scholarly journals So Close, yet so Far: Discrepancies between Uveal and Other Melanomas. A Position Paper from UM Cure 2020

Cancers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Rodrigues ◽  
Leanne de Koning ◽  
Sarah Coupland ◽  
Aart Jochemsen ◽  
Richard Marais ◽  
...  

Despite much progress in our understanding of uveal melanoma (UM) over the past decades, this rare tumour is still often misclassified. Although UM, like other melanomas, is very probably derived from melanocytes, it is drastically different from cutaneous melanoma and most other melanoma subtypes in terms of epidemiology, aetiology, biology and clinical features, including an intriguing metastatic hepatotropism. UM carries distinctive prognostic chromosome alterations, somatic mutations and gene expression profiles, allowing an active tailored surveillance strategy and dedicated adjuvant clinical trials. There is no standard systemic treatment for disseminated UM at present. In contrast to cutaneous melanoma, UMs are not BRAF-mutated, thus curtailing the use of B-Raf inhibitors. Although these tumours are characterised by some immune infiltrates, immune checkpoint inhibitors are rarely effective, possibly due to a low mutation burden. UM patients across the world not only face rare cancer-related issues (e.g., specific management strategies, access to information and to expert centres), but also specific UM problems, which can be exacerbated by the common misconception that it is a subtype of cutaneous melanoma. As a European Consortium dedicated to research on UM and awareness on the disease, “UM Cure 2020” participants urge medical oncologists, pharmaceutical companies, and regulatory agencies to acknowledge UM as a melanoma with specific issues, in order to accelerate the development of new therapies for patients.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 271-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taku Fujimura ◽  
Yumi Kambayashi ◽  
Kentaro Ohuchi ◽  
Ryo Amagai ◽  
Yota Sato ◽  
...  

Since the incidence of mucosal melanoma is higher in the Japanese population compared to Caucasians, and since mucosal melanoma possesses a lower mutation burden compared to cutaneous melanoma, the efficacy of anti-PD1 antibody (Ab) monotherapy for mucosal melanoma is limited. Therefore, other targeting molecules that enhance the anti-tumor effects of immune checkpoint inhibitors are needed. In this report, we present a case with anti-PD1 Ab-resistant recurrent malignant melanoma of the nasal cavity successfully treated with nivolu­mab, ipilimumab plus denosumab combination therapy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xing Huang ◽  
Gang Zhang ◽  
Tianyu Tang ◽  
Tingbo Liang

