Serial monitoring of genomic alterations in circulating tumor cells of ER-positive/HER2-negative advanced breast cancer: feasibility of precision oncology biomarker detection.

Nearly all estrogen receptor (ER)-positive (POS) metastatic breast cancers become refractory to endocrine (ET) and other therapies, leading to lethal disease presumably due to evolving genomic alterations. Timely monitoring of the molecular events associated with response/progression by serial tissue biopsies is logistically difficult. Use of liquid biopsies, including circulating tumor cells (CTC) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), might provide highly informative, yet easily obtainable, evidence for better precision oncology care.

A Randomized, Open-label, Presurgical, Window-of-Opportunity Study Comparing the Pharmacodynamic Effects of the Novel Oral SERD AZD9496 with Fulvestrant in Patients with Newly Diagnosed ER HER2 Primary Breast Cancer.

Purpose: Fulvestrant, the first-in-class selective estrogen receptor (ER) degrader (SERD), is clinically effective in patients with ER breast cancer, but it has administration and pharmacokinetic limitations. Pharmacodynamic data suggest complete ER degradation is not achieved at fulvestrant's clinically feasible dose. This presurgical study (NCT03236974) compared the pharmacodynamic effects of fulvestrant with AZD9496, a novel, orally bioavailable, nonsteroidal, potent SERD, in treatment-naïve patients with ER HER2 primary breast cancer awaiting curative intent surgery.

Circulating Biomarkers and Resistance to Endocrine Therapy in Metastatic Breast Cancers: Correlative Results from AZD9496 Oral SERD Phase I Trial.

Purpose: Common resistance mechanisms to endocrine therapy (ET) in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive metastatic breast cancers include, among others, ER loss and acquired activating mutations in the ligand-binding domain of the ER gene (). mutational mediated resistance may be overcome by selective ER degraders (SERD). During the first-in-human study of oral SERD AZD9496, early changes in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) were explored as potential noninvasive tools, alongside paired tumor biopsies, to assess pharmacodynamics and early efficacy.

A First-in-Human Study of the New Oral Selective Estrogen Receptor Degrader AZD9496 for ER/HER2 Advanced Breast Cancer.

AZD9496 is an oral nonsteroidal, small-molecule inhibitor of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and a potent and selective antagonist and degrader of ERα. This first-in-human phase I study determined the safety and tolerability of ascending doses of oral AZD9496 in women with estrogen receptor (ER)/HER2 advanced breast cancer, characterized its pharmacokinetic (PK) profile, and made preliminary assessment of antitumor activity. Forty-five patients received AZD9496 [20 mg once daily (QD) to 600 mg twice daily (BID)] in a dose-escalation, dose-expansion "rolling 6" design.

Accurate detection of low prevalence AKT1 E17K mutation in tissue or plasma from advanced cancer patients.

Personalized healthcare relies on accurate companion diagnostic assays that enable the most appropriate treatment decision for cancer patients. Extensive assay validation prior to use in a clinical setting is essential for providing a reliable test result. This poses a challenge for low prevalence mutations with limited availability of appropriate clinical samples harboring the mutation.

A good drug made better: the fulvestrant dose-response story.

Sequential use of endocrine therapies remains the cornerstone of treatment for hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancer, before the use of cytotoxic chemotherapy for unresponsive disease. Fulvestrant is an estrogen receptor (ER) antagonist approved for the treatment of postmenopausal women with ER+ advanced breast cancer after failure of prior antiestrogen therapy. Initially approved at a monthly dose of 250 mg, the recommended fulvestrant dose was revised to 500 mg (500 mg/mo plus 500 mg on day 14 of month 1) after demonstration of improved progression-free survival versus fulvestrant 250 mg.

Differences in the transcriptional response to fulvestrant and estrogen deprivation in ER-positive breast cancer.

Purpose: Endocrine therapies include aromatase inhibitors and the selective estrogen receptor (ER) downregulator fulvestrant. This study aimed to determine whether the reported efficacy of fulvestrant over anastrozole, and high- over low-dose fulvestrant, reflect distinct transcriptional responses.

Experimental Design: Global gene expression profiles from ERα-positive breast carcinomas before and during presurgical treatment with fulvestrant (n = 22) or anastrozole (n = 81), and corresponding in vitro models, were compared.

Development and validation of a gene expression score that predicts response to fulvestrant in breast cancer patients.

Fulvestrant is a selective estrogen receptor antagonist. Based on the measured growth inhibition of 60 human cancer cell lines (NCI60) in the presence of fulvestrant, as well as the baseline gene expression of the 60 cell lines, a gene expression score that predicts response to fulvestrant was developed. The score is based on 414 genes, 103 of which show increased expression in sensitive cell lines, while 311 show increased expression in the non-responding cell lines.

Evaluating the efficacy and safety of two doses of the polyclonal anti-tumor necrosis factor-α fragment antibody AZD9773 in adult patients with severe sepsis and/or septic shock: randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase IIb study*.

Objective: This trial compared the efficacy/safety of two IV doses of AZD9773, a polyclonal antibody to tumor necrosis factor-α, in adult patients with severe sepsis/septic shock.

Design: Multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase IIb trial.

Setting: ICUs in seven countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, and Spain).

Comparing duration of response and duration of clinical benefit between fulvestrant treatment groups in the CONFIRM trial: application of new methodology.

Comparisons of duration of response (DoR) and duration of clinical benefit (DoCB) within clinical trials are prone to biases. To address these biases, we used new methodology to prospectively analyze expected DoR and expected DoCB. Objective response rate and clinical benefit rate were calculated for fulvestrant 500 and 250 mg, and used to calculate expected DoR and expected DoCB for each dose group.

Fulvestrant 500 mg versus anastrozole 1 mg for the first-line treatment of advanced breast cancer: follow-up analysis from the randomized 'FIRST' study.

Fulvestrant fIRst-line Study comparing endocrine Treatments is a phase II, randomized, open-label study comparing fulvestrant 500 mg with anastrozole 1 mg as first-line endocrine therapy for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) advanced breast cancer. At data cut-off, only 36 % of patients had progressed and the median time to progression (TTP) had not been reached for fulvestrant. Here, we report follow-up data for TTP for fulvestrant 500 mg versus anastrozole 1 mg.

FACT: an open-label randomized phase III study of fulvestrant and anastrozole in combination compared with anastrozole alone as first-line therapy for patients with receptor-positive postmenopausal breast cancer.

Purpose: To compare the effect of therapy with anastrozole versus a combination of fulvestrant and anastrozole in women in first relapse of endocrine-responsive breast cancer.

Patients And Methods: Postmenopausal women, or premenopausal women receiving a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist, with estrogen receptor- and/or progesterone receptor-positive disease at first relapse after primary treatment of localized disease were open-label randomly assigned to a fulvestrant loading dose (LD) regimen followed by monthly injection plus 1 mg of anastrozole daily or to 1 mg of anastrozole daily alone. The primary end point was time to progression (TTP).