No abstract

PurposeWe assessed the safety and antitumor activity of avelumab, a fully human anti–programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) IgG1 antibody, in patients with refractory metastatic urothelial carcinoma.MethodsIn this phase Ib, multicenter, expansion cohort, patients with urothelial carcinoma progressing after platinum-based chemotherapy and unselected for PD-L1 expression received avelumab 10 mg/kg intravenously every 2 weeks. The primary objectives were safety and tolerability. Secondary objectives included confirmed objective response rate (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors [RECIST] version 1.1), progression-free survival, overall survival (OS), and PD-L1–associated clinical activity. PD-L1 positivity was defined as expression by immunohistochemistry on ≥ 5% of tumor cells.ResultsForty-four patients were treated with avelumab and followed for a median of 16.5 months (interquartile range, 15.8 to 16.7 months). The data cutoff was March 19, 2016. The most frequent treatment-related adverse events of any grade were fatigue/asthenia (31.8%), infusion-related reaction (20.5%), and nausea (11.4%). Grades 3 to 4 treatment-related adverse events occurred in three patients (6.8%) and included asthenia, AST elevation, creatine phosphokinase elevation, and decreased appetite. The confirmed objective response rate by independent central review was 18.2% (95% CI, 8.2% to 32.7%; five complete responses and three partial responses). The median duration of response was not reached (95% CI, 12.1 weeks to not estimable), and responses were ongoing in six patients (75.0%), including four of five complete responses. Seven of eight responding patients had PD-L1–positive tumors. The median progression-free survival was 11.6 weeks (95% CI, 6.1 to 17.4 weeks); the median OS was 13.7 months (95% CI, 8.5 months to not estimable), with a 12-month OS rate of 54.3% (95% CI, 37.9% to 68.1%).ConclusionAvelumab was well tolerated and associated with durable responses and prolonged survival in patients with refractory metastatic UC.

Merck KGaA, and Pfizer Inc.

No abstract

A B S T R A C T PurposeFluorine-18 2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) has been approved for imaging in many malignancies but not for bladder cancer. This study investigated the value of FDG-PET/CT imaging in the management of patients with advanced bladder cancer. Between May 2006 and February 2008, 57 patients with bladder cancer at our center underwent FDG-PET/CT after CT (n ϭ 52) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI; n ϭ 5). The accuracy of FDG-PET/CT was assessed using both organ-based and patient-based analyses. FDG-PET/CT findings were validated by either biopsy or serial CT/MRI. Clinician questionnaires performed before and after FDG-PET/CT assessed whether those scan results affected management. Patients and Methods ResultsOne hundred thirty-five individual lesions were evaluable in 47 patients for the organ-based analysis. Overall sensitivity and specificity were 87% (95% CI, 76% to 94%) and 88% (95% CI, 78% to 95%), respectively. In the patient-based analysis, malignant disease was correctly diagnosed in 25 of 31 patients, resulting in a sensitivity of 81% (95% CI, 63% to 93%). FDG-PET/CT was negative in 15 of 16 patients without malignant lesions for a specificity of 94% (95% CI, 71% to 100%). Pre-and post-PET surveys revealed that FDG-PET/CT detected more malignant disease than conventional CT/MRI in 40% of patients. Post-PET surveys showed that clinicians changed their planned management in 68% of patients based on the FDG-PET/ CT results. ConclusionFDG-PET/CT has excellent sensitivity and specificity in the detection of metastatic bladder cancer and provides additional diagnostic information that enhances clinical management more than CT/MRI alone. FDG-PET/CT scans may provide better accuracy in clinical information for directing therapy.

