Search

Endometrial carcinosarcoma is a rare and aggressive high-grade endometrial carcinoma with secondary sarcomatous trans-differentiation (conversion theory). The clinical presentation and diagnostic work-up roughly align with those of the more common endometrioid counterpart, although endometrial carcinosarcoma is more frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage. Endometrial carcinosarcoma is not a single entity but encompasses different histological subtypes, depending on the type of carcinomatous and sarcomatous elements. The majority of endometrial carcinosarcomas are characterized by p53 abnormalities. The proportion of POLE and microsatellite instablity-high (MSI-H) is directly related to the epithelial component, being approximately 25% and 3% in endometrioid and non-endometrioid components.The management of non-metastatic disease is based on a multimodal approach with optimal surgery followed by (concomitant or sequential) chemotherapy and radiotherapy, even for early stages. Palliative chemotherapy is recommended in the metastatic or recurrent setting, with carboplatin/paclitaxel doublet being the first-line regimen. Although the introduction of immunotherapy plus/minus a tyrosine kinase inhibitor shifted the paradigm of treatment of patients with recurrent endometrial cancer, patients with endometrial carcinosarcoma were excluded from most studies evaluating single-agent immunotherapy or the combination. However, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the use of pembrolizumab and lenvatinib in endometrial cancer (all histotypes) after progression on chemotherapy and single-agent immunotherapy in MSI-H cancers. In the era of precision medicine, emerging knowledge on molecular endometrial carcinosarcoma is opening new promising therapeutic options for more personalized treatment. The present review outlines state-of-the-art knowledge and future directions for patients with endometrial carcinosarcoma.

Endometrial carcinosarcoma is a rare and aggressive high-grade endometrial carcinoma with secondary sarcomatous trans-differentiation (conversion theory). The clinical presentation and diagnostic work-up roughly align with those of the more common endometrioid counterpart, although endometrial carcinosarcoma is more frequently diagnosed at an advanced stage. Endometrial carcinosarcoma is not a single entity but encompasses different histological subtypes, depending on the type of carcinomatous and sarcomatous elements. The majority of endometrial carcinosarcomas are characterized by p53 abnormalities. The proportion of POLE and microsatellite instablity-high (MSI-H) is directly related to the epithelial component, being approximately 25% and 3% in endometrioid and non-endometrioid components.The management of non-metastatic disease is based on a multimodal approach with optimal surgery followed by (concomitant or sequential) chemotherapy and radiotherapy, even for early stages. Palliative chemotherapy is recommended in the metastatic or recurrent setting, with carboplatin/paclitaxel doublet being the first-line regimen. Although the introduction of immunotherapy plus/minus a tyrosine kinase inhibitor shifted the paradigm of treatment of patients with recurrent endometrial cancer, patients with endometrial carcinosarcoma were excluded from most studies evaluating single-agent immunotherapy or the combination. However, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the use of pembrolizumab and lenvatinib in endometrial cancer (all histotypes) after progression on chemotherapy and single-agent immunotherapy in MSI-H cancers. In the era of precision medicine, emerging knowledge on molecular endometrial carcinosarcoma is opening new promising therapeutic options for more personalized treatment. The present review outlines state-of-the-art knowledge and future directions for patients with endometrial carcinosarcoma.

This phase II study determined the efficacy of lacnotuzumab added to gemcitabine plus carboplatin (gem-carbo) in patients with advanced triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Female patients with advanced TNBC, with high levels of tumor-associated macrophages not amenable to curative treatment by surgery or radiotherapy were enrolled. Lacnotuzumab was dosed at 10 mg/kg every 3 weeks, ± a dose on cycle 1, day 8. Gemcitabine (1,000 mg/m) and carboplatin (dose in mg calculated by area under the curve [mg/mL/min] × (glomerular filtration rate [mL/min] + 25 [mL/min]) were dosed every 3 weeks. Treatment continued until unacceptable toxicity, disease progression, or discontinuation by physician/patient. Patients received lacnotuzumab + gem-carbo ( = 34) or gem-carbo ( = 15). Enrollment was halted due to recruitment challenges owing to rapid evolution of the therapeutic landscape; formal hypothesis testing of the primary endpoint was therefore not performed. Median progression-free survival was 5.6 months [90% confidence interval (CI), 4.47-8.64] in the lacnotuzumab + gem-carbo arm and 5.5 months (90% CI, 3.45-7.46) in the gem-carbo arm. Hematologic adverse events were common in both treatment arms; however, patients treated with lacnotuzumab experienced more frequent aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and creatine kinase elevations. Pharmacokinetic results showed that free lacnotuzumab at 10 mg/kg exhibited a typical IgG pharmacokinetic profile and target engagement of circulating colony-stimulating factor 1 ligand. Despite successful target engagement and anticipated pharmacokinetic profile, lacnotuzumab + gem-carbo showed comparable antitumor activity to gem-carbo alone, with slightly poorer tolerability. However, the data presented in this article would be informative for future studies testing agents targeting the CSF1-CSF1 receptor pathway in TNBC.

