Patient-derived Tumor Cells Research Articles

Single-cell chemoproteomics identifies metastatic activity signatures in breast cancer.

Protein activity state, rather than protein or mRNA abundance, is a biologically regulated and relevant input to many processes in signaling, differentiation, development, and diseases such as cancer. While there are numerous methods to detect and quantify mRNA and protein abundance in biological samples, there are no general approaches to detect and quantify endogenous protein activity with single-cell resolution. Here, we report the development of a chemoproteomic platform, single-cell activity-dependent proximity ligation, which uses automated, microfluidics-based single-cell capture and nanoliter volume manipulations to convert the interactions of family-wide chemical activity probes with native protein targets into multiplexed, amplifiable oligonucleotide barcodes. We demonstrate accurate, reproducible, and multiplexed quantitation of a six-enzyme (Ag-6) panel with known ties to cancer cell aggressiveness directly in single cells. We further identified increased Ag-6 enzyme activity across breast cancer cell lines of increasing metastatic potential, as well as in primary patient-derived tumor cells and organoids from patients with breast cancer.

Enhancing Intrapleural Hyperthermic Chemotherapy for Lung Cancer: Insights from 3D and PDX Models

Background/Objectives: Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) in lung cancer indicates systemically disseminated advanced lung cancer and is associated with poor survival. Intrapleural hyperthermic chemotherapy (IPHC) is a promising treatment for MPE; however, its biological basis is not fully understood. IPHC can enhance anticancer drug efficacy, particularly in drug-resistant cancers. This study investigated the effects of hyperthermia on cisplatin cytotoxicity in lung cancer cell lines, patient-derived tumor cells, and a patient-derived xenograft (PDX) model. Methods: Lung cancer cell lines (A549 and H2170) and patient-derived tumor cells were cultured in 2D/3D systems and treated with cisplatin under varying temperatures (37 °C, 43 °C, and 45 °C) and exposure times (5, 15, and 30 min). Antiproliferative effects were evaluated using LDH and CCK-8 assays. Optimal conditions identified in cell culture experiments were validated using a PDX model; tumor growth inhibition, delay, and protein expression were analyzed post-treatment. Results: Hyperthermia significantly enhanced the antitumor efficacy of cisplatin at 43 °C and 45 °C, with comparable effects under 15 and 30 min exposure. In the PDX model, IPHC showed increased tumor inhibition and necrosis and delayed tumor regrowth, particularly at higher cisplatin doses. Protein expression analysis revealed that hyperthermia decreased EGFR expression and increased levels of apoptosis-related proteins, including cleaved PARP and caspase-3. Conclusions: IPHC with cisplatin demonstrated enhanced antitumor efficacy in vitro models, particularly in drug-resistant lung cancer, indicating its potential as a valuable adjunct to existing treatment regimens for lung cancer and for improving patient outcomes in advanced lung cancer with MPE or pleural metastasis.

Kinome state is predictive of cell viability in pancreatic cancer tumor and cancer-associated fibroblast cell lines.

Numerous aspects of cellular signaling are regulated by the kinome-the network of over 500 protein kinases that guides and modulates information transfer throughout the cell. The key role played by both individual kinases and assemblies of kinases organized into functional subnetworks leads to kinome dysregulation driving many diseases, particularly cancer. In the case of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), a variety of kinases and associated signaling pathways have been identified for their key role in the establishment of disease as well as its progression. However, the identification of additional relevant therapeutic targets has been slow and is further confounded by interactions between the tumor and the surrounding tumor microenvironment. In this work, we attempt to link the state of the human kinome, or kinotype, with cell viability in treated, patient-derived PDAC tumor and cancer-associated fibroblast cell lines. We applied classification models to independent kinome perturbation and kinase inhibitor cell screen data, and found that the inferred kinotype of a cell has a significant and predictive relationship with cell viability. We further find that models are able to identify a set of kinases whose behavior in response to perturbation drive the majority of viability responses in these cell lines, including the understudied kinases CSNK2A1/3, CAMKK2, and PIP4K2C. We next utilized these models to predict the response of new, clinical kinase inhibitors that were not present in the initial dataset for model devlopment and conducted a validation screen that confirmed the accuracy of the models. These results suggest that characterizing the perturbed state of the human protein kinome provides significant opportunity for better understanding of signaling behavior and downstream cell phenotypes, as well as providing insight into the broader design of potential therapeutic strategies for PDAC.