Abstract Background Although mRNA vaccines have been effective against multiple cancers, their efficacy against pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) remains undefined. Accumulating evidence suggests that immunotyping can indicate the comprehensive immune status in tumors and their immune microenvironment, which is closely associated with therapeutic response and vaccination potential. The aim of this study was to identify potent antigens in PAAD for mRNA vaccine development, and further distinguish immune subtypes of PAAD to construct an immune landscape for selecting suitable patients for vaccination. Methods Gene expression profiles and clinical information of 239 PAAD datasets were extracted from ICGC, and RNA-Seq data of 103 samples were retrieved from TCGA. GEPIA was used to calculate differential expression levels and prognostic indices, cBioPortal program was used to compare genetic alterations, and TIMER was used to explore correlation between genes and immune infiltrating cells. Consensus cluster was used for consistency matrix construction and data clustering, DAVID was used for functional annotation, and graph learning-based dimensional reduction was used to depict immune landscape. Results Six overexpressed and mutated tumor antigens associated with poor prognosis and infiltration of antigen presenting cells were identified in PAAD, including ADAM9, EFNB2, MET, TMOD3, TPX2, and WNT7A. Furthermore, five immune subtypes (IS1-IS5) and nine immune gene modules of PAAD were identified that were consistent in both patient cohorts. The immune subtypes showed distinct molecular, cellular and clinical characteristics. IS1 and IS2 exhibited immune-activated phenotypes and correlated to better survival compared to the other subtypes. IS4 and IS5 tumors were immunologically cold and associated with higher tumor mutation burden. Immunogenic cell death modulators, immune checkpoints, and CA125 and CA199, were also differentially expressed among the five immune subtypes. Finally, the immune landscape of PAAD showed a high degree of heterogeneity between individual patients. Conclusions ADAM9, EFNB2, MET, TMOD3, TPX2, and WNT7A are potent antigens for developing anti-PAAD mRNA vaccine, and patients with IS4 and IS5 tumors are suitable for vaccination.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Chu ◽  
Bing Zhang ◽  
Haifeng Gong ◽  
Qianqian Zhao ◽  
Jun Chen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is the most common histological type of urinary system. In the past decades, despite the advances in UC diagnosis and therapy, there are still challenges to improve the overall survival (OS) of UC patients. PD-L1 inhibitor and PD-1 inhibitor have been approved for treating invasive UC, however, only about 20% of patients with metastatic UC show clinical benefits from immune checkpoint inhibitors. Therefor, bioinformatics tools were utilized to screen prognostic-related biomarkers, and analyze their relationship with immunocyte in UC, hoping to provide new ideas for the clinical treatment of UC patients.Methods: Three gene expression profiles (i.e. GSE32548, GSE32894 and GSE48075) were selected from GEO, and divide them into invasive and superficial UC group for study. NetworkAnalyst tool was used to construct gene regulatory network of DEGs, while DAVID and Metascape were utilized to perform GO/KEGG enrichment analysis of DEGs. The hub genes were screened by STRING and cytoscape, and the ONCOMINE, GEPIA, UALCAN, cBioPortal and HPA databases were used to analyze the expression differences at the DNA, RNA, protein levels and prognostic of UC. TIMER was used to analyze the relationship between hub genes and immunocyte infiltration.Results: In total, 63 DEGs were identified from the GEO database of UC, of which 31 and 32 were up-and down-regulated. GO/KEGG pathway analysis identified DEGs were mainly enriched in the collagen catabolic process, extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, ECM structural constituent and ECM-receptor interaction. Nine hub genes (i.e. COL1A1, COL1A2, COL3A1, COL5A2, MMP9, POSTN, SPP1, VCAN and THBS2) upregulated in invasive UC compared with superficial UC were identified. cBioportal database analysis showed that 35% of UC patients presented genetic variants in the hub genes, of which amplification and deletion mutations were the most common. ONCOMINE and UALCAN database analysis showed that the mRNA expression of all hub genes in invasive UC was significantly higher than that in superficial UC and normal tissues. HPA database analysis showed that there was up-regulation of COL3A1, SPP1, POSTN and VCAN protein in UC tissues than in normal tissues. GEPIA showed that COL1A2, COL3A1, THBS2, and VCAN were positively correlated with the OS rate among patients with UC (P < 0.05). UALCAN showed that UC patients with high expression of COL1A1, COL1A2, COL5A2 and POSTN had a poorer prognosis (P < 0.05). TRRUST database analysis indicated that there was a significant correlation between the expression of the hub genes and the infiltration of CD4+T cells, CD8+T cells, macrophages, neutrophils and dendritic cells. Conclusion: Hub genes played important roles in pathogenesis and treatment prognosis of UC and they can provides new biomolecular predictions for immunotherapy and prognosis judgment of UC.


Blood ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 128 (22) ◽  
pp. 4450-4450
Author(s):  
John D Shaughnessy ◽  
Samir Parekh ◽  
Hearn Jay Cho ◽  
Alessandro Lagana ◽  
Ajai Chari ◽  
...  

