{"title":"Analysis of Circulating Tumor DNA Predicts Outcomes of Short-Course Consolidation Immunotherapy in Unresectable Stage III NSCLC","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jtho.2024.06.024","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><div>The current standard of care for patients with inoperable stage III non-small cell lung cancer includes chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by 1 year of checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapy. Nevertheless, the optimal duration of consolidation CPI remains unknown. Here, we characterized the relationship between circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) minimal residual disease (MRD) and clinical outcomes of patients with unresectable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated on a phase 2 trial of short-course consolidation immunotherapy after CRT, with the goal of testing whether ctDNA may be able to identify patients who do not require a full year of treatment.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Plasma samples for ctDNA analysis were collected from patients on the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium LUN 16-081 trial after completion of CRT, before day 1 of cycle 2 (C2D1) of CPI (i.e., 1 mo after treatment start), and at the end of up to 6 months of treatment. Tumor-informed ctDNA MRD analysis was performed using cancer personalized profiling by deep sequencing. Levels of ctDNA at each time point were correlated with clinical outcomes.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Detection of ctDNA predicted significantly inferior progression-free survival after completion of CRT (24-mo 29% versus 65%, <em>p</em> = 0.0048), before C2D1 of CPI (24-mo 0% versus 72%, <em>p</em> < 0.0001) and at the end of CPI (24-mo 15% versus 67%, <em>p</em> = 0.0011). In addition, patients with decreasing or undetectable ctDNA levels after 1 cycle of CPI had improved outcomes compared with patients with increasing ctDNA levels (24-mo progression-free survival 72% versus 0%, <em>p</em> < 0.0001). Progression of disease occurred within less than 12 months of starting CPI in all patients with increasing ctDNA levels at C2D1.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>Detection of ctDNA before, during, or after 6 months of consolidation CPI is strongly associated with inferior outcomes. Our findings suggest that analysis of ctDNA MRD may enable personalizing the duration of consolidation immunotherapy treatment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17515,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Thoracic Oncology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":21.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Thoracic Oncology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1556086424006646","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ONCOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction
The current standard of care for patients with inoperable stage III non-small cell lung cancer includes chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by 1 year of checkpoint inhibitor (CPI) therapy. Nevertheless, the optimal duration of consolidation CPI remains unknown. Here, we characterized the relationship between circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) minimal residual disease (MRD) and clinical outcomes of patients with unresectable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated on a phase 2 trial of short-course consolidation immunotherapy after CRT, with the goal of testing whether ctDNA may be able to identify patients who do not require a full year of treatment.
Methods
Plasma samples for ctDNA analysis were collected from patients on the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium LUN 16-081 trial after completion of CRT, before day 1 of cycle 2 (C2D1) of CPI (i.e., 1 mo after treatment start), and at the end of up to 6 months of treatment. Tumor-informed ctDNA MRD analysis was performed using cancer personalized profiling by deep sequencing. Levels of ctDNA at each time point were correlated with clinical outcomes.
Results
Detection of ctDNA predicted significantly inferior progression-free survival after completion of CRT (24-mo 29% versus 65%, p = 0.0048), before C2D1 of CPI (24-mo 0% versus 72%, p < 0.0001) and at the end of CPI (24-mo 15% versus 67%, p = 0.0011). In addition, patients with decreasing or undetectable ctDNA levels after 1 cycle of CPI had improved outcomes compared with patients with increasing ctDNA levels (24-mo progression-free survival 72% versus 0%, p < 0.0001). Progression of disease occurred within less than 12 months of starting CPI in all patients with increasing ctDNA levels at C2D1.
Conclusions
Detection of ctDNA before, during, or after 6 months of consolidation CPI is strongly associated with inferior outcomes. Our findings suggest that analysis of ctDNA MRD may enable personalizing the duration of consolidation immunotherapy treatment.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO), the official journal of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer,is the primary educational and informational publication for topics relevant to the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of all thoracic malignancies.The readship includes epidemiologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, thoracic surgeons, pulmonologists, radiologists, pathologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and research scientists with a special interest in thoracic oncology.