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Background Recent evidence suggested a potential correlation between overweight and the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in cancer patients. Patients and methods We conducted a retrospective study of advanced cancer patients consecutively treated with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, in order to compare clinical outcomes according to baseline BMI levels as primary analysis. Based on their BMI, patients were categorized into overweight/obese (≥ 25) and non-overweight (< 25). A gender analysis was also performed, using the same binomial cut-off. Further subgroup analyses were performed categorizing patients into underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. Results Between September 2013 and May 2018, 976 patients were evaluated. The median age was 68 years, male/female ratio was 663/313. Primary tumors were: NSCLC (65.1%), melanoma (18.7%), renal cell carcinoma (13.8%) and others (2.4%). ECOG-PS was ≥2 in 145 patients (14.9%). PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors were administered as first-line treatment in 26.6% of cases. Median BMI was 24.9: 492 patients (50.6%) were non-overweight, 480 patients (50.4%) were overweight/obese. 25.2% of non-overweight patients experienced irAEs of any grade, while 55.6% of overweight/obese patients ( p < 0.0001). ORR was significantly higher in overweight/obese patients compared to non-overweight (p < 0.0001). Median follow-up was 17.2 months. Median TTF, PFS and OS were significantly longer for overweight/obese patients in univariate (p < 0.0001, for all the survival intervals) and multivariate models ( p = 0.0009, p < 0.0001 and p < 0.0001 respectively). The significance was confirmed in both sex, except for PFS in male patients ( p = 0.0668). Conclusions Overweight could be considered a tumorigenic immune-dysfunction that could be effectively reversed by ICIs. BMI could be a useful predictive tool in clinical practice and a stratification factor in prospective clinical trials with ICIs. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40425-019-0527-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: In the phase III IMpassion130 trial, combining atezolizumab with first-line nanoparticle albumin-boundpaclitaxel for advanced triple-negative breast cancer (aTNBC) showed a statistically significant progression-free survival (PFS) benefit in the intention-to-treat (ITT) and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)-positive populations, and a clinically meaningful overall survival (OS) effect in PD-L1-positive aTNBC. The phase III KEYNOTE-355 trial adding pembrolizumab to chemotherapy for aTNBC showed similar PFS effects. IMpassion131 evaluated first-line atezolizumabepaclitaxel in aTNBC. Patients and methods: Eligible patients [no prior systemic therapy or 12 months since (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy] were randomised 2:1 to atezolizumab 840 mg or placebo (days 1, 15), both with paclitaxel 90 mg/m 2 (days 1, 8, 15), every 28 days until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Stratification factors were tumour PD-L1 status, prior taxane, liver metastases and geographical region. The primary endpoint was investigator-assessed PFS, tested hierarchically first in the PD-L1-positive [immune cell expression 1%, VENTANA PD-L1 (SP142) assay] population, and then in the ITT population. OS was a secondary endpoint. Results: Of 651 randomised patients, 45% had PD-L1-positive aTNBC. At the primary PFS analysis, adding atezolizumab to paclitaxel did not improve investigator-assessed PFS in the PD-L1-positive population [hazard ratio (HR) 0.82, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.60-1.12; P ¼ 0.20; median PFS 6.0 months with atezolizumabepaclitaxel versus 5.7 months with placeboepaclitaxel]. In the PD-L1-positive population, atezolizumabepaclitaxel was associated with more favourable unconfirmed best overall response rate (63% versus 55% with placeboepaclitaxel) and median duration of response (7.2 versus 5.5 months, respectively). Final OS results showed no difference between arms (HR 1.11, 95% CI 0.76-1.64; median 22.1 months with atezolizumabepaclitaxel versus 28.3 months with placeboe paclitaxel in the PD-L1-positive population). Results in the ITT population were consistent with the PD-L1-positive population. The safety profile was consistent with known effects of each study drug. Conclusion: Combining atezolizumab with paclitaxel did not improve PFS or OS versus paclitaxel alone. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03125902.

Galectins and their ligands have been implicated in cell transformation and cancer metastasis, and found to have prognostic value. Mac-2 BP, also known as 90K, is a highly glycosylated, secreted protein extensively studied in human cancer, which binds galectin-1, galectin-3 and galectin-7. High expression levels of 90K are associated with a shorter survival, the occurrence of metastasis or a reduced response to chemotherapy in patients with different types of malignancy. The mechanisms underlying the prognostic significance of 90K and galectins in cancer are far from being understood, although they may be related to the ability of these proteins to interact and, to some extent, modulate cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion and apoptosis. The resulting scenario is even more complex, as data have been presented that all these proteins might be associated with either a positive or a negative outcome of the patients. It is hypothesised that different galectins and galectin ligands with overlapping or opposite functions, expressed in different tumors during the different steps of the metastatic cascade might play a crucial role in tumor progression.

