The Clinical, Genomic, and Transcriptomic Landscape of BRAF Mutant Cancers.

Background: BRAF mutations are classified into four molecularly distinct groups, and Class 1 (V600) mutant tumors are treated with targeted therapies. Effective treatment has not been established for Class 2/3 or BRAF Fusions. We investigated whether BRAF mutation class differed according to clinical, genomic, and transcriptomic variables in cancer patients.

Survival of Patients With Head and Neck Merkel Cell Cancer: Findings From the Pan-Canadian Merkel Cell Cancer Collaborative.

Importance: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive cutaneous neuroendocrine carcinoma. Due to its relatively low incidence and limited prospective trials, current recommendations are guided by historical single-institution retrospective studies.

Objective: To evaluate the overall survival (OS) of patients in Canada with head and neck MCC (HNMCC) according to American Joint Committee on Cancer 8th edition staging and treatment modalities.

Generalization optimizing machine learning to improve CT scan radiomics and assess immune checkpoint inhibitors' response in non-small cell lung cancer: a multicenter cohort study.

Background: Recent developments in artificial intelligence suggest that radiomics may represent a promising non-invasive biomarker to predict response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Nevertheless, validation of radiomics algorithms in independent cohorts remains a challenge due to variations in image acquisition and reconstruction. Using radiomics, we investigated the importance of scan normalization as part of a broader machine learning framework to enable model external generalizability to predict ICI response in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients across different centers.

Second-line treatment outcomes after progression from first-line chemotherapy plus immunotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Introduction: Chemotherapy plus immunotherapy is the standard of care for patients with metastatic NSCLC. No study has evaluated the outcomes of second-line chemotherapy treatments after progression following first-line chemo-immunotherapy.

Method: This multicenter retrospective study evaluated the efficacy of second line (2L) chemotherapies after progression under first-line (1L) chemo-immunotherapy, measured by overall survival (2L-OS) and progression free survival (2L-PFS).

serology is associated with worse overall survival in patients with melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

The microbiome is now regarded as one of the hallmarks of cancer and several strategies to modify the gut microbiota to improve immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) activity are being evaluated in clinical trials. Preliminary data regarding the upper gastro-intestinal microbiota indicated that seropositivity was associated with a negative prognosis in patients amenable to ICI. In 97 patients with advanced melanoma treated with ICI, we assessed the impact of on outcomes and microbiome composition.

Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA virus shedding and lymphopenia are hallmarks of COVID-19 in cancer patients with poor prognosis.

Patients with cancer are at higher risk of severe coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19), but the mechanisms underlying virus-host interactions during cancer therapies remain elusive. When comparing nasopharyngeal swabs from cancer and noncancer patients for RT-qPCR cycle thresholds measuring acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 1063 patients (58% with cancer), we found that malignant disease favors the magnitude and duration of viral RNA shedding concomitant with prolonged serum elevations of type 1 IFN that anticorrelated with anti-RBD IgG antibodies. Cancer patients with a prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection exhibited the typical immunopathology of severe COVID-19 at the early phase of infection including circulation of immature neutrophils, depletion of nonconventional monocytes, and a general lymphopenia that, however, was accompanied by a rise in plasmablasts, activated follicular T-helper cells, and non-naive Granzyme BFasL, EomesTCF-1, PD-1CD8 Tc1 cells.

Gemcitabine-Containing Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Metastatic Myxofibrosarcoma Refractory to Doxorubicin: A Case Series.

Background: Myxofibrosarcoma is a type of soft-tissue sarcoma that is associated with high rates of local recurrence and distant metastases. The first-line treatment for metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma has conventionally been doxorubicin-based. Recent evidence suggests that myxofibrosarcoma may be molecularly similar to undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (UPS), which is particularly sensitive to gemcitabine-based therapy.

Durvalumab therapy following chemoradiation compared with a historical cohort treated with chemoradiation alone in patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer: A real-world multicentre study.

Background: The PACIFIC trial demonstrated that durvalumab therapy following chemoradiation (CRT) was associated with improved overall survival (OS) in patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It is unclear whether the results obtained as part of randomised controlled trials are a reflection of real-world (RW) data. Several questions remain unanswered with regard to RW durvalumab use, such as optimal time to durvalumab initiation, incidence of pneumonitis and response in PD-L1 subgroups.

Changes in Lung Cancer Treatment as a Result of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.

This prospective observational study assesses changes in treatment plans for patients with lung cancer and qualifies the types of changes observed as a direct result of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.