Cisplatin-based chemotherapy is the standard of care for patients with muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma. Pathologic downstaging to pT0/pTis after neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy is associated with improved survival, although molecular determinants of cisplatin response are incompletely understood. We performed whole exome sequencing on pre-treatment tumor and germline DNA from 50 patients with muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma who received neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy followed by cystectomy (25 pT0/pTis “responders”, 25 pT2+ “non-responders”) to identify somatic mutations that occurred preferentially in responders. ERCC2, a nucleotide excision repair gene, was the only significantly mutated gene enriched in the cisplatin responders compared with non-responders (q < 0.01). Expression of representative ERCC2 mutations in an ERCC2-deficient cell line failed to rescue cisplatin and UV sensitivity compared to wild-type ERCC2. Lack of normal ERCC2 function may contribute to cisplatin sensitivity in urothelial cancer and somatic ERCC2 mutation status may inform cisplatin-containing regimen usage in muscle invasive urothelial carcinoma.

A B S T R A C T PurposeWe sought to define the prevalence and co-occurrence of actionable genomic alterations in patients with high-grade bladder cancer to serve as a platform for therapeutic drug discovery. Patients and MethodsAn integrative analysis of 97 high-grade bladder tumors was conducted to identify actionable drug targets, which are defined as genomic alterations that have been clinically validated in another cancer type (eg, BRAF mutation) or alterations for which a selective inhibitor of the target or pathway is under clinical investigation. DNA copy number alterations (CNAs) were defined by using array comparative genomic hybridization. Mutation profiling was performed by using both mass spectroscopy-based genotyping and Sanger sequencing. ResultsSixty-one percent of tumors harbored potentially actionable genomic alterations. A core pathway analysis of the integrated data set revealed a nonoverlapping pattern of mutations in the RTK-RAS-RAF and phosphoinositide 3-kinase/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin pathways and regulators of G 1 -S cell cycle progression. Unsupervised clustering of CNAs defined two distinct classes of bladder tumors that differed in the degree of their CNA burden. Integration of mutation and copy number analyses revealed that mutations in TP53 and RB1 were significantly more common in tumors with a high CNA burden (P Ͻ .001 and P Ͻ .003, respectively). ConclusionHigh-grade bladder cancer possesses substantial genomic heterogeneity. The majority of tumors harbor potentially tractable genomic alterations that may predict for response to target-selective agents. Given the genomic diversity of bladder cancers, optimal development of target-specific agents will require pretreatment genomic characterization.

Objective To assess the efficacy and tolerability of everolimus in advanced urothelial carcimoma (UC). Patients and Methods The present study comprised a single-arm, non-randomized study in which all patients received everolimus 10 mg orally once daily continuously (one cycle = 4 weeks). In total, 45 patients with metastatic UC progressing after one to four cytotoxic agents were enrolled between February 2009 and November 2010 at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The primary endpoints were 2-month progression-free survival (PFS) and the safety of everolimus, with the secondary endpoint being the response rate. A Simon minimax two-stage design tested the null hypothesis that the true two month PFS rate was ≤50%, as opposed to the alternative hypothesis of ≥70%. Results The most common grade 3/4 toxicities were fatigue, infection, anaemia, lymphopaenia, hyperglycaemia and hypophosphataemia. There were two partial responses in nodal metastases, with one patient achieving a 94% decrease in target lesions and remaining on drug at 26 months. An additional 12 patients exhibited minor tumour regression. There were 23 of 45 (51%) patients who were progression-free at 2 months with a median (95% CI) PFS of 2.6 (1.8–3.5) months and a median (95% CI) overall survival of 8.3 (5.5–12.1) months. No clear association was observed between mammalian target of rapamycin pathway marker expression and 2-month PFS. Conclusions Although everolimus did not meet its primary endpoint, one partial response, one near-complete response and twelve minor regressions were observed. Everolimus possesses meaningful anti-tumour activity in a subset of patients with advanced UC. Studies aiming to define the genetic basis of everolimus activity in individual responders are ongoing.

This elective course led to positive short-term changes in measures of multiple knowledge domains and reduced measures of transphobia among health profession students. Further study is needed to assess the long-term impact. Our methods and findings, including the demonstration of reliability of a previously validated nine-item transphobia scale, serve as formative data for the future development of theory-based transgender medicine curricula and measures.