Publications by authors named "Karen Reckamp"

Osimertinib is first-line treatment for epidermal growth factor (EGFR)-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and has been associated with cardiotoxicity. However, the nature of cardiac remodeling and associated risk factors remains incompletely understood. Retrospective analysis of NSCLC patients with ≥1 echocardiogram post-osimertinib between 2007 and 2022 was performed.

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  • The study aimed to assess if adding the PARP inhibitor talazoparib to the immune checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab could enhance outcomes for patients with SLFN11-positive extensive stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) after initial treatment.
  • A total of 106 patients were randomized into two groups, showing that the combination therapy (talazoparib plus atezolizumab) led to improved progression-free survival compared to atezolizumab alone, though overall survival rates remained similar between the two groups.
  • While the combination therapy improved progression-free survival, it also resulted in higher rates of severe hematological side effects, such as grade 3 anemia, highlighting the need for careful patient selection based on genetic markers
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Efficient DNA replication requires highly coordinated programs for the timely recruitment of protein complexes to DNA replication forks. Defects in this process result in replication stress, which in turn activates cell cycle checkpoints, suppresses cell proliferation and induces apoptosis. In response to persistent cell growth signals that speed up DNA replication processes, cells accelerate the recruitment of DNA replication proteins to avoid DNA replication stress.

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Lung cancer is responsible for a high burden of disease globally. Over the last two decades, the discovery of targetable oncogenic genomic alterations has revolutionized the treatment landscape for early-stage and advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). New molecular drivers continue to emerge as promising therapeutic targets, including KRAS non-G12C, RAF/MEK, HER3, Nectin-4, folate receptor alpha, ITGB6, and PRMT5.

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  • * In a study of 982 cancer patients from 2020 to 2023, most received the initial vaccine and one booster, but the uptake for the newer bivalent booster was significantly low at only 30.1%.
  • * Despite low booster rates, nearly all participants showed improved immune responses after receiving at least two boosters, and those who got boosted had a lower risk of mortality, highlighting the need for better strategies to encourage vaccinations among this vulnerable group.
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  • SARS-CoV-2 can spread from asymptomatic individuals, posing a greater risk to cancer patients who frequently visit healthcare facilities and are more vulnerable to severe COVID-19 outcomes.* -
  • A study of lung cancer patients revealed that over half of those with evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection were asymptomatic at diagnosis, and a significant number were never clinically diagnosed.* -
  • The findings indicate that older patients and those with early-stage lung cancer are more likely to have asymptomatic infections, highlighting the need for continued preventive measures in high-risk populations.*
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Purpose: National Cancer Institute-Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH) was a multicohort phase 2 trial that assigned patients with advanced pretreated cancers to molecularly targeted therapies on the basis of tumor genomic testing. NCI-MATCH Arm A evaluated afatinib, an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) approved for advanced non-small cell lung cancer, in patients with tumors other than lung cancer harboring mutations.

Methods: Patients with advanced pretreated cancers other than lung cancer found to have selected actionable mutations were offered participation in Arm A.

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Introduction: For patients with epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated (EGFRm) locally advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) whose disease has progressed on or after osimertinib and platinum-based chemotherapy (PBC), no uniformly accepted standard of care exists. Moreover, limited efficacy of standard treatments indicates an unmet medical need, which is being addressed by ongoing clinical investigations, including the HERTHENA-Lung01 (NCT04619004) study of patritumab deruxtecan (HER3‑DXd). However, because limited information is available on real-world clinical outcomes in such patients, early-phase trials of investigational therapies lack sufficient context for comparison.

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Clinical trials are essential for advancing oncology treatment strategies and have contributed significantly to the decline in cancer mortality rates over the past decades. Traditional explanatory trials, focused on establishing intervention efficacy in ideal settings, often lack generalizability and may not reflect real-world patient care scenarios. Furthermore, increasing complexity in cancer clinical trial design has led to challenges such as protocol deviations, slow enrollment leading to lengthened durations of trial, and escalating costs.

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For cancer clinical trials that require central confirmation of tumor genomic profiling, exhaustion of tissue from standard-of-care testing may prevent enrollment. For Lung-MAP, a master protocol that requires results from a defined centralized clinical trial assay to assign patients to a therapeutic substudy, we developed a process to repurpose existing commercial vendor raw genomic data for eligibility: genomic data reanalysis (GDR). Molecular results for substudy assignment were successfully generated for 369 of the first 374 patients (98.

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Osimertinib has become the standard of care for epidermal growth factor receptor ( EGFR )-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In order to prevent or treat toxicity, the osimertinib dose may be reduced. However, data regarding the impact of dose reduction during treatment are limited.

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Background: Patients with thoracic malignancies who develop COVID-19 infection have a higher hospitalization rate compared to the general population and to those with other cancer types, but how this outcome differs by race and ethnicity is relatively understudied.

