Publications by authors named "Karla Ballman"

Purpose: In light of evolving evidence that some patients with node-positive estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) disease may receive less benefit from chemotherapy, this study reports 12-year outcomes of the C9741 trial overall, and by the sensitivity to endocrine therapy (SET2,3) test index, a biomarker measuring endocrine transcriptional activity, to identify patients most likely to benefit from dose-dense chemotherapy.

Methods: In all, 1,973 patients were randomly assigned to dose-dense versus conventional chemotherapy. Hazard ratios (HRs) for prognosis and for predictive interaction with chemotherapy schedule were estimated from Cox models of long-term disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS).

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Background: Approximately half of patients with localised, high-risk soft tissue sarcoma of the extremity develop metastases. We aimed to assess whether the addition of pembrolizumab to preoperative radiotherapy and surgery would improve disease-free survival.

Methods: We completed an open-label, randomised clinical trial in patients with grade 2 or 3, stage III undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma or dedifferentiated or pleomorphic liposarcoma of the extremity and limb girdle.

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  • Glioblastoma patients typically have a poor prognosis even after standard treatments, prompting research into new combinations of therapy.
  • The study evaluated the effectiveness of veliparib combined with temozolomide for glioblastoma patients with MGMT promoter hypermethylation, hoping to enhance treatment outcomes.
  • Results showed a slight improvement in median overall survival for the veliparib group compared to the placebo, but the difference wasn't significant enough to meet efficacy goals, though the combination treatment was generally well tolerated.
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Background: Muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma is an aggressive disease with high rates of relapse. Whether pembrolizumab as adjuvant therapy would be effective in patients with high-risk muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma after radical surgery is unknown.

Methods: In this phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned patients, in a 1:1 ratio, to receive pembrolizumab at a dose of 200 mg every 3 weeks for 1 year or to undergo observation.

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  • The study investigates how stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) relate to survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC).
  • The research showed that sTILs positively impacted progression-free survival in those receiving chemotherapy, but this link weakened after accounting for hormone receptor status.
  • The trial involved is CALGB 40502, which has since become part of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology and is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov.
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Introduction: Radiation Therapy and IRreversible Electroporation for Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer (RTIRE) is a phase II clinical trial testing combination of radiation therapy and irreversible electroporation for intermediate risk prostate cancer BACKGROUND: PCa is the most common non-cutaneous cancer in men and the second leading cause of cancer death in men. PCa treatment is associated with long term side effects including urinary, sexual, and bowel dysfunction. Management of PCa is based on risk stratification to prevent its overtreatment and associated treatment-related toxicity.

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Importance: Observational studies of survivors of breast cancer and prospective trials of aspirin for cardiovascular disease suggest improved breast cancer survival among aspirin users, but prospective studies of aspirin to prevent breast cancer recurrence are lacking.

Objective: To determine whether aspirin decreases the risk of invasive cancer events among survivors of breast cancer.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A011502, a phase 3, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial conducted in the United States and Canada with 3020 participants who had high-risk nonmetastatic breast cancer, enrolled participants from 534 sites from January 6, 2017, through December 4, 2020, with follow-up to March 4, 2023.

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Purpose: Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) is a rare vascular cancer with pathogenic TAZ-CAMTA1 (calmodulinbinding transcription activator 1) operating as an oncogenic driver through activation of the MAPK pathway. Trametinib is an inhibitor of MEK, a critical kinase in the MAPK pathway. We sought to evaluate the effect of trametinib in patients with EHE.

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Introduction: The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system undergoes periodic revisions to maintain contemporary survival outcomes related to stage. Recently, the AJCC has developed a novel, systematic approach incorporating survival data to refine stage groupings. The objective of this study was to demonstrate data-driven optimization of the version 9 AJCC staging system for anal cancer assessed through a defined validation approach.

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The identification of prognostic markers in patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy is crucial for treatment optimization in HER2-positive breast cancer, with the immune microenvironment being a key factor. Here, we investigate the complexity of B and T cell receptor (BCR and TCR) repertoires in the context of two phase III trials, NeoALTTO and CALGB 40601, evaluating neoadjuvant paclitaxel with trastuzumab and/or lapatinib in women with HER2-positive breast cancer. BCR features, particularly the number of reads and clones, evenness and Gini index, are heterogeneous according to hormone receptor status and PAM50 subtypes.