Abstract In the current study we sought to determine whether mutation burden (MB) is reflected in gene expression patterns. We generated 389 gene expression profiles and 311 mutation profiles from 182 cases, split into a training set of 97 and test set of 84. Copy number variants (CNV), rearrangements (TX) and short variant mutations (SV) were identified with FoundationOne Heme (F1) and U133Plus2.0 (u133) gene expression data, GEP70 and GEP80 risk scores, subgroup and CNV calls provided by Signal Genetics. 145 Kegg pathways, transcription factor binding sites (TFbs) for 195 TF mapped to u133 genes and 1161 F1 features and u133 GEP signatures/scores were evaluated for enrichment of defined genes. u133 data for normal plasma cells (n=22), MGUS (n=44), smoldering MM (n=12), relapsed MM (n=76), and MM cell lines (n=42) were derived from GSE31162. Newly diagnosed MM samples came from GSE31162 (n=584), GSE19784 (n=321), GSE15695 (n=247) and E-MTAB-317 (n=233). Of 593 genes assayed by F1, 293 were mutated at least twice. There were a total of 3454 mutations (average = 11, minimum = 3, and maximum = 37). KRAS was mutated in 40 tumors, while TP53 was mutated 45 times in 31 tumors. TP53 and 62 other genes had 2 or more unique mutations in a single tumor. A linear curve of MB exhibited a sharp upward inflection at 19 mutations. We sought to determine if GEP could identify characteristic features of MM flanking the inflection point. A training set of 97 (86 <= 15 MB and 11 >= 21 MB) and a test set of 84 (49 <= 15 MB, 28 >15 but < 21 MB and 7 >= 21MB) was produced. A mean ratio identified 576 genes exhibiting 2-fold higher expression in MM with high MB (hiMB) and 1617 genes from low MB (loMB). Notably, forty-four of the 293 mutated genes were in this list of genes. A geometric mean ratio of the two gene sets was then calculated for all samples. The mean of the resulting score (MB.2) was higher in MM with hiMB (1.66) than MM with loMB (-0.235) in the training set. MM with hiMB (0.329) had a higher MB.2 score than the group with intermediate MB.2 (0.158) and both higher than MM with loMB (-0.122). MB.2 was lowest in normal PC (-0.518) and progressively increased with disease progression: MGUS (-0.341), SMM (-0.308), MM (0.199), relapsed MM (0.334), MM cell lines (1.168).[SP1] 57% of the 182 cases harbored only SV mutations, 32% had SV and CNV, 32% SV and TX and 7% had SV, CNV and TX mutations. SV only mutations were present in 76% of MB.2 quartile 1 (MBq1) and 30% of MBq4. SV, CNV and TX mutations were present in 4% of MBq1 and 17% of MBq4. MB.2 was positively correlated with GEP70, GEP80, proliferation index, and TP53 target genes in MM and genes modulated by thalidomide and dexamethasone in PGx studies, in at least 6 of the 7 cohorts studied. The CD2 subtype, a myeloid classification and GEP70 low risk were significantly overrepresented in both MBq1 and GEP70q1 in all 7 cohorts. Conversely, the MF, MS, and PR subtypes, GEP70 and GEP80 high risk, as well as +1q, amp1q21, and del13q were significantly overrepresented in MBq4 and GEP70q4 in all 7 cohorts. MB.2 [SP2] genes derived from MM with loMB where enriched in 45 of 148 Kegg pathways. Notable were Hedgehog, Prostaglandin, Tx factors in cancer, HOX, MYB signaling, ephrin-B reverse signaling and embryonic stem cells. Five pathways related to B-cell biology were enriched. Mitotic cell cycle, integrin signaling, chromatin acetylation, ubiquitin ligation, and G1 to G1/S were underrepresented. MB.2 genes from MM with hiMB were enriched in TP53, lipid lysis, complement cascade, adherens junctions, Wnt regulation of CYR61, cyclins, prostaglandins, cell cycle, and MYC target pathways. Interferon signaling, TNF-NF-kB, EGFR, NOD, endoplasmic reticulum, ubiquitin ligation, Wnt-Hedgehog-NOTCH and BMP-SMAD modules were underrepresented. An enrichment of Rel and NF-kB TFbs was observed for genes negatively correlated with MB.2. and genes positively correlated with MB.2 and GEP70 were enriched for E2F and TP53 binding site. In conclusion, we show that MB can be captured by GEP in MM, that MB increases with disease progression, and pathways enriched by hiMB and loMB are different and may imply differences in pathogenesis as well as treatment. [SP1]This is an important finding - suggest emphasizing more [SP2]Starting with this para suggest referring to groups are low vs high mutation burden for improved readability. Disclosures Shaughnessy: Signal Genetics: Consultancy, Patents & Royalties. Cho:Genentech Roche: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Agenus, Inc.: Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Chari:Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Research Funding; Takeda: Consultancy, Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding; Array Biopharma: Consultancy, Research Funding; Amgen Inc.: Honoraria, Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Research Funding. van Laar:Signal Genetics, Inc.: Employment. Jagannath:Janssen: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bristol Myer Squibb: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Barlogie:Signal Genetics: Patents & Royalties.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Pei Chen ◽  
Jia-Wei Lv ◽  
Yan-Ping Mao ◽  
Xiao-Min Li ◽  
Jun-Yan Li ◽  
...  

AbstractCurrently, there is no strong evidence of the well-established biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Here, we aimed to reveal the heterogeneity of tumour microenvironment (TME) through virtual microdissection of gene expression profiles. An immune-enriched subtype was identified in 38% (43/113) of patients, which was characterized by significant enrichment of immune cells or immune responses. The remaining patients were therefore classified as a non-Immune Subtype (non-IS), which exhibited highly proliferative features. Then we identified a tumour immune evasion state within the immune-enriched subtype (18/43, 42%), in which high expression of exclusion- and dysfunction-related signatures was observed. These subgroups were designated the Evaded and Active Immune Subtype (E-IS and A-IS), respectively. We further demonstrated that A-IS predicted favourable survival and improved ICI response as compared to E-IS and non-IS. In summary, this study introduces the novel immune subtypes and demonstrates their feasibility in tailoring immunotherapeutic strategies.


