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BackgroundEpithelioid hemangioendothelioma is a rare vascular tumor of borderline or low-grade malignancy. The lungs and liver are the two common primary organs affected. Metastatic disease was reported in more than 100 cases in the literature. However, no firm conclusions can be determined for recommended treatment options.Case presentationThe current case presents a patient with metastatic pulmonary epithelioid hemangioendothelioma to the cervical and mediastinal lymph nodes, lungs and liver that has been treated with pazopanib for more than two years with PET avid complete metabolic response in the mediastinum and lungs, and long-lasting stable disease. Target therapies that block VEGFR have a logical base in this rare malignancy.ConclusionsThe current case is the first to report objective, long-lasting response to pazopanib.

Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is largely unresponsive to checkpoint inhibitors. Blockade of the CXCR4/CXCL12 axis increases intratumoral trafficking of activated T cells while restraining immunosuppressive elements. This study evaluates dual blockade of CXCR4 and PD1 with chemotherapy in PDAC. Patients and Methods: Multicenter, single-arm, phase II study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of motixafortide and pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy in patients with de novo metastatic PDAC and disease progression on front-line gemcitabine-based therapy (NCT02826486). Subjects received a priming phase of motixafortide daily on days 1–5, followed by repeated cycles of motixafortide twice a week; pembrolizumab every 3 weeks; and nanoliposomal irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin every 2 weeks (NAPOLI-1 regimen). The primary objective was objective response rate (ORR). Secondary objectives included overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), disease control rate (DCR), safety, and tolerability. Results: A total of 43 patients were enrolled. The ORR according to RECISTv1.1 was 21.1% with confirmed ORR of 13.2%. The DCR was 63.2% with median duration of clinical benefit of 5.7 months. In the intention-to-treat population, median PFS was 3.8 months and median OS was 6.6 months. The triple combination was safe and well tolerated, with toxicity comparable with the NAPOLI-1 regimen. Notably, the incidence of grade 3 or higher neutropenia and infection was 7%, lower than expected for this chemotherapy regimen. Conclusions: Triple combination of motixafortide, pembrolizumab, and chemotherapy was safe and well tolerated, and showed signs of efficacy in a population with poor prognosis and aggressive disease.

TPS4672 Background: KRAS alterations are the most frequent driver alterations identified in pancreas cancer; however, KRAS has remained an elusive therapeutic target. siG12D-LODER is a novel, miniature bio-degradable polymeric matrix encompassing a novel small interfering RNA targeting KRAS G12D and all additional G12X mutations (G12C, G12V...). The siG12D-LODER is inserted directly into the pancreas tumor via endoscopic intervention. A Phase 1/2a dose escalation and expansion study of patients receiving a one-time dose of siG12D-LODER with ongoing chemotherapy demonstrated that the combination was well-tolerated and safe and exhibited promising potential efficacy with 10/12 patients achieving disease control and median overall survival 15.1 months (Golan, Oncotarget 2015). Methods: This phase 2 study was initially designed as a randomized, two arm, open label study of gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel with or without siG12D-LODER for patients with locally advanced pancreas cancer with planned 40 patients in each arm and primary endpoint of progression-free survival. Eighteen patients were enrolled in the chemotherapy alone arm and 18 in the chemotherapy and siG12D-LODER arm. After an interim analysis, the study design has been amended and is now a single arm study in which patients (N=39) with both borderline resectable and locally advanced pancreas cancer will receive investigator’s choice of chemotherapy (the combination of gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel or modified FOLFIRINOX) and all patients will receive up to three doses of the siG12D-LODER administered once every 12 weeks. Primary endpoint is overall response rate after final siG12D-LODER insertion. Secondary endpoints include duration of response, progression-free survival, overall survival, time to response, percentage of patients proceeding to surgical resection, and percentage of patients receiving radiation therapy. Exploratory analyses include evaluation of KRAS mutation status and monitoring of circulating free DNA and circulating tumor cells. The amended protocol is now open for accrual and four patients having been enrolled to date. Trial accrual is anticipated to be completed by December 2020. Clinical trial information: NCT01676259 .