Targeting MERTK on tumour cells and macrophages: a potential intervention for sporadic and NF2-related meningioma and schwannoma tumours

Meningioma and schwannoma are common tumours of the nervous system. They occur sporadically or as part of the hereditary NF2-related schwannomatosis syndrome. There is an unmet need for new effective drug treatments for both tumour types. In this paper, we demonstrate overexpression/activation of TAM (TYRO3/AXL/MERTK) receptors (TAMs) and overexpression/release of ligand GAS6 in patient-derived meningioma tumour cells and tissue. For the first time, we reveal the formation of MERTK/TYRO3 heterocomplexes in meningioma and schwannoma tissue. We demonstrate the dependence of AXL and TYRO3 expression on MERTK in both tumour types, as well as interdependency of MERTK and AXL expression in meningioma. We show that MERTK and AXL contribute to increased proliferation and survival of meningioma and schwannoma cells, which we inhibited in vitro using the MERTK/FLT3 inhibitor UNC2025 and the AXL inhibitor BGB324. UNC2025 was effective in both tumour types with superior efficacy over BGB324. Finally, we found that TAMs are expressed by tumour-associated macrophages in meningioma and schwannoma tumours and that UNC2025 strongly depleted macrophages in both tumour types.

A novel Nav1.5-dependent feedback mechanism driving glycolytic acidification in breast cancer metastasis

Solid tumours have abnormally high intracellular [Na+]. The activity of various Na+ channels may underlie this Na+ accumulation. Voltage-gated Na+ channels (VGSCs) have been shown to be functionally active in cancer cell lines, where they promote invasion. However, the mechanisms involved, and clinical relevance, are incompletely understood. Here, we show that protein expression of the Nav1.5 VGSC subtype strongly correlates with increased metastasis and shortened cancer-specific survival in breast cancer patients. In addition, VGSCs are functionally active in patient-derived breast tumour cells, cell lines, and cancer-associated fibroblasts. Knockdown of Nav1.5 in a mouse model of breast cancer suppresses expression of invasion-regulating genes. Nav1.5 activity increases ATP demand and glycolysis in breast cancer cells, likely by upregulating activity of the Na+/K+ ATPase, thus promoting H+ production and extracellular acidification. The pH of murine xenograft tumours is lower at the periphery than in the core, in regions of higher proliferation and lower apoptosis. In turn, acidic extracellular pH elevates persistent Na+ influx through Nav1.5 into breast cancer cells. Together, these findings show positive feedback between extracellular acidification and the movement of Na+ into cancer cells which can facilitate invasion. These results highlight the clinical significance of Nav1.5 activity as a potentiator of breast cancer metastasis and provide further evidence supporting the use of VGSC inhibitors in cancer treatment.

Personalized Vascularized Models of Breast Cancer Desmoplasia Reveal Biomechanical Determinants of Drug Delivery to the Tumor.

Desmoplasia in breast cancer leads to heterogeneity in physical properties of the tissue, resulting in disparities in drug delivery and treatment efficacy among patients, thus contributing to high disease mortality. Personalized in vitro breast cancer models hold great promise for high-throughput testing of therapeutic strategies to normalize the aberrant microenvironment in a patient-specific manner. Here, tumoroids assembled from breast cancer cell lines (MCF7, SKBR3, and MDA-MB-468) and patient-derived breast tumor cells (TCs) cultured in microphysiological systems including perfusable microvasculature reproduce key aspects of stromal and vascular dysfunction causing impaired drug delivery. Models containing SKBR3 and MDA-MB-468 tumoroids show higher stromal hyaluronic acid (HA) deposition, vascular permeability, interstitial fluid pressure (IFP), and degradation of vascular HA relative to models containing MCF7 tumoroids or models without tumoroids. Interleukin 8 (IL8) secretion is found responsible for vascular dysfunction and loss of vascular HA. Interventions targeting IL8 or stromal HA normalize vascular permeability, perfusion, and IFP, and ultimately enhance drug delivery and TC death in response to perfusion with trastuzumab and cetuximab. Similar responses are observed in patient-derived models. These microphysiological systems can thus be personalized by using patient-derived cells and can be applied to discover new molecular therapies for the normalization of the tumor microenvironment.

