A Pilot Study of Comprehensive Genomic Profiling for Pediatric and Adolescent and Young Adult Solid Tumor Patients in Japan

Background: Comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) was widely adopted in Japan after its coverage by national healthcare insurance began in June 2019. We investigated the clinical utility of CGP in pediatric and adolescent young adults (AYA) solid tumor patients. Procedure: Between November 2017 and December 2019, 13 patients who progressed with or who were likely to progress with standard therapies were recruited to the PROFILE-F study to undergo CGP using either FoundationOne® CDx or FoundationOne® Heme. Results: The median age was 28 years old. Tumor types were as follows: neuroblastoma (n=1), Wilms’ tumor (n=1), rhabdomyosarcoma (n=2), Ewing sarcoma (n=1), gastric cancer (n=1), rectal cancer (n=1), osteosarcoma (n=1), neuroendocrine tumor (n=2), salivary gland carcinoma (n=1), tracheal adenoid cystic carcinoma (n=1), and thymic cancer (n=1). In 92% of cases, at least one genomic alteration was identified, including CDKN2A (four cases), TP53 (three cases), and MYC (two cases). Actionable aberrations were found in 10 cases (77%), and a clinical trial candidate was found in seven cases (54%). However, no patients were able to receive biomarker-matched therapy according to their genomic alterations. Conclusions: Further efforts to increase basket trials and collection of clinical genomic data to predict response are necessary to advance precision cancer medicine in pediatric and AYA populations.

Novel Study Designs in Precision Medicine – Basket, Umbrella and Platform Trials

: The concept of ‘one size fits all’ – one treatment for patients with a particular disease, seems to be outdated. The advent of precision medicine has prompted profound changes in clinical research and it allows researchers to predict, more accurately, the prevention and treatment strategies for a specific disease population. Novel study designs are, therefore, essential to establish safe and effective personalized medicine. Basket, umbrella and platform trial designs (collectively referred to as master protocols) are biomarker enrichment designs that allow for testing more than one hypothesis within a protocol, thus accelerating drug development. These trial designs tailor intervention strategies based on patient’s risk factor(s) that can help predict whether they will respond to a specific treatment. Basket trials evaluate therapy for various diseases that share a common molecular alteration while umbrella trials evaluate multiple targeted therapies for a single disease that is stratified into subgroups based on different molecular alterations/ risk factors. These designs are complex and their major limitations stem from the fact that it would be inappropriate to completely replace histological typing with molecular profiling alone. However, in the upcoming decades, these trial designs are likely to gain popularity and improve the efficiency of clinical research. This article briefly overviews the characteristics of master protocol designs with examples of completed and ongoing clinical trials utilizing these study designs.

Tumour-Agnostic Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer and Biliary Tract Cancer

The prognosis of patients with solid tumours has remarkably improved with the development of molecular-targeted drugs and immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, the improvements in the prognosis of pancreatic cancer and biliary tract cancer is delayed compared to other carcinomas, and the 5-year survival rates of distal-stage disease are approximately 10 and 20%, respectively. However, a comprehensive analysis of tumour cells using The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project has led to the identification of various driver mutations. Evidently, few mutations exist across organs, and basket trials targeting driver mutations regardless of the primary organ are being actively conducted. Such basket trials not only focus on the gate keeper-type oncogene mutations, such as HER2 and BRAF, but also focus on the caretaker-type tumour suppressor genes, such as BRCA1/2, mismatch repair-related genes, which cause hereditary cancer syndrome. As oncogene panel testing is a vital approach in routine practice, clinicians should devise a strategy for improved understanding of the cancer genome. Here, the gene mutation profiles of pancreatic cancer and biliary tract cancer have been outlined and the current status of tumour-agnostic therapy in these cancers has been reported.