Our observations indicate that cardiac damage from TKI treatment is a largely underestimated phenomenon but is manageable if patients have careful cardiovascular monitoring and cardiac treatment at the first signs of myocardial damage.

BACKGROUND: Sunitinib and sorafenib are tyrosine kinase inhibitors that have important antitumor activity in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Hypothyroidism constitutes a commonly reported side effect of both drugs, and particularly of sunitinib. The objective of this analysis was to investigate whether the occurrence of hypothyroidism during treatment with sunitinib and sorafenib affects the outcome of patients with mRCC. METHODS: Eighty-seven consecutive patients with mRCC who were to receive treatment with sunitinib or sorafenib were included in a prospective analysis. Thyroid function was assessed in each patient every 4 weeks during the first 2 months of treatment and every 2 to 4 months thereafter. Assessment included serum levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), tri-iodthyronine (T3), and thyroxine (T4). Subclinical hypothyroidism was defined as an increase in TSH above the upper limit of normal (>3.77 lM/mL) with normal T3 and T4 levels. RESULTS: Subclinical hypothyroidism was evident in 5 patients at baseline and occurred in 30 patients (36.1%) within the first 2 months after treatment initiation. There was a statistically significant correlation between the occurrence of subclinical hypothyroidism during treatment and the rate of objective remission (hypothyroid patients vs euthyroid patients: 28.3% vs 3.3%, respectively; P < .001) and the median duration of survival (not reached vs 13.9 months, respectively; hazard ratio, 0.35; 95% confidence interval, 0.14-0.85; P ¼ .016). In multivariate analysis, the development of subclinical hypothyroidism was identified as an independent predictor of survival (hazard ratio, 0.31; P ¼ .014). CONCLUSIONS: The current results indicated that hypothyroidism may serve as a predictive marker of treatment outcome in patients with mRCC. Thus, the interpretation of hypothyroidism during treatment with sunitinib and sorafenib as an unwanted side effect should be reconsidered.

BackgroundThe VHL protein (pVHL) is a multiadaptor protein that interacts with more than 30 different binding partners involved in many oncogenic processes. About 70 % of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) have VHL mutations with varying impact on pVHL function. Loss of pVHL function leads to the accumulation of Hypoxia Inducible Factor (HIF), which is targeted by current targeted treatments. In contrast to nonsense and frameshift mutations that highly likely nullify pVHL multipurpose functions, missense mutations may rather specifically influence the binding capability of pVHL to its partners. The affected pathways may offer predictive clues to therapy and response to treatment. In this study we focused on the VHL missense mutation pattern in ccRCC, and studied their potential effects on pVHL protein stability and binding partners and discussed treatment options.MethodsWe sequenced VHL in 360 sporadic ccRCC FFPE samples and compared observed and expected frequency of missense mutations in 32 different binding domains. The prediction of the impact of those mutations on protein stability and function was assessed in silico. The response to HIF-related, anti-angiogenic treatment of 30 patients with known VHL mutation status was also investigated.ResultsWe identified 254 VHL mutations (68.3 % of the cases) including 89 missense mutations (35 %). Codons Ser65, Asn78, Ser80, Trp117 and Leu184 represented hotspots and missense mutations in Trp117 and Leu 184 were predicted to highly destabilize pVHL. About 40 % of VHL missense mutations were predicted to cause severe protein malfunction. The pVHL binding domains for HIF1AN, BCL2L11, HIF1/2α, RPB1, PRKCZ, aPKC-λ/ι, EEF1A1, CCT-ζ-2, and Cullin2 were preferentially affected. These binding partners are mainly acting in transcriptional regulation, apoptosis and ubiquitin ligation. There was no correlation between VHL mutation status and response to treatment.ConclusionsVHL missense mutations may exert mild, moderate or strong impact on pVHL stability. Besides the HIF binding domain, other pVHL binding sites seem to be non-randomly altered by missense mutations. In contrast to LOF mutations that affect all the different pathways normally controlled by pVHL, missense mutations may be rather appropriate for designing tailor-made treatment strategies for ccRCC.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-016-2688-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Prognostic and predictive factors in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (MRCC) have been evaluated from untreated patients or patients on several different treatment approaches. The aim of this analysis was to define prognostic and predictive factors in patients treated uniformly with a low-dose outpatient cytokine combination. The relationship between patient-, tumour-, and treatment-related factors was analysed in 99 patients with MRCC. These features were first examined in univariate analyses, then a stepwise modelling approach based on Cox regression was used to form a multivariate model. Nuclear grade, metastasectomyeven incomplete -C-reactive protein and lactate dehydrogenase were identified as independent prognostic factors for survival. Patients assigned to three different risk groups had statistically significant survival differences (30, 22 and 6 months, respectively). A total of 43.4% had undergone metastasectomy, mostly incomplete. Risk group affiliation was correlated with response to treatment. Our findings strongly suggest the consideration of metastasectomy in the management of patients with metastatic renal cell cancer undergoing either immunotherapy or targeted treatment.

Brain metastases (BM) are frequently diagnosed in metastatic Her2-positive breast cancer. Local treatment remains the standard of care but lapatinib plus capecitabine was recently established as systemic therapy option. Due to a disruption of the blood-brain/tumour-barrier at metastatic sites, even large molecules may penetrate into the central nervous system (CNS). Here, we report on the activity of T-DM1 in Her2-positive breast cancer BM. T-DM1 was administered at a dose of 3.6 mg once every 3 weeks as primary systemic therapy for BM or upon documented CNS progression after initial local treatment. Thus, this study allowed for the appraisal of T-DM1 activity in BM. Restaging was conducted every 12 weeks with MRI or whenever symptoms of disease progression occurred. Ten patients were included; in two asymptomatic subjects, T-DM1 was administered as primary therapy, while eight had progressive BM. All patients had received prior treatment with trastuzumab, six had already received lapatinib, and three pertuzumab as well. Three patients had partial remission of BM, and two patient had stable disease lasting for ≥6 months; two further patients had stable disease for <6 months while three progressed despite treatment. At 8.5 months median follow-up, intracranial PFS was 5 months, and median OS from initiation of T-DM1 was not reached. Local treatment of BM remains the standard of care; lapatinib plus capecitabine is currently the best established systemic therapy option. Still, T-DM1 apparently offers relevant clinical activity in BM and further investigation is warranted.