Human papillomavirus-associated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells lose viability during triggered myocyte lineage differentiation

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a highly malignant disease, and death rates have remained at approximately 50% for decades. New tumor-targeting strategies are desperately needed, and a previous report indicated the triggered differentiation of HPV-negative HNSCC cells to confer therapeutic benefits. Using patient-derived tumor cells, we created a similar HNSCC differentiation model of HPV+ tumor cells from two patients. We observed a loss of malignant characteristics in differentiating cell culture conditions, including irregularly enlarged cell morphology, cell cycle arrest with downregulation of Ki67, and reduced cell viability. RNA-Seq showed myocyte-like differentiation with upregulation of markers of myofibril assembly. Immunofluorescence staining of differentiated and undifferentiated primary HPV+ HNSCC cells confirmed an upregulation of these markers and the formation of parallel actin fibers reminiscent of myoblast-lineage cells. Moreover, immunofluorescence of HPV+ tumor tissue revealed areas of cells co-expressing the identified markers of myofibril assembly, HPV surrogate marker p16, and stress-associated basal keratinocyte marker KRT17, indicating that the observed myocyte-like in vitro differentiation occurs in human tissue. We are the first to report that carcinoma cells can undergo a triggered myocyte-like differentiation, and our study suggests that the targeted differentiation of HPV+ HNSCCs might be therapeutically valuable.

CAR memory-like NK cells targeting the membrane proximal domain of mesothelin demonstrate promising activity in ovarian cancer.

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains one of the most lethal gynecological cancers. Cytokine-induced memory-like (CIML) natural killer (NK) cells have shown promising results in preclinical and early-phase clinical trials. In the current study, CIML NK cells demonstrated superior antitumor responses against a panel of EOC cell lines, increased expression of activation receptors, and up-regulation of genes involved in cell cycle/proliferation and down-regulation of inhibitory/suppressive genes. CIML NK cells transduced with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) targeting the membrane-proximal domain of mesothelin (MSLN) further improved the antitumor responses against MSLN-expressing EOC cells and patient-derived xenograft tumor cells. CAR arming of the CIML NK cells subtanstially reduced their dysfunction in patient-derived ascites fluid with transcriptomic changes related to altered metabolism and tonic signaling as potential mechanisms. Lastly, the adoptive transfer of MSLN-CAR CIML NK cells demonstrated remarkable inhibition of tumor growth and prevented metastatic spread in xenograft mice, supporting their potential as an effective therapeutic strategy in EOC.

Exhaustive in vitro evaluation of the 9-drug cocktail CUSP9 for treatment of glioblastoma

The CUSP9 protocol is a polypharmaceutical strategy aiming at addressing the complexity of glioblastoma by targeting multiple pathways. Although the rationale for this 9-drug cocktail is well-supported by theoretical and in vitro data, its effectiveness compared to its 511 possible subsets has not been comprehensively evaluated. Such an analysis could reveal if fewer drugs could achieve similar or better outcomes.We conducted an exhaustive in vitro evaluation of the CUSP9 protocol using COMBImageDL, our specialized framework for testing higher-order drug combinations. This study assessed all 511 subsets of the CUSP9v3 protocol, in combination with temozolomide, on two clonal cultures of glioma-initiating cells derived from patient samples. The drugs were used at fixed, clinically relevant concentrations, and the experiment was performed in quadruplicate with endpoint cell viability and live-cell imaging readouts. Our results showed that several lower-order drug combinations produced effects equivalent to the full CUSP9 cocktail, indicating potential for simplified regimens in personalized therapy. Further validation through in vivo and precision medicine testing is required.Notably, a subset of four drugs (auranofin, disulfiram, itraconazole, sertraline) was particularly effective, reducing cell growth, altering cell morphology, increasing apoptotic-like cells within 4–28 h, and significantly decreasing cell viability after 68 h compared to untreated cells.This study underscores the importance and feasibility of comprehensive in vitro evaluations of complex drug combinations on patient-derived tumor cells, serving as a critical step toward (pre-)clinical development.