Epigenomes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Maria Fortunata Lofiego ◽  
Sara Cannito ◽  
Carolina Fazio ◽  
Francesca Piazzini ◽  
Ornella Cutaia ◽  
...  

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive malignancy with a severe prognosis, and with a long-standing need for more effective therapeutic approaches. However, treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors is becoming an increasingly effective strategy for MPM patients. In this scenario, epigenetic modifications may negatively regulate the interplay between immune and malignant cells within the tumor microenvironment, thus contributing to the highly immunosuppressive contexture of MPM that may limit the efficacy of immunotherapy. Aiming to further improve prospectively the clinical efficacy of immunotherapeutic approaches in MPM, we investigated the immunomodulatory potential of different classes of epigenetic drugs (i.e., DNA hypomethylating agent (DHA) guadecitabine, histone deacetylase inhibitors VPA and SAHA, or EZH2 inhibitors EPZ-6438) in epithelioid, biphasic, and sarcomatoid MPM cell lines, by cytofluorimetric and real-time PCR analyses. We also characterized the effects of the DHA, guadecitabine, on the gene expression profiles (GEP) of the investigated MPM cell lines by the nCounter platform. Among investigated drugs, exposure of MPM cells to guadecitabine, either alone or in combination with VPA, SAHA and EPZ-6438 demonstrated to be the main driver of the induction/upregulation of immune molecules functionally crucial in host-tumor interaction (i.e., HLA class I, ICAM-1 and cancer testis antigens) in all three MPM subtypes investigated. Additionally, GEP demonstrated that treatment with guadecitabine led to the activation of genes involved in several immune-related functional classes mainly in the sarcomatoid subtype. Furthermore, among investigated MPM subtypes, DHA-induced CDH1 expression that contributes to restoring the epithelial phenotype was highest in sarcomatoid cells. Altogether, our results contribute to providing the rationale to develop new epigenetically-based immunotherapeutic approaches for MPM patients, potentially tailored to the specific histologic subtypes.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengjing Cui ◽  
Qianqian Xia ◽  
Xing Zhang ◽  
Wenjing Yan ◽  
Dan Meng ◽  
...  

Ovarian cancer (OC), one of the most common malignancies of the female reproductive system, is characterized by high incidence and poor prognosis. Tumor mutation burden (TMB), as an important biomarker that can represent the degree of tumor mutation, is emerging as a key indicator for predicting the efficacy of tumor immunotherapy. In our study, the gene expression profiles of OC were downloaded from TCGA and GEO databases. Subsequently, we analyzed the prognostic value of TMB in OC and found that a higher TMB score was significantly associated with a better prognosis (p = 0.004). According to the median score of TMB, 9 key TMB related immune prognostic genes were selected by LASSO regression for constructing a TMB associated immune risk score (TMB-IRS) signature, which can effectively predict the prognosis of OC patients (HR = 2.32, 95% CI = 1.68–3.32; AUC = 0.754). Interestingly, TMB-IRS is also closely related to the level of immune cell infiltration and immune checkpoint molecules (PD1, PD-L1, CTLA4, PD-L2) in OC. Furthermore, the nomogram combined with TMB-IRS and a variety of clinicopathological features can more comprehensively evaluate the prognosis of patients. In conclusion, we explored the relationship between TMB and prognosis and validated the TMB-IRS signature based on TMB score in an independent database (HR = 1.60, 95% CI = 1.13–2.27; AUC = 0.639), which may serve as a novel biomarker for predicting OC prognosis as well as possible therapeutic targets.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas B. Blackburn ◽  
Ana Cristina Leandro ◽  
Nina Nahvi ◽  
Mariana A. Devlin ◽  
Marcelo Leandro ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTSea turtle fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a tumor promoting disease that is one of several threats globally to endangered sea turtle populations. The prevalence of FP is highest in green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) populations, and historically has shown considerable temporal growth. FP tumors can significantly affect the ability of turtles to forage for food and avoid predation and can grow to debilitating sizes. In the current study, based in South Texas, we have applied transcriptome sequencing to FP tumors and healthy control tissue to study the gene expression profiles of FP. By identifying differentially expressed turtle genes in FP, and matching these genes to their closest human ortholog we draw on the wealth of human based knowledge, specifically human cancer, to identify new insights into the biology of sea turtle FP. We show that several genes aberrantly expressed in FP tumors have known tumor promoting biology in humans, including CTHRC1 and NLRC5, and provide support that disruption of the Wnt signaling pathway is a feature of FP. Further, we profiled the expression of current targets of immune checkpoint inhibitors from human oncology in FP tumors and identified potential candidates for future studies.


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