Aim This update of the interdisciplinary S3 guideline on the Diagnosis, Therapy and Follow-up of Cervical Cancer (AWMF Registry No. 032/033OL) was published in March 2021. This updated guideline was funded by German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe) as part of the German Guideline Program in Oncology. The guideline was coordinated by the German Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Gynakologie und Geburtshilfe, DGGG) and the Working Group on Gynecological Oncology (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gynakologische Onkologie, AGO) of the German Cancer Society (Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft, DKG). Method The process of updating the S3 guideline dating from 2014 was based on an appraisal of the available evidence using the criteria of evidence-based medicine, adaptations of existing evidence-based national and international guidelines or - if evidence was lacking - on a consensus of the specialists involved in compiling the update. After an initial review of the current literature was carried out according to a prescribed algorithm, several areas were identified which, in contrast to the predecessor version from September 2014, required new recommendations or statements which took account of more recently published literature and the appraisal of the new evidence. Recommendations The short version of this guideline consists of recommendations and statements on the epidemiology, screening, diagnostic workup and therapy of patients with cervical cancer. The most important new aspects included in this updated guideline include the newly published FIGO classification of 2018, the radical open surgery approach for cervical cancers up to FIGO stage IB1, and use of the sentinel lymph node technique for tumors = 2 cm. Other changes include the use of PET-CT, new options in radiotherapy (e.g., intensity-modulated radiotherapy, image-guided adaptive brachytherapy), and drug therapies to treat recurrence or metastasis.

IMPORTANCE Adjuvant denosumab might improve disease-free survival in hormone receptor (HR)-positive primary breast cancer (BC). The optimal neoadjuvant nab-paclitaxel schedule in terms of efficacy and safety is unclear. OBJECTIVE To determine whether adding denosumab to anthracycline/taxane-containing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) increases the pathological complete response (pCR) rate and which nab-paclitaxel schedule is more effective in the NACT setting. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The GeparX was a multicenter, prospective, open-label, phase 2b, 2 x 2 randomized clinical trial conducted by GBG and AGO-B at 38 German sites between February 2017 and March 2019. The analysis data set was locked September 4, 2020; analysis was completed November 13, 2020, Patients had unilateral or bilateral primary BC, stage cT2-cT4a-d or cT1c, with either clinically node-positive or pathologically node-positive or HR-negative disease, or Ki-67 proliferation index greater than 20%, or ERBB2 (formerly HER2)-positive BC. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive or not receive denosumab, 120 mg subcutaneously every 4 weeks for 6 cycles, and either nab-paclitaxel, 125 mg/m(2) weekly for 12 weeks or days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks for 4 cycles (8 doses), followed by 4 cycles of epirubicin/cyclophosphamide, 90/600 mg/m(2) (every 2 weeks or every 3 weeks). Carboplatin was given in triple-negative BC (TNBC), and trastuzumab biosimilar ABP980 plus pertuzumab was given in ERBB2-positive BC (ERBB2-positive substudy). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was pCR rates between arms for each randomization. RESULTS A total of 780 female (n = 779) and male (n = 1) patients (median [range] age, 49.0 [22-80] years) were randomized to the 4 treatment groups. The pCR (ypT0 ypN0) rate was 41.0% (90% CI, 37%-45%) with denosumab vs 42.8% (90% CI, 39%-47%) (P = .58) without denosumab, irrespective of BC subtype. Nab-paclitaxel weekly resulted in a significantly (significance level of