Therapy-induced secretion of spliceosomal components mediates pro-survival crosstalk between ovarian cancer cells

Ovarian cancer often develops resistance to conventional therapies, hampering their effectiveness. Here, using ex vivo paired ovarian cancer ascites obtained before and after chemotherapy and in vitro therapy-induced secretomes, we show that molecules secreted by ovarian cancer cells upon therapy promote cisplatin resistance and enhance DNA damage repair in recipient cancer cells. Even a short-term incubation of chemonaive ovarian cancer cells with therapy-induced secretomes induces changes resembling those that are observed in chemoresistant patient-derived tumor cells after long-term therapy. Using integrative omics techniques, we find that both ex vivo and in vitro therapy-induced secretomes are enriched with spliceosomal components, which relocalize from the nucleus to the cytoplasm and subsequently into the extracellular vesicles upon treatment. We demonstrate that these molecules substantially contribute to the phenotypic effects of therapy-induced secretomes. Thus, SNU13 and SYNCRIP spliceosomal proteins promote therapy resistance, while the exogenous U12 and U6atac snRNAs stimulate tumor growth. These findings demonstrate the significance of spliceosomal network perturbation during therapy and further highlight that extracellular signaling might be a key factor contributing to the emergence of ovarian cancer therapy resistance.

3D stem-like spheroids-on-a-chip for personalized combinatorial drug testing in oral cancer

BackgroundFunctional drug testing (FDT) with patient-derived tumor cells in microfluidic devices is gaining popularity. However, the majority of previously reported microfluidic devices for FDT were limited by at least one of these factors: lengthy fabrication procedures, absence of tumor progenitor cells, lack of clinical correlation, and mono-drug therapy testing. Furthermore, personalized microfluidic models based on spheroids derived from oral cancer patients remain to be thoroughly validated. Overcoming the limitations, we develop 3D printed mold-based, dynamic, and personalized oral stem-like spheroids-on-a-chip, featuring unique serpentine loops and flat-bottom microwells arrangement.ResultsThis unique arrangement enables the screening of seven combinations of three drugs on chemoresistive cancer stem-like cells. Oral cancer patients-derived stem-like spheroids (CD 44+) remains highly viable (> 90%) for 5 days. Treatment with a well-known oral cancer chemotherapy regimen (paclitaxel, 5 fluorouracil, and cisplatin) at clinically relevant dosages results in heterogeneous drug responses in spheroids. These spheroids are derived from three oral cancer patients, each diagnosed with either well-differentiated or moderately-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Oral spheroids exhibit dissimilar morphology, size, and oral tumor-relevant oxygen levels (< 5% O2). These features correlate with the drug responses and clinical diagnosis from each patient’s histopathological report.ConclusionsOverall, we demonstrate the influence of tumor differentiation status on treatment responses, which has been rarely carried out in the previous reports. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating extensive work on development of microfluidic based oral cancer spheroid model for personalized combinatorial drug screening. Furthermore, the obtained clinical correlation of drug screening data represents a significant advancement over previously reported personalized spheroid-based microfluidic devices. Finally, the maintenance of patient-derived spheroids with high viability under oral cancer relevant oxygen levels of less than 5% O2 is a more realistic representation of solid tumor microenvironment in our developed device.Graphical

Patient-Derived Conditionally Reprogrammed Cells in Prostate Cancer Research.

