Although it had limited activity as a single agent, cetuximab appears to augment the antitumor activity of paclitaxel in previously treated urothelial cancers. The cetuximab and paclitaxel combination merits additional study to establish its role in the treatment of urothelial cancers.

A 2:2 complex of proflavine and deoxycytidylyl-3', 5'-guanosine has been crystallized and its structure determined by x-ray crystallography. The two dinucleoside phosphate strands form self complementary duplexes with Watson Crick hydrogen bonds. One proflavin is asymmetrically intercalated between the base pairs and the other is stacked above them. The conformations of the nucleotides are unusual in that one strand has C3',C2'endomixed sugar puckering and the other has C3',C3' endo deoxyribose sugars. These results show that the conformation of the 3'sugar is of secondary importance to the intercalated geometry.

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The combination of gemcitabine and topotecan seems to be active against NSCLC with acceptable hematologic toxicity and minimal nonhematologic toxicity. The recommended dose for further study is 1250 mg/m2 of gemcitabine (days 1, 8, 15) and 2.0 mg/m2 of topotecan (days 1, 8, 15) administered every 28 days.

Nivolumab (Opdivo) is a monoclonal antibody classified as an immune modulator. A case is presented of nivolumab-induced myositis, an unlisted side effect.

243 Background: The benefit of salvage chemotherapy such as weekly paclitaxel (TAX) is modest in metastatic (met) urothelial ca, with median TTP of ≤3 months and ORR of 10% (95% CI 4-18% [combined results, Vaughn 2002; Joly, 2009]). Cetuximab (CET) is a monoclonal antibody against the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). High-grade urothelial cancer overexpress EGFR. We conducted a multicenter randomized, noncomparative phase II study to measure the efficacy of CET ± TAX in patients (pts) with previously treated met urothelial cancer. Methods: Pts with met urothelial cancer who received one line of chemotherapy in the adjuvant, neoadjvuant, or met setting were enrolled. Pts were randomized to CET 250mg/m2 (after 400 mg/m2 load) ± TAX 80 mg/m2 weekly. A cycle was 4 weeks (wks). Response (RECIST) was assessed by imaging every 8 wks. We used early progression to assess futility (Litwin Stats Med 2007). Either arm would close if 7 of the initial 15 pts in that arm progressed at the first disease evaluation. Either arm would be considered promising if ≥9/28 patients had PFS>16 wks (90.4% power to detect an improvement in Median [Med] PFS from 8 to 16 wks with a 7.1% type 1 error). Results: We enrolled 39 evaluable pts (30 male). Median age was 69 years (range 49-79). All pts received prior platinum-based chemotherapy. CET arm closed after 9 of the first 11 pts progressed by 8 wks (ASCO GU 2009). CET-TAX arm completed full accrual (28 pts), of which 11 had visceral disease and 13 received chemo for met disease. 10/28 pts had PFS>16 wks. Overall RR was 28.5%, (8/28 pts, 95% CI 13-49%) (2 CR, 6PR). 4 additional pts had unconfirmed PR. 2 pts have maintained PR 3 and 4 months after discontinuing CET-TAX. Med PFS for the CET-TAX was 115 days (16 weeks)(95% CI 58-174 days). Med PFS for pts with visceral disease was 84 days (95%CI 50-NR). Med PFS for pts who received prior chemo for met disease was 142 days (95% 58-NR). Med number of cycles for the CET-TAX was 3 (range 0-25). Grade 3 AEs occurring in more than 2 pts were rash (5), fatigue (4), anemia (4), low magnesium (3). Conclusions: EGFR inhibition with CET appears to augment the antitumor activity of TAX in pts with previously treated urothelial cancers. The CET-TAX combination merits further study to establish its role in treatment of urothelial cancers. [Table: see text]

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