The immune system seems to play a fundamental role in breast cancer responsiveness to chemotherapy. We investigated two peripheral indicators of immunity/inflammation, i.e. neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), in order to reveal a possible relationship with pathological complete response (pCR) in patients with early or locally advanced breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT).We retrospectively analyzed 373 consecutive patients affected by breast cancer and candidates to NACT. The complete blood cell count before starting NACT was evaluated to calculate NLR and PLR. ROC curve analysis determined threshold values of 2.42 and 104.47 as best cut-off values for NLR and PLR, respectively. The relationships between NLR/PLR and pCR, along with other clinical-pathological characteristics, were evaluated by Pearson's c 2 or Fisher's exact test as appropriate. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed using a logistic regression model. NLR and PLR were not significantly associated with pCR if analyzed separately. However, when combining NLR and PLR, patients with a NLR low /PLR low profile achieved a significantly higher rate of pCR compared to those with NLR high and/or PLR high (OR 2.29, 95% CI 1.22e4.27, p 0.009). Importantly, the predictive value of NLR low /PLR low was independent from common prognostic factors such as grading, Ki67, and molecular subtypes.The combination of NLR and PLR may reflect patients' immunogenic phenotype. Low levels of both NLR and PLR may thus indicate a status of immune system activation that may predict pCR in breast cancer patients treated with NACT.

BackgroundClinical trials of immune checkpoints modulators, including both programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors, have recently shown promising activity and tolerable toxicity in pre-treated NSCLC patients. However the predictive role of PD-L1 expression is still controversial. This pooled analysis aims to clarify the association of clinical objective responses to anti PD-1/PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) and tumor PD-L1 expression in pre-treated NSCLC patients.MethodsData from published studies, that evaluated efficacy and safety of PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in pre-treated NSCLC patients, stratified by tumor PD-L1 expression status (immunohistochemistry, cut-off point 1%), were collected by searching in PubMed, Cochrane Library, American Society of Clinical Oncology, European Society of Medical Oncology and World Conference of Lung Cancer, meeting proceedings. Pooled Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated for the Overall Response Rate (ORR) (as evaluated by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, version 1.1), according to PD-L1 expression status.ResultsA total of seven studies, with 914 patients, were eligible. Pooled analysis showed that patients with PD-L1 positive tumors (PD-L1 tumor cell staining ≥1%), had a significantly higher ORR, compared to patients with PD-L1 negative tumors (OR: 2.44; 95% CIs: 1.61-3.68).ConclusionsPD-L1 tumor over-expression seems to be associated with higher clinical activity of anti PD-1/PD-L1 MoAbs, in pre-treated NSCLC patients, suggesting a potential role of PD-L1 expression, IHC cut-off point 1%, as predictive biomarker for the selection of patients to treat with immune-checkpoint inhibitors.

Galectins are a family of proteins involved in several cell processes, including their survival and death. Galectin-3 has in particular been described as an anti-apoptotic molecule entangled with a number of subcellular activities including anoikis resistance. In this work we partially address the mechanisms underlying this activity pointing at two key factors in injury progression: the alteration of mitochondrial membrane potential and the formation of reactive oxygen species. Overexpression of galectin-3 appears in fact to exert a protective effect towards both these events. On the basis of these data, we propose a reappraisal of the role of galectin-3 as a regulator of mitochondrial homeostasis.z 2000 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, and within the HER-2 positive subtype this is highly exemplified by the presence of substantial phenotypical and clinical heterogeneity, mostly related to hormonal receptor (HR) expression. It is well known how HER-2 positivity is commonly associated with a more aggressive tumor phenotype and decreased overall survival and, moreover, with a reduced benefit from endocrine treatment. Preclinical studies corroborate the role played by functional crosstalks between HER-2 and estrogen receptor (ER) signaling in endocrine resistance and, more recently, the activation of ER signaling is emerging as a possible mechanism of resistance to HER-2 blocking agents. Indeed, HER-2 positive breast cancer heterogeneity has been suggested to underlie the variability of response not only to endocrine treatments, but also to HER-2 blocking agents. Among HER-2 positive tumors, HR status probably defines two distinct subtypes, with dissimilar clinical behavior and different sensitivity to anticancer agents. The triple positive subtype, namely, ER/PgR/Her-2 positive tumors, could be considered the subset which most closely resembles the HER-2 negative/HR positive tumors, with substantial differences in biology and clinical outcome. We argue on whether in this subgroup the "standard" treatment may be considered, in selected cases, i.e., small tumors, low tumor burden, high expression of both hormonal receptors, an overtreatment. This article review the existing literature on biologic and clinical data concerning the HER-2/ER/PgR positive tumors, in an attempt to better define the HER-2 subtypes and to optimize the use of HER-2 targeted agents, chemotherapy and endocrine treatments in the various subsets.