Four cycles of cisplatin plus etoposide and a course of radiotherapy (45 Gy, given either once or twice daily) beginning with cycle 1 of the chemotherapy resulted in overall two- and five-year survival rates of 44 percent and 23 percent, a considerable improvement in survival rates over previous results in patients with limited small-cell lung cancer.

Macroautophagy (autophagy hereafter) degrades and recycles proteins and organelles to support metabolism and survival in starvation. Oncogenic Ras up-regulates autophagy, and Ras-transformed cell lines require autophagy for mitochondrial function, stress survival, and engrafted tumor growth. Here, the essential autophagy gene autophagy-related-7 (atg7 ) was deleted concurrently with K-ras G12D activation in mouse models for non-smallcell lung cancer (NSCLC). atg7-deficient tumors accumulated dysfunctional mitochondria and prematurely induced p53 and proliferative arrest, which reduced tumor burden that was partly relieved by p53 deletion. atg7 loss altered tumor fate from adenomas and carcinomas to oncocytomas-rare, predominantly benign tumors characterized by the accumulation of defective mitochondria. Surprisingly, lipid accumulation occurred in atg7-deficient tumors only when p53 was deleted. atg7-and p53-deficient tumor-derived cell lines (TDCLs) had compromised starvation survival and formed lipidic cysts instead of tumors, suggesting defective utilization of lipid stores. atg7 deficiency reduced fatty acid oxidation (FAO) and increased sensitivity to FAO inhibition, indicating that with p53 loss, Ras-driven tumors require autophagy for mitochondrial function and lipid catabolism. Thus, autophagy is required for carcinoma fate, and autophagy defects may be a molecular basis for the occurrence of oncocytomas. Moreover, cancers require autophagy for distinct roles in metabolism that are oncogene-and tumor suppressor gene-specific.

A B S T R A C T PurposeThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of carboplatin and paclitaxel in patients with advanced previously untreated thymoma and thymic carcinoma. Patients and MethodsWe conducted a prospective multicenter study in patients with unresectable thymoma (n ϭ 21) or thymic carcinoma (n ϭ 23). Patients were treated with carboplatin (area under the curve, 6) plus paclitaxel (225 mg/m 2 ) every 3 weeks for a maximum of six cycles. The primary end point of this trial was to evaluate the objective response rate. ResultsFrom February 2001 through January 2008, 46 patients were enrolled. Thirteen patients had grade 4 or greater toxicity, mostly neutropenia. Using RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors) 1.0 criteria, three complete responses (CRs) and six partial responses (PRs; objective response rate [ORR], 42.9%; 90% CI, 24.5% to 62.8%) were observed in the thymoma cohort; 10 patients had stable disease. For patients with thymic carcinoma, no CRs and five PRs (ORR, 21.7%; 90% CI, 9.0% to 40.4%) were observed; 12 patients had stable disease. Progression-free survival (PFS) was 16.7 (95% CI, 7.2 to 19.8) and 5.0 (95% CI, 3.0 to 8.3) months for thymoma and thymic carcinoma cohorts, respectively. To date, only seven patients (33.3%) with thymoma have died, compared with 16 patients (69.6%) with thymic carcinoma. Median survival time was 20.0 months (95% CI, 5.0 to 43.6 months) for patients with thymic carcinoma, but it has not been reached for patients with thymoma. ConclusionCarboplatin plus paclitaxel has moderate clinical activity for patients with thymic malignancies, but this seems less than expected with anthracycline-based therapy. Patients with thymic carcinoma have poorer PFS and overall survival than patients with thymoma.

