Selected Articles from This Issue

Abstract

The addition of platinum to anthracycline-based neoadjuvant chemotherap. improves pathological responses in triple-negative breast cancer but also increases treatment toxicity. In the NeoSTOP randomized trial, Sharma and colleagues found that a carboplatin plus docetaxel (CbD) regimen yielded similar pathological response and survival rates as the anthracycline-containing regimen of carboplatin plus paclitaxel, followed by doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide, but with a more favorable toxicity profile. The CbD regimen represents an effective alternative for patients who are not candidates for anthracyclines and may also serve as a good backbone for neoadjuvant de-escalation trials for triple-negative breast cancer.Combining checkpoint inhibitors with antiangiogenic agents holds promise for cancer treatment. In a prior phase I study, camrelizumab plus apatinib demonstrated encouraging activity in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To further study this combination, Xu and colleagues performed a phase II study of camrelizumab plus apatinib in patients with advanced HCC. The overall response rate was 34.3% in the first-line and 22.5% in the second-line setting. The 12-month survival rate was 74.7% and 68.2%, respectively. Serious adverse events were observed in 28.9% patients. Still, this work suggests that this combination warrants further study in patients with advanced HCC.Breast tumors with higher levels of cytotoxic T-cell infiltration have a better prognosis and response to preoperative chemotherapy. Oncolytic viruses such as talimogene laherparepvec (TVEC) cause selective lysis of tumor cells and trigger activation of antigen presenting cells to stimulate an antitumor immune response. Soliman and colleagues performed a phase I study of TVEC combined with neoadjuvant chemotherap. in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. This combination treatment led to a complete response in 55% of patients with manageable toxicity. Furthermore, evidence of decreased immunosuppression was observed. These results support further investigation of this regimen in further trials.Currently, effective strategies to monitor chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in tissue are lacking. Simonetta and colleagues assessed the utility of antibody-based PET (immunoPET) as a molecular imaging strategy to monitor CAR T cells in tissue. Inducible T-cell COStimulator (ICOS) was identified as a potential target for immunoPET. 89Zr-DFO-ICOS mAb PET-CT detected signal specifically in mice treated with CAR T cells. Importantly, ICOS-targeting antibodies did not affect CAR T-cell persistence or function. This work identifies ICOS-immunoPET imaging as a promising strategy for monitoring of CAR T-cell therapy; further study of this approach in a clinical setting is warranted.