Faculty Bibliography

Superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome is commonly caused by malignancy but is rarely associated with breast cancer. The following case series describes three female breast cancer patients who were found to have disease recurrence years after initial diagnosis, presenting as facial swelling, collateral vessel formation, and shortness of breath consistent with SVC syndrome. All patients were treated with radiation therapy, and one patient required stenting due to tumor thrombus in the SVC. These cases highlight a rare complication of breast cancer that clinicians should recognize in patients who have undergone treatment particularly for right sided breast cancer with lymph node involvement.

Current breast cancer care involves a multidisciplinary clinical approach for diagnosis and treatment including input from radiology, surgery, pathology, radiation, and medical oncology. Radiation is an integral part of the treatment for locoregionally confined breast cancer, and has well-recognized long-term risks of secondary malignancies, such as angiosarcomas. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC), a common skin malignancy, is not typically considered a radiation-induced carcinoma following breast cancer treatment. Our recent experience with 4 patients with vastly different presentations of BCC in previous radiation fields prompts the current report in order to alert clinicians to this entity.

OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:We evaluated the incidence of breast cancer and overall survival in a multi-center cohort of ovarian cancer patients carrying BRCA1/2 mutations in order to assess risks and formulate optimal preventive interventions and/or surveillance. METHODS:Medical records of 502 BRCA1/2 mutation carriers diagnosed with ovarian cancer between 2000 and 2018 at 7 medical centers in Israel and one in New York were retrospectively analyzed for breast cancer diagnosis. Data included demographics, type of BRCA mutations, surveillance methods, timing of breast cancer diagnosis, and family history of cancer. RESULTS:The median age at diagnosis of ovarian cancer was 55.8 years (range, 23.9-90.1). A third (31.5%) had a family history of breast cancer and 17.1% of ovarian cancer. Most patients (67.3%) were Ashkenazi Jews, 72.9% were BRCA1 carriers. Breast cancer preceded ovarian cancer in 17.5% and was diagnosed after ovarian cancer in 6.2%; an additional 2.2% had a synchronous presentation. Median time to breast cancer diagnosis after ovarian cancer was 46.0 months (range, 11-168). Of those diagnosed with both breast cancer and ovarian cancer (n = 31