Prostate cancer (PCa) remains a leading cause of mortality among American men, with metastatic and recurrent disease posing significant therapeutic challenges due to a limited comprehension of the underlying biological processes governing disease initiation, dormancy, and progression. The conventional use of PCa cell lines has proven inadequate in elucidating the intricate molecular mechanisms driving PCa carcinogenesis, hindering the development of effective treatments. To address this gap, patient-derived primary cell cultures have been developed and play a pivotal role in unraveling the pathophysiological intricacies unique to PCa in each individual, offering valuable insights for translational research. This review explores the applications of the conditional reprogramming (CR) cell culture approach, showcasing its capability to rapidly and effectively cultivate patient-derived normal and tumor cells. The CR strategy facilitates the acquisition of stem cell properties by primary cells, precisely recapitulating the human pathophysiology of PCa. This nuanced understanding enables the identification of novel therapeutics. Specifically, our discussion encompasses the utility of CR cells in elucidating PCa initiation and progression, unraveling the molecular pathogenesis of metastatic PCa, addressing health disparities, and advancing personalized medicine. Coupled with the tumor organoid approach and patient-derived xenografts (PDXs), CR cells present a promising avenue for comprehending cancer biology, exploring new treatment modalities, and advancing precision medicine in the context of PCa. These approaches have been used for two NCI initiatives (PDMR: patient-derived model repositories; HCMI: human cancer models initiatives).

Feasibility study utilizing a combinatorial functional precision medicine platform, Optim.AI, to help guide treatment for pancreatic cancer.

e13614 Background: Functional screening methods are increasingly applied to guide patient treatment and could be beneficial in indications with poor survival and response rates, such as pancreatic cancer. However, challenges faced when implementing ex vivo testing include complexities in obtaining sufficient tumor cells for different cancer types and maximizing the number of treatments tested with limited sample material. The latter is especially significant in informing clinical decision making as combination therapies are common with cancer, exponentially increasing the number of regimens to select from. To address this hurdle, we developed Optim.AI, a combinatorial functional precision medicine platform, which utilizes efficiently designed experiments and small data AI to expand to over 530,000 phenotypic response data points and predictively rank all actionable treatments within a 12-drug panel. In this feasibility study, we explored the application of Optim.AI on patient-derived tumor cells in pancreatic cancer. Methods: We established a procedure to run Optim.AI with isolated tumor cells from pancreatic cancer patients. After dissociation, these cells were then incubated to allow for 3D organoid formation within the following week. Upon organoid formation, the cells were treated with an FDA-approved panel of chemotherapy and targeted drugs. Cell viability was quantified post-drug treatment for analysis with Optim.AI software to rank all possible single to 4-drug combinatorial therapies for report generation. Results: The viability of the cells post-processing was high (mean = 97.4% live cells), passing the quality check of having at least 60% live cells before proceeding with Optim.AI testing. The success rate of organoid formation was 100% within 1 week of sample processing. The turnaround time from the receipt of samples to dissemination of the reports to clinicians was approximately a week (mean = 7.67 days). Z’ factor, a measurement of statistical effect size for high throughput screening, was demonstrated to be more than 0.5 for the reports generated, indicative of very good assays. The top ranked drug combinations were sensitive, with their normalized cell viability reported to be under 0.2, while the prior line of treatment was shown to be resistant, 100% concordant with previously observed clinical outcomes. Notably, Gemcitabine with either a HDAC or PI3K inhibitor was ranked high amongst the reports generated. Conclusions: Optim.AI had a high success rate in generating reports within a very short timeframe for pancreatic cancer. Comparing the top ranked therapies against the prior lines of treatment allows the clinicians to better evaluate the alternative treatments. Based on this initial feasibility study, Optim.AI could potentially be viable in guiding clinicians in managing treatment options for pancreatic cancer patients.

Biomarker development from functional precision medicine datasets via explainable machine learning.