BackgroundPrecision treatment of cancer uses biomarker-driven therapy to individualize and optimize patient care.ObjectiveTo evaluate real-life clinical experience with biomarker-driven therapy in metastatic gastric and esophageal cancer in Israel.Patients and MethodsThis multicenter retrospective cohort study included patients with metastatic gastric or esophageal cancer who were treated in the participating institutions and underwent biomarker-driven therapy. Treatment was considered to have a benefit if the ratio between the longest progression-free survival (PFS) post biomarker-driven therapy and the last PFS before the biomarker-driven therapy was ≥1.3. The null hypothesis was that ≤15% of patients gain such benefit.ResultsThe analysis included 46 patients (61% men; median age, 58 years; 57% with poorly-differentiated tumors). At least one actionable (i.e., predictive of response to a specific therapy) biomarker was identified for each patient. Immunohistochemistry was performed on all samples and identified 1–8 (median: 3) biomarkers per patient (most commonly: low TS, high TOPO1, high TOP2A). Twenty-eight patients received therapy after the biomarker analysis (1–4 lines). In the 1st line after biomarker analysis, five patients (18%) achieved a partial response and five (18%) stable disease; the median (range) PFS was 129 (12–1155) days. Twenty-four patients were evaluable for PFS ratio analysis; in seven (29.2%), the ratio was ≥1.3. In a one-sided exact binomial test vs. the null hypothesis, p = 0.019; therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected.ConclusionsOur findings demonstrated that implementing biomarker-driven analysis is feasible and could provide clinical benefit for a considerable proportion (~30%) of patients with metastatic gastric or esophageal cancer.

We evaluated the clinical utility of screening for mutations in 34 breast/ovarian cancer susceptibility genes in high-risk families in Israel. Participants were recruited from 12, 2012 to 6, 2015 from 8 medical centers. All participants had high breast/ovarian cancer risk based on personal and family history. Genotyping was performed with the InVitae™ platform. The study was approved by the ethics committees of the participating centers; all participants gave a written informed consent before entering the study. Overall, 282 individuals participated in the study: 149 (53 %) of Ashkenazi descent, 80 (28 %) Jewish non-Ashkenazi descent, 22 (8 %) of mixed Ashkenazi/non-Ashkenazi origin, 21 (7 %) were non-Jewish Caucasians, and the remaining patients (n = 10-3.5 %) were of Christian Arabs/Druze/unknown ethnicity. For breast cancer patients (n = 165), the median (range) age at diagnosis was 46 (22-90) years and for ovarian cancer (n = 15) 54 (38-69) years. Overall, 30 cases (10.6 %) were found to carry a pathogenic actionable mutation in the tested genes: 10 BRCA1 (3 non-founder mutations), 9 BRCA2 (8 non-founder mutations), and one each in the RAD51C and CHEK2 genes. Furthermore, actionable mutations were detected in 9 more cases in 4 additional genes (MSH2, RET, MSH6, and APC). No pathogenic mutations were detected in the other genotyped genes. In this high-risk population, 10.6 % harbored an actionable pathogenic mutation, including non-founder mutations in BRCA1/2 and in additional cancer susceptibility genes, suggesting that high-risk families should be genotyped and be assigned a genotype-based cancer risk.

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276 Background: BL-8040 is a novel CXCR4 antagonist being developed for multiple oncology indications. Preclinical studies demonstrated that BL-8040 increases the number of immune cells in peripheral blood and promotes CD8+ T cell infiltration into orthotropic pancreatic mouse tumors, reducing tumor load. BL-8040 is being evaluated in a Phase 2a, multicenter, open label trial in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (the COMBAT study). Patients are undergoing a 5-day period of monotherapy in which they receive daily doses of BL-8040, followed by 21-day cycles in which patients receive one dose of pembrolizumab and 3 doses/week of BL-8040 until disease progression or discontinuation. To date, 32 patients have been enrolled. Methods: On Day 1 and Day 5, blood samples were taken at pre- and post-dosing, to evaluate peripheral immune cell subset frequency by flow cytometry. In addition, core biopsies were taken from liver metastases, where possible, to assess immune cell infiltration into tumors and the tumor microenvironment (TME). Results: Here we present interim PD biomarker data from the BL-8040 monotherapy portion of the trial. Flow cytometry shows that BL-8040 monotherapy caused an approximately two-fold reduction in frequency of peripheral T regulatory cells, but had no effect on the frequency of T cells, NKT cells or cell populations that contain B cells (CD3- CD56-). Additionally, BL-8040 remained bound to CXCR4 on peripheral immune cells throughout the period of monotherapy. Analysis of available biopsies (N = 7) shows an up to 15-fold increase in the CD3+ population, and up to two-fold increase of CD8+ cells, in the tumor periphery and TME of 43% (3/7) of the patients after five days of BL-8040 monotherapy compared to baseline. Conclusions: In summary, the PD biomarker results in humans support the proposed mechanism of action for BL-8040 that was based on preclinical mouse models. Analysis of tumor biopsies is ongoing, with an emphasis on investigating the effects of BL-8040 on tumor-resident immune cells and the TME. Clinical trial information: NCT02826486.