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Purpose:To determine the response rate of cisplatin plus doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide (PAC) in patients with limited-stage unresectable thymoma. In addition, this study was undertaken to determine the toxicity, progression-free survival, and overall survival of combined-modality therapy with PAC plus radiation therapy.Patients andMethods: Patients with a histologic diagnosis of limited-stage unresectable thymoma or thymic carcinoma were eligible. Further requirements included a Karnofsky Performance Score of > 60, no prior radiation to the chest, and adequate bone marrow, hepatic, and renal function. No patient had undergone chemotherapy previously. Patients received two to four cycles (repeated every 3 weeks) of cisplatin (50 mg/m2), doxorubicin (50 mg/m2), and cyclophosphamide (500 mg/m 2 ) followed by a total dosage of 54 Gy to the primary tumor and regional lymph nodes for patients with a stable, partial, or complete response to chemotherapy.Results: From November 1983 through January 1995, 26 patients were entered onto the trial. Three pa-

Diagnosis using hematoxylin and eosin staining alone showeds moderate agreement among pathologists in tumors with neuroendocrine morphology, but agreement improved to good in most cases with the judicious use of IHC, especially in the diagnosis of SCLC. An approach for IHC in the differential diagnosis of SCLC is provided.

SUMMARYBackgroundAdjuvant chemotherapy for resected early stage NSCLC provides modest survival benefit. Bevacizumab, a monoclonal antibody directed against vascular endothelial growth factor, improves outcomes when added to platinum-based chemotherapy in advanced stage non-squamous NSCLC. We conducted a phase III study to evaluate the addition of bevacizumab to adjuvant chemotherapy in early stage resected NSCLC (E1505). The primary endpoint was overall survival.MethodsAdult patients (≥ 18 years old) with ECOG performance status 0 or 1 with completely resected stage IB (≥4 centimeters) to IIIA (AJCC 6th edition) NSCLC were enrolled within 6–12 weeks of surgery and stratified by chemotherapy regimen, stage, histology, and sex. Minimum mediastinal lymph node sampling at specified levels was required (level 7 and 4 for right-sided tumors or level 7 and 5 and/or 6 for left-sided tumors). Normal laboratory values within two weeks of randomisation were required for enrollment. Chemotherapy, which was selected for each patient prior to randomisation, consisted of four, 3-week (21-day) cycles of cisplatin (75 mg/m2 in all regimens) with either vinorelbine 30 mg/m2 days 1 and 8; docetaxel 75 mg/m2 day 1; OR gemcitabine 1200 mg/m2 days 1 and 8; OR, starting in 2009 with an amendment, pemetrexed 500 mg/m2 day 1 along with B12 and folic acid supplementation. Patients were randomised 1:1 to Arm A (chemotherapy) or Arm B, adding bevacizumab at 15 mg/kg every 3 weeks starting with cycle 1 of chemotherapy and continuing for one year. Randomisation to treatment arm was performed centrally and determined using permuted blocks within strata with dynamic balancing on institution. The study had 85% power to detect a 21% reduction in the overall survival (OS) hazard rate with a one-sided 0·025-level test. The primary endpoint was overall survival, which was defined as the time from randomisation to death from any cause, and patients who were thought to be alive at the time of final analysis were censored at the last date of contact with analysis done based on intention to treat. This is final analysis of the primary endpoint of overall survival of E1505 (NCT00324805).FindingsFrom July 2007 to September 2013, 1501 patients were enrolled, of whom 26% (N=383) had stage IB, 44% (N=636) stage II, and 30% (N=439) stage IIIA) with 28% (N=422) squamous cell histology. Cisplatin-based chemotherapy regimens utilized were vinorelbine 25% (N=377), docetaxel 23% (N=343), gemcitabine 19% (N=283), and pemetrexed 33% (N=497). At a median follow-up time of 50·3 months (IQR 32.9–68.0), estimated OS hazard ratio (B/A) was 0·99 (95% CI: 0·82–1·19, p=0·90). The median OS on Arm A has not been reached and is 85.8 months (95% CI 74.9-NA) on Arm B. Statistically significantly increased grade 3–5 toxicities of note (all attributions) included: overall worst grade (ie all grade 3/4/5 toxicities) (67%(N=496) versus 83%(N=610)); hypertension (8%(N=60) versus 30%(N=219)), and neutropenia (33%(N=241) versus 37%(N=275)) on Arms A and B, respectively. There was no s...

This trial demonstrates that objective response rates and prolonged survival can be achieved in patients with advanced thymoma.