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Purpose: Novel therapies are needed to extend survival in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a cell surface antigen overexpressed in PC, provides a validated target. This dose-escalation study investigated the safety, efficacy, maximum tolerated dose (MTD), and recommended phase II dose (RP2D) for Ac-J591, anti-PSMA monoclonal antibody J591 radiolabeled with the alpha emitter actinium-225.

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Importance: Black women in the United States have higher breast cancer (BC) mortality rates than White women. The combined role of multiple factors, including body mass index (BMI), age, and tumor subtype, remains unclear.

Objective: To assess the association of race and ethnicity with survival among clinical trial participants with early-stage BC (eBC) according to tumor subtype, age, and BMI.

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  • Leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is a challenging cancer with poor response to standard chemotherapy (under 30%), largely due to its chromosomal instability and defects in DNA repair mechanisms caused by mutations in TP53 and RB1.
  • Researchers conducted targeted sequencing and genome-wide screens on LMS samples to find specific therapeutic targets that could exploit these genetic vulnerabilities.
  • They discovered that combining DNA-PK inhibitors with low doses of doxorubicin showed promising synergistic effects in reducing LMS growth in both lab models and mouse studies, presenting a potential new treatment strategy without significant toxicity.
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Background: Patients who have undergone solid organ transplants (SOT) have an increased risk for sepsis compared with the general population. Paradoxically, studies suggest that SOT patients with sepsis may experience better outcomes compared with those without a SOT. However, these analyses used previous definitions of sepsis.

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  • The study looked at if breast-conserving therapy (BCT) is a safe treatment for women with multiple spots of breast cancer.
  • They found that the treatment resulted in a low chance (3.1%) of the cancer coming back after five years for most patients who participated in the trial.
  • It was noted that women who had a pre-surgery MRI had a much lower chance of cancer returning, suggesting that using MRI before surgery can be very helpful.
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Background: Evaluation of prior phase II trials for malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST) may help develop more suitable trial endpoints in future studies.

Methods: We analyzed outcomes of patients with recurrent or unresectable/metastatic MPNST enrolled on prior Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration (SARC) phase II trials and estimated the progression-free survival (PFS). PFS from SARC006 (NCT00304083), the phase II trial of upfront chemotherapy in chemotherapy naïve patients, was analyzed separately.

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Purpose: Continuous intravenous infusion (CIV) of doxorubicin (DOX) versus bolus (BOL) may minimize dose-dependent DOX cardiomyopathy, but it is unclear whether this advantage is evident as employed in typical soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) treatment. The impact of administration mode on adverse events (AE) and efficacy were compared using data from a randomized trial of DOX-based therapy (SARC021/TH CR-406).

Experimental Design: In this post hoc analysis, CIV versus BOL was at discretion of the treating physician.

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Importance: Both tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) assessment and immune-related gene expression signatures by RNA profiling predict higher pathologic complete response (pCR) and improved event-free survival (EFS) in patients with early-stage ERBB2/HER2-positive breast cancer. However, whether these 2 measures of immune activation provide similar or additive prognostic value is not known.

Objective: To examine the prognostic ability of TILs and immune-related gene expression signatures, alone and in combination, to predict pCR and EFS in patients with early-stage ERBB2/HER2-positive breast cancer treated in 2 clinical trials.

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Background: A recent phase III trial (NCT01372774) comparing use of stereotactic radiosurgery [SRS] versus whole-brain radiation therapy [WBRT] after surgical resection of a single brain metastasis revealed that declines in cognitive function were more common with WBRT than with SRS. A secondary endpoint in that trial, and the primary objective in this secondary analysis, was to identify baseline biomarkers associated with cognitive impairment after either form of radiotherapy for brain metastasis. Here we report our findings on APOE genotype and serum levels of associated proteins and their association with radiation-induced neurocognitive decline.

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Targeting lineage-defined transcriptional dependencies has emerged as an effective therapeutic strategy in cancer treatment. Through screening for molecular vulnerabilities of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), we identified a set of transcription factors (TFs) including FOXO1, EBF1, PAX5, and IRF4 that are essential for MCL propagation. Integrated chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequencing (ChIP-Seq) with transcriptional network reconstruction analysis revealed FOXO1 as a master regulator that acts upstream in the regulatory TF hierarchy.

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Importance: Long-term outcomes of radiotherapy are important in understanding the risks and benefits of therapies for patients with brain metastases.

Objective: To determine how the use of postoperative whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) or stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is associated with quality of life (QOL), cognitive function, and intracranial tumor control in long-term survivors with 1 to 4 brain metastases.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This secondary analysis of a randomized phase 3 clinical trial included 48 institutions in the US and Canada.

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