ◽  
Giselle Dutcher ◽  
Zoukaa Sargi ◽  
Nelson Guevara ◽  
David Tse ◽  
...  

e15018 Background: Few effective systemic therapies are available for adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). Multitargeted Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors (TKIs) as Lenvatinib and Rivoceranib can provide disease control and limited radiographic response in unselected ACC patients. Next-generation sequencing in tissue (tNGS) has identified MYB gene fusions in [patients with ACC but currently, only Notch1 mutations have an available targeted agent. The fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) pathway is a downstream target of MYB. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed adult patients with a diagnosis of recurrent ACC seen at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center between January 1, 2019 and October 31, 2020. Commercially available cell free DNA panel of 73 genes was used for analyzing circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Patients included had radiographically measurable disease and both tNGS and ctDNA data available. Results: Twelve patients were included. Median age at diagnosis was 54 years (28 - 68), and 69% were males. 83% of the patients had genomic abnormalities reported by tNGS, with the same number by ctDNA sequencing. Seven patients (58%) had genomic abnormalities in ctDNA of potentially therapeutic significance which were not found on tNGS, including FGFR1 amplification as well as FGFR2, BRAF, KRAS and JAK2 mutations. Three patients with FGFR genomic abnormalities only seen by ctDNA had been previously treated with Lenvatinib. One patient with primary lacrimal gland ACC metastatic to the liver and tNGS positive for NOTCH 1 had disease progression despite treatment with Lenvatinib and a NOTCH γ-secretase inhibitor. The patient’s ctDNA reported a FGFR2 mutation. The patient was started on Erdafitinib, an oral selective FGFR inhibitor, achieving a partial response at the primary site and metastatic liver lesions and remained on therapy for 7 months. Follow-up ctDNA after 3 months of therapy noted resolution of both FGFR and NOTCH abnormalities. Conclusions: Patients treated with lenvantinib or other TKIs may develop acquired resistance mutations and other genomic abnormalities. ctDNA can reveal additional therapeutic targets not present on tNGS and can be repeated serially. FGFR genomic abnormalities can be a driver mutation in patients with refractory advanced ACC and the activity of Erdafinib should be evaluated in this subset of patients with few therapeutic options.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 3259-3267
Author(s):  
Joel M. Baumgartner ◽  
Paul Riviere ◽  
Richard B. Lanman ◽  
Kaitlyn J. Kelly ◽  
Jula Veerapong ◽  
...  

Apmis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 127 (5) ◽  
pp. 329-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Barlebo Ahlborn ◽  
Olga Østrup

2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 606-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Bortolini Silveira ◽  
François-Clément Bidard ◽  
Amélie Kasperek ◽  
Samia Melaabi ◽  
Marie-Laure Tanguy ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Microsatellite instability (MSI) has recently emerged as a predictive pan-tumor biomarker of immunotherapy efficacy, stimulating the development of diagnostic tools compatible with large-scale screening of patients. In this context, noninvasive detection of MSI from circulating tumor DNA stands as a promising diagnostic and posttreatment monitoring tool. Methods We developed drop-off droplet-digital PCR (ddPCR) assays targeting BAT-26, activin A receptor type 2A (ACVR2A), and defensin beta 105A/B (DEFB105A/B) microsatellite markers. Performances of the assays were measured on reconstitution experiments of various mutant allelic fractions, on 185 tumor samples with known MSI status, and on 72 blood samples collected from 42 patients with advanced colorectal or endometrial cancers before and/or during therapy. Results The 3 ddPCR assays reached analytical sensitivity <0.1% variant allelic frequency and could reliably detect and quantify MSI in both tumor and body fluid samples. High concordance between MSI status determination by the three-marker ddPCR test and the reference pentaplex method were observed (100% for colorectal tumors and 93% for other tumor types). Moreover, the 3 assays showed correlations with r ≥ 0.99 with other circulating tumor DNA markers and their dynamic during treatment correlated well with clinical response. Conclusions This innovative approach for MSI detection provides a noninvasive, cost-effective, and fast diagnostic tool, well suited for large-scale screening of patients that may benefit from immunotherapy agents, as well as for monitoring treatment responses.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Cravero ◽  
Ben Ho Park

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amjad Alkodsi ◽  
Leo Meriranta ◽  
Annika Pasanen ◽  
Sirpa Leppä

AbstractSummarySequencing of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) including circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in minimally-invasive liquid biopsies is rapidly maturing towards clinical utility for cancer diagnostics. However, the publicly available bioinformatics tools for the specialized analysis of ctDNA sequencing data are still scarce. Here, we present the ctDNAtools R package, which provides functionalities for testing minimal residual disease (MRD) and analyzing cfDNA fragmentation. MRD detection in ctDNAtools utilizes a Monte Carlo sampling approach to test ctDNA positivity through tracking a set of pre-detected reporter mutations in follow-up samples. Additionally, ctDNAtools includes various functionalities to study cfDNA fragment size histograms, profiles and fragment ends patterns.AvailabilityThe ctDNAtools package is freely available under MIT license at https://github.com/alkodsi/ctDNAtools.


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