Aim This is an update of the interdisciplinary S3-guideline on the Diagnosis, Therapy and Follow-up of Cervical Cancer (AWMF Registry No. 032/033OL), published in March 2021. The work on the updated guideline was funded by German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe) as part of the German Guideline Program in Oncology. The guideline was coordinated by the German Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Gynakologie und Geburtshilfe, DGGG) and the Working Group on Gynecological Oncology (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gynakologische Onkologie, AGO) of the German Cancer Society (Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft, DKG). Method The process used to update the 2014 S3-guideline was based on an appraisal of the available evidence using the criteria of evidence- based medicine, adaptations of existing evidence-based national and international guidelines or - if evidence was lacking - on the consensus of the specialists involved in compiling the update. After an initial review of the current literature was carried out according to a prescribed algorithm, several areas were identified which, in contrast to the predecessor version from September 2014, required new recommendations or statements which would take account of more recently published literature and the recent appraisal of new evidence. Recommendations The short version of this guideline consists of recommendations and statements on palliative therapy and follow-up of patients with cervical cancer. The most important aspects included in this updated guideline are the new FIGO classification published in 2018, the radical open surgery approach used to treat cervical cancer up to FIGO stage IB1, and the use of the sentinel lymph node technique for tumors = 2 cm. Other changes include the use of PET-CT, new options in radiotherapy (e.g., intensity-modulated radiotherapy, image- guided adaptive brachytherapy), and drug therapies to treat recurrence or metastasis.

Clear cell endometrial carcinoma represents an uncommon and poorly understood entity. Data from molecular/genomic profiling highlighted the importance of various signatures in assessing the prognosis of endometrial cancer according to four classes of risk (POLE mutated, MMRd, NSMP, and p53 abnormal). Unfortunately, data specific to clear cell histological subtype endometrial cancer are lacking. More recently, data has emerged to suggest that most of the patients (more than 80%) with clear cell endometrial carcinoma are characterized by p53 abnormality or NSMP type. This classification has important therapeutic implications. Although it is an uncommon entity, clear cell endometrial cancer patients with POLE mutation seem characterized by a good prognosis. Chemotherapy is effective in patients with NSMP (especially in stage III and IV) and patients with p53 abnormal disease (all stages). While, preliminary data suggested that patients with MMRd are less likely to benefit from chemotherapy. The latter group appears to benefit much more from immune checkpoint inhibitors: recent data from clinical trials on pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib and nivolumab plus cabozantinib supported that immunotherapy plus tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) would be the most appropriate treatment for recurrent non-endometrioid endometrial cancer (including clear cell carcinoma) after the failure of platinum-based chemotherapy. Moreover, ongoing clinical trials testing the anti-tumor activity of innovative products will clarify the better strategies for advanced/recurrent clear cell endometrial carcinoma. Further prospective evidence is urgently needed to better characterize clear cell endometrial carcinoma. (C) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Background: Neuropilin (NRP) is a transmembrane protein, which has been shown to be a pro-angiogenic mediator and implicated as a potential driver of cancer progression. NRP-1 up-regulation in ovarian cancer tissue predicts poor prognosis. However, the clinical relevance of the soluble form of NRP-1 (sNRP-1) as a circulating biomarker in ovarian cancer patients is unknown. - Methods/patients cohort: sNRP-1 levels were quantified in a cohort of 88 clinically documented ovarian cancer patients by a commercially available sNRP-1 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (Biomedica, Vienna, Austria). Patients (81.8% with FIGOIII/IV) received primary cytoreductive surgery with the aim of macroscopic complete resection (achieved in 55.7% of patients) and the recommendation of adjuvant chemotherapy in line with national guidelines. - Results: Higher levels of sNRP-1 reflected more advanced disease (FIGO III/IV) and indicated a trend towards suboptimal surgical outcome, i.e. any residual tumor. sNRP-1 was neither related to the patients’ age nor the BRCA1/2 mutational status. Patients with higher sNRP-1 levels at primary diagnosis had a significantly reduced progression-free survival (PFS) (HR = 0.541, 95%CI: 0.304 - 0.963; p = 0.037) and overall survival (OS) (HR = 0.459, 95%CI: 0.225 - 0.936; p = 0.032). Principal component analysis showed that sNRP-1 levels were unrelated to the circulating hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and the soluble ectodomain of its receptor the tyrosine kinase mesenchymal–epithelial transition (c-MET), suggesting that there is no proportional serological concentration gradient of soluble components of the NRP-1/HGF/c-MET signaling axis. - Conclusions: In line with the previously shown tissue-based prognostic role, we demonstrated for the first time that sNRP-1 can also act as a readily accessible, prognostic biomarker in the circulation of patients with ovarian cancer at primary diagnosis. Given its known role in angiogenesis and conferring res