Phase Ib evaluation of a self-adjuvanted protamine formulated mRNA-based active cancer immunotherapy, BI1361849 (CV9202), combined with local radiation treatment in patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Preclinical studies demonstrate synergism between cancer immunotherapy and local radiation, enhancing anti-tumor effects and promoting immune responses. BI1361849 (CV9202) is an active cancer immunotherapeutic comprising protamine-formulated, sequence-optimized mRNA encoding six non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)-associated antigens (NY-ESO-1, MAGE-C1, MAGE-C2, survivin, 5T4, and MUC-1), intended to induce targeted immune responses.

Methods: We describe a phase Ib clinical trial evaluating treatment with BI1361849 combined with local radiation in 26 stage IV NSCLC patients with partial response (PR)/stable disease (SD) after standard first-line therapy.

Assessing Similarity Among Individual Tumor Size Lesion Dynamics: The CICIL Methodology.

Mathematical models of tumor dynamics generally omit information on individual target lesions (iTLs), and consider the most important variable to be the sum of tumor sizes (TS). However, differences in lesion dynamics might be predictive of tumor progression. To exploit this information, we have developed a novel and flexible approach for the non-parametric analysis of iTLs, which integrates knowledge from signal processing and machine learning.

Resistance Development: A Major Piece in the Jigsaw Puzzle of Tumor Size Modeling.

Mathematical models of tumor size (TS) dynamics and tumor growth inhibition (TGI) need to place more emphasis on resistance development, given its relevant implications for clinical outcomes. A deeper understanding of the underlying processes, and effective data integration at different complexity levels, can foster the incorporation of new mechanistic aspects into modeling approaches, improving anticancer drug effect prediction. As such, we propose a general framework for developing future semi-mechanistic TS/TGI models of drug resistance.

FOLFOX4 plus cetuximab treatment and RAS mutations in colorectal cancer.

Background: The OPUS study demonstrated that addition of cetuximab to 5-fluorouracil, folinic acid and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX4) significantly improved objective response and progression-free survival (PFS) in the first-line treatment of patients with KRAS exon 2 wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). In patients with KRAS exon 2 mutations, a detrimental effect was seen upon addition of cetuximab to FOLFOX4. The current study reports outcomes in subgroups defined by extended RAS testing.