Methods: The TERAVOLT database is an international, multi-center repository of cross-sectional and longitudinal data studying the impact of COVID-19 on individuals with thoracic malignancies. Patients from North America with thoracic malignancies and confirmed COVID-19 infection were included for this analysis of racial and ethnic disparities.

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  • - Patients with cancer have a higher risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19 and show weakened immune responses to vaccines, highlighting the importance of regular boosters in this group
  • - A study of 982 cancer patients found high initiation of vaccination (92.3% received the primary vaccine) but lower uptake of boosters, especially among younger patients and racial minorities
  • - Receiving multiple booster shots significantly increased antibody levels and T-cell responses, leading to a lower risk of death, indicating the need for improved strategies to boost vaccination rates among high-risk cancer patients
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Purpose: Patritumab deruxtecan, or HER3-DXd, is an antibody-drug conjugate consisting of a fully human monoclonal antibody to human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (HER3) attached to a topoisomerase I inhibitor payload via a stable tetrapeptide-based cleavable linker. We assessed the efficacy and safety of HER3-DXd in patients with epidermal growth factor receptor ()-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: This phase II study (ClinicalTrials.

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Background: Combination chemotherapy and immunotherapy regimens have significantly improved survival for patients with previously untreated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Improvements in overall survival (OS) in two separate pembrolizumab trials have demonstrated survival improvements over chemotherapy alone, regardless of PD-L1 status. The optimal chemotherapy backbone for combination with immunotherapy is unknown.

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  • - The study investigates Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS) and its relation to organ damage, aiming to identify potential biomarkers using liquid biopsy approaches for better patient care.
  • - Researchers analyzed blood samples from 100 Post-COVID patients, with varying symptoms, and 19 normal donors, finding significant differences in cellular structures suggesting endothelial and platelet features in those suspected of PACS.
  • - Although a machine learning model effectively distinguished between normal donors and Post-COVID patients, it struggled to separate those suspected of PACS, indicating more research is necessary to better understand and stratify these post-COVID conditions.
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Background: Amivantamab, a fully humanized EGFR-MET bispecific antibody, has antitumor activity in diverse EGFR- and MET-driven non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and a safety profile consistent with associated on-target activities. Infusion-related reaction(s) (IRR[s]) are reported commonly with amivantamab. We review IRR and subsequent management in amivantamab-treated patients.

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Background: Heightened signaling by mesenchymal epithelial transition factor (MET) is implicated in tumorigenesis. Glesatinib is an investigational, oral inhibitor of MET and AXL.

Objective: This phase I study determined the maximum tolerated dose (MTD), recommended phase II dose (RP2D), and safety profile of glesatinib in patients with advanced or unresectable solid tumors.

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  • Pancreatic metastasis from primary lung adenocarcinoma is rare, making up less than 0.3% of pancreatic cancers, and accurate diagnosis is crucial for treatment.
  • A case study of a 65-year-old man revealed a pancreatic mass that was initially misdiagnosed, but next-generation sequencing (NGS) led to the correct identification as an EGFR-mutated lung adenocarcinoma with pancreatic metastases.
  • Early NGS not only changed the treatment plan, significantly improving prognosis, but also highlighted its importance in managing solid tumors effectively.
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Objective: Multimodality treatment for resectable non-small cell lung cancer has long remained at a therapeutic plateau. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are highly effective in advanced non-small cell lung cancer and promising preoperatively in small clinical trials for resectable non-small cell lung cancer. This large multicenter trial tested the safety and efficacy of neoadjuvant atezolizumab and surgery.

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Introduction: Genomic alterations in the juxtamembrane exon 14 splice sites in NSCLC lead to increased MET stability and oncogenesis. We present the largest cohort study of Exon 14 (ex14) using whole transcriptome sequencing.

Methods: A total of 21,582 NSCLC tumor samples underwent complete genomic profiling with next-generation sequencing of DNA (592 Gene Panel, NextSeq, whole exome sequencing, NovaSeq) and RNA (NovaSeq, whole transcriptome sequencing).

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  • Brigatinib shows long-term effectiveness and safety for NSCLC patients with ALK rearrangements, based on phase 1/2 and ALTA trials.
  • In these studies, patients previously treated with crizotinib demonstrated median progression-free survival (PFS) of 9.2 months (arm A) and 15.6 months (arm B) along with overall survival up to 40.6 months in arm B.
  • Long-term results indicate manageable safety profiles with no new safety concerns emerging, confirming brigatinib as a viable treatment option for patients resistant to crizotinib.
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  • Second-generation ALK inhibitors, alectinib and brigatinib, are effective front-line treatments for ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer, but there are no direct comparisons between the two.
  • The study aimed to compare overall survival (OS) rates for brigatinib versus alectinib using indirect treatment comparisons (ITCs) from two clinical trials, ALEX and ALTA-1L.
  • Results showed that OS rates for both drugs were comparable, regardless of the analysis method, suggesting no significant difference in survival between the two treatments for patients new to ALK inhibitors.
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