10061 Background: Genomics precision medicine, deployed via tumor panel sequencing, now assists in deploying targeted therapies to cancer patients. Numerous clinical trials have investigated the utility and benefit of genomics precision medicine in multiple cancer indications. Current large-scale studies report actionability rates from ~35% to ~60%, although clinical benefit rates have been shown to be closer to 10%. While this has positively impacted patients in need, the gap between actionability and benefit remains a clinical challenge attributed to multiple factors including the complex, multi-factorial relationship between molecular status and response to therapy. These differences go beyond simple disease states and may be reflective of multiple clinically relevant features including age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Methods: We implemented a functional precision medicine (FPM) program where patients with advanced pediatric cancers were prospectively profiled via high-throughput drug sensitivity testing (DST) of FDA-approved agents on patient-derived tumor cells as well as genomics testing. The objective was to investigate the clinical utility and benefit of FPM guidance in the treatment of pediatric cancer and elucidate the relationship between molecular status of patients’ diseases and treatment responses. We generated DST data (n = 21 patients) and genomic profiling data (n = 20 patients) on pediatric cancer patients in Miami, FL, as well as post-hoc whole exome and transcriptome sequencing data (n = 13 patients) and investigated three specific relationships. Results: We analyzed the relationship between racial/ethnic background and functional response to anti-cancer agents, determining potential differences in response to therapeutic classes. Next, we examined relationships between functional response and cancer type, identifying an unanticipated lack of clustering between disease indications in patients with advanced pediatric cancers. Finally, we applied an explainable machine learning (xML) framework to the functional genomic dataset to develop multi-omics biomarker hypotheses for the chemotherapy agent idarubicin, pinpointing a potential multi-cancer relationship between response to idarubicin and known disease mechanisms in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the sole indication where idarubicin is approved. We further present additional proof-of-concept studies generating biomarker hypotheses via xML, demonstrating a framework for development of multi-omics biomarkers. Conclusions: We are now expanding our pan-pediatric cancer functional genomics dataset through an NIMHD-funded expansion cohort (NCT05857969, n = 65 patients) to further investigate multi-omics relationships between functional and molecular characteristics and understand the role of race/ethnicity in the complex relationship.

Clinical utility and accessibility of functional precision medicine for relapsed/refractory pediatric and adult cancers.

1551 Background: Pediatric and adult patients with rare, relapsed, or refractory cancers often have few treatment options. Precision medicine approaches are often the first strategy used to identify salvage therapy options when standard treatments fail. Despite the significant clinical benefit to advanced cancer patients, multiple genomics precision medicine trials have revealed important constraints for patients that lack treatments matched to mutations or biomarkers and have highlighted challenges in drug accessibility associated with novel targeted therapies identified through genomics precision medicine. Current clinical findings from large-scale studies demonstrate ~10% of cancer patients receive clinical benefit from genomics-guided therapies - in part due to limited insight into the complex relationship between tumor molecular characteristics and patient response. Methods: We implemented a functional precision medicine (FPM) approach combining genomic tumor profiling with high-throughput drug sensitivity testing (DST) of FDA-approved agents on patient-derived tumor cells to identify treatment options when standard-of-care is exhausted. Clinical utility and benefit of this program was investigated via a clinical trial (NCT03860376) at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, FL. Results: We were returned DST data on 21 of 24 patients DST (median = 102 agents per sample) and genomic profiling on 20 of 24 patients. DST turnaround time was significantly below the 14 days required for clinical use (median = 10 days, p = 0.0012). FPM recommendations were returned to 19 (76%) patients, of which 14 patients underwent therapeutic intervention. Six patients received FPM-guided treatments, and five (83%) patients experienced a &gt;1.3-fold improved progression-free survival over their previous therapy, significantly above the rate from physician’s choice (p = 0.0104). We subsequently opened pan-cancer FPM clinical studies for adults (n = 36 patients) and children (n = 65 patients). A key objective in these trials is optimizing our DST protocol for tissue samples of various sizes. Here, we report preliminary efforts to optimize our DST approach for tissue samples from resections, core biopsies, and fine-needle biopsies from primary and metastatic lesions. Conclusions: The findings from our feasibility study illustrate the potential for FPM to positively impact clinical care for pediatric/adolescent patients with relapsed/refractory cancers, and have supported initiation of currently enrolling clinical studies. An NIMHD-funded expansion cohort now enrolling at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital (NCT05857969, n = 65 patients), and a rare/relapsed/refractory adult patient cohort at Cleveland Clinic Florida (NCT06024603, n = 36 patients). These studies aim to further investigate the impact on clinical outcomes through the use of FPM to recommend treatment options. Clinical trial information: NCT06024603 , NCT05857969 , NCT04956198 , NCT03860376 .

Patient-derived tumor cell clusters (PTC) guiding-neoadjuvant therapy of HER2-positive breast cancer: A prospective randomized phase II clinical trial.