We evaluated the kinetics of 18F-sodium fluoride (NaF) and reassessed the recommended dose, optimal uptake period, and reproducibility using a current-generation PET/CT scanner. Methods In this prospective study, 73 patients (31 patients with multiple myeloma or myeloma precursor disease and 42 with prostate cancer) were injected with a mean administered dose of 141 MBq of 18F-NaF. Sixty patients underwent 3 sequential sessions of 3-dimensional PET/CT of the torso beginning ~15 min after 18F-NaF injection, followed by a whole-body 3-dimensional PET/CT at 2 h. The remaining 13 prostate cancer patients were imaged only at 2 and 3 h after injection. Twenty-one prostate cancer patients underwent repeat baseline studies (mean interval, 5.9 d) to evaluate reproducibility. Results The measured effective dose was 0.017 mSv/MBq, with the urinary bladder, osteogenic cells, and red marrow receiving the highest doses at 0.080, 0.077, and 0.028 mGy/MBq, respectively. Visual analysis showed that uptake in both normal and abnormal bone increased with time; however, the rate of increase decreased with time. A semiautomated workflow provided objective uptake parameters, including the mean standardized uptake value of all pixels within bone with SUVs greater than 10 and the average of the mean SUV of all malignant lesions identified by the algorithm. The values of these parameters for the images beginning at ~15 min and ~35 min were significantly different (0.3% change/minute). Differences between the later imaging time points were not significant (P < 0.01). Repeat baseline studies showed high intraclass correlations (>0.9) and relatively low critical percent change (the value above which a change can be considered real) for these parameters. The tumor-to-normal bone ratio, based on the SUVmax of identified malignant lesions, decreased with time; however, this difference was small, estimated at ~0.16%/min in the first hour. Conclusion 18F-NaF PET/CT images obtained with modest radiation exposures can result in highly reproducible imaging parameters. Although the tumor-to-normal bone ratio decreases slightly with time, the high temporal dependence during uptake periods < 30 min may limit accurate quantitation. An uptake period of 60 ± 30 min has limited temporal dependence while maintaining high tumor-to-normal bone ratio.

18 F-NaF, a PET radiotracer of bone turnover, has shown potential as an imaging biomarker for assessing the response of bone metastases to therapy. This study aimed to evaluate the repeatability of 18 F-NaF PET-derived SUV imaging metrics in individual bone lesions from patients in a multicenter study. Methods: Thirty-five castration-resistant prostate cancer patients with multiple metastases underwent 2 whole-body (test-retest) 18 F-NaF PET/CT scans 3 ± 2 d apart from 1 of 3 imaging sites. A total of 411 bone lesions larger than 1.5 cm 3 were automatically segmented using an SUV threshold of 15 g/mL. Two levels of analysis were performed: lesion-level, in which measures were extracted from individual-lesion regions of interest (ROI), and patient-level, in which all lesions within a patient were grouped into a patient ROI for analysis. Uptake was quantified with SUV max , SUV mean , and SUV total . Test-retest repeatability was assessed using BlandAltman analysis, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), coefficient of variation, critical percentage difference, and repeatability coefficient. The 95% limit of agreement (LOA) of the ratio between test and retest measurements was calculated. Results: At the lesion level, the coefficient of variation for SUV max , SUV mean , and SUV total was 14.1%, 6.6%, and 25.5%, respectively. At the patient level, it was slightly smaller: 12.0%, 5.3%, and 18.5%, respectively. ICC was excellent (.0.95) for all SUV metrics. Lesion-level 95% LOA for SUV max, SUV mean , and SUV total was (0.76, 1.32), (0.88, 1.14), and (0.63, 1.71), respectively. Patient-level 95% LOA was slightly narrower, at (0.79, 1.26), (0.89, 1.10), and (0.70, 1.44), respectively. We observed significant differences in the variance and sample mean of lesion-level and patient-level measurements between imaging sites. Conclusion: The repeatability of SUV max , SUV mean , and SUV total for 18 F-NaF PET/CT was similar between lesion-and patient-level ROIs. We found significant differences in lesion-level and patient-level distributions between sites. These results can be used to establish 18 F-NaF PET-based criteria for assessing treatment response at the lesion and patient levels. 18 F-NaF PET demonstrates repeatability levels useful for clinically quantifying the response of bone lesions to therapy.

There are presently no accurate methods of imaging prostate cancer metastases to bone. An unprecedented number of novel imaging agents, based on the biology of the disease, are now available for testing. We reviewed contemporary molecular imaging modalities that have been tested in humans with metastatic prostate cancer, with consideration of the studies' adherence to current prostate cancer clinical trial designs. Articles from the years 2002 to 2008 on PET using 18F-FDG, 11C-choline, 18F-choline, 18F-flouride, 11C-acetate, 11C-methionine, and 18F-fluoro-5α-dihydrotestosterone in patients with metastatic prostate cancer were reviewed. Although these studies are encouraging, most focus on the rising population with prostate-specific antigen, and many involve small numbers of patients and do not adhere to consensus criteria for clinical trial designs in prostate cancer. Hence, although many promising agents are available for testing, such studies would benefit from closer collaboration between those in the fields of medical oncology and nuclear medicine.