581 Background: In a previous study, the patient-derived tumor-like cell clusters (PTC) were confirmed to be an accurate medicine effect-predicting model in vitro for clinical practice (1). We designed this prospective randomized phase II trial to research if this PTC-guiding strategy could improve the effect of neoadjuvant therapy in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) positive breast cancer (NCT05103293). Methods: We enrolled HER2-positive early breast cancer patients planning for neoadjuvant therapy to accept the PTC-guiding regimen as an experimental group or regimens of the physician's choice as a control group randomly. All eligible patients in the experimental group would receive medicine-sensitive testing by PTC then accepted the regimen with the highest PTC killing rate (30% as the lowest cut-off value) from the three candidate regimens (Cyclophosphamide combined with epirubicin -- Docetaxel combined with trastuzumab and pertuzumab, EC-THP, Docetaxel and carboplatin with trastuzumab and pertuzumab, TCbHP and Docetaxel with trastuzumab and pyrotinib, THPy). The primary endpoint is pathological complete response (pCR) in two groups using superiority odd ratio Fisher's exact test (one-sided alpha =0.05, power of 80%, and superiority margin at 0.1). The secondary endpoints are Miller-Payne (MP) grade 4~5 proportion, objective response rate (ORR), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS). Results: Finally, 86 patients were enrolled in this study, 44 in the experimental and 42 in the control groups. The experimental group had 65.9% of pCR, significantly higher than 42.9% in the control group (Hazard ratio=0.388, P=0.033). The PTC-guiding treatment also considerably increased MP 4~5 proportion (79.5% vs. 59.4%, Hazard ratio=0.283, P=0.009) and objective response rate (90.9% vs 71.4%, Hazard ratio=0.250, P=0.027). After a two-year medium follow-up, the disease-free survival of the PTC-guiding treatment group was 84.1% higher than 71.4% of the control group without a significant difference (Log Rank, P=0.106). The two groups had similar overall survival (Log Rank, P=0.958). Furthermore, the PTC-guiding strategy significantly impacted pCR in univariate and multivariate regression analyses but not survival. Conclusions: In this trial, we concluded that the PTC-guiding neoadjuvant therapy could improve the effect, including pCR, MP score, and ORR in HER2-positive breast cancer. 1. Yin et al., Sci.Transl. 2020. Clinical trial information: NCT05103293 .

The efficacy and safety of dalpiciclib, a cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor, in patients with advanced head and neck mucosal melanoma harboring CDK4 amplification

BackgroundMucosal melanoma (MM) is a rare but devastating subtype of melanoma. Our previous studies have demonstrated robust anti-tumor effects of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 (CDK 4/6) inhibitors in head and neck MM (HNMM) patient-derived xenograft models with CDK4 amplification. Herein, we aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of dalpiciclib (SHR6390), a CDK4/6 inhibitor, in HNMM patients harboring CDK4 amplification.MethodsThe anti-tumor efficacy of dalpiciclib was assessed by HNMM patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models and patient-derived tumor cells (PDC) in vivo and in vitro. Immunohistochemical analyses and western blot were then performed to assess the markers of cell proliferation and CDK4/6 signaling pathway. For the clinical trial, advanced recurrent and/or metastatic HNMM patients with CDK4 amplification were treated with dalpiciclib 125 mg once daily for 21 consecutive days in 28-day cycles. The primary endpoint was disease control rate (DCR). Secondary endpoints included safety, objective response rate (ORR), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS).ResultsDalpiciclib profoundly suppressed growth of HNMM-PDX and PDC with CDK4 amplification, whereas it showed relatively weak suppression in those with CDK4 wild type compared with vehicle. And dalpiciclib resulted in a remarkable reduction in the expression levels of Ki-67 and phosphorylated Rb compared with control group. In the clinical trial, a total of 17 patients were enrolled, and 16 patients were evaluable. The ORR was 6.3%, and the DCR was 81.3%. The estimated median PFS was 9.9 months (95% CI, 4.8-NA), and the median OS was not reached. The rate of OS at 12 months and 24 months was 68.8% (95% CI, 0.494–0.957) and 51.6% (95% CI, 0.307–0.866), respectively. The most frequent adverse events were neutrophil count decrease, white blood cell count decrease, and fatigue.ConclusionsDalpiciclib was well-tolerated and displayed a durable benefit for HNMM patients with CDK4 amplification in this study. Further studies on CDK4 inhibitors and its combination strategy for MM are worth further exploration.Trial registrationChiCTR2000031608.

Methods for assessing and removing non-specific photoimmunotherapy damage in patient-derived tumor cell culture models.

Tumor-targeted, activatable photoimmunotherapy (taPIT) has been shown to selectively destroy tumor in a metastatic mouse model. However, the photoimmunoconjugate (PIC) used for taPIT includes a small fraction of non-covalently associated (free) benzoporphyrin derivative (BPD), which leads to non-specific killing invitro. Here, we report a new treatment protocol for patient-derived primary tumor cell cultures ultrasensitive to BPD photodynamic therapy (BPD-PDT). Based on free BPD efflux dynamics, the updated invitro taPIT protocol precludes non-specific BPD-PDT by silencing the effect of free BPD. Following incubation with PIC, incubating cells with PIC-free medium allows time for expulsion of free BPD whereas BPD covalently bound to PIC fragments is retained. Administration of the light dose after the intracellular free BPD drops below the threshold for inducing cell death helps to mitigate non-specific damage. In this study, we tested two primary ovarian tumor cell lines that are intrinsically chemoresistant, yet ultrasensitive to BPD-PDT such that small amounts of free BPD (afew percent of the total BPD dose) lead to potent induction of cell death upon irradiation. The modifications in the protocol suggested here improve invitro taPIT experiments that lack invivo mechanisms of free BPD clearance (i.e., lymph and blood flow).

Discovery of tumor-reactive T cell receptors by massively parallel library synthesis and screening.

T cell receptor (TCR) gene therapy is a potent form of cellular immunotherapy in which patient T cells are genetically engineered to express TCRs with defined tumor reactivity. However, the isolation of therapeutic TCRs is complicated by both the general scarcity of tumor-specific T cells among patient T cell repertoires and the patient-specific nature of T cell epitopes expressed on tumors. Here we describe a high-throughput, personalized TCR discovery pipeline that enables the assembly of complex synthetic TCR libraries in a one-pot reaction, followed by pooled expression in reporter T cells and functional genetic screening against patient-derived tumor or antigen-presenting cells. We applied the method to screen thousands of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL)-derived TCRs from multiple patients and identified dozens of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell-derived TCRs with potent tumor reactivity, including TCRs that recognized patient-specific neoantigens.

Comparing the efficacy of combined versus single immune cell adaptive therapy targeting colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most frequent cancer with limited therapeutic achievements. Recently, adoptive cellular immunotherapy has been developed as an antitumor therapy. However, its efficacy has not been tested in CRC. This study investigated the ability of an immune cell cocktail of dendritic cells (DCs), T cells, and natural killer (NK) cells to overcome immunological hurdles and improve the therapeutic efficacy of cell therapy for CRC. CRC lysate-pulsed monocyte-derived DCs (Mo-DCs), CRC antigen-specifically expanded T cells (CTL), and in vitro-expanded NK cells were cultured from patient peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). The ability of the combined immune cells to kill autologous tumor cells was investigated by co-culturing the combined immune cells with patient-derived tumor cells. The Mo-DCs produced expressed T cell co-stimulating molecules like CD80, CD86, human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR and HLA-ABC, at high levels and were capable of activating naive T cells. The expanded T cells were predominantly CD8 T cells with high levels of CD8 effector memory cells and low levels of regulatory T cells. The NK cells expressed high levels of activating receptors and were capable of killing other cancer cell lines (K562 and HT29). The immune cell cocktail demonstrated a higher ability to kill autologous tumor cells than single types. An in vivo preclinical study confirmed the safety of the combined immune cell adaptive therapy showing no therapy-related death or general toxicity symptoms. The results suggested that combined immune cell adaptive therapy could overcome the limited efficacy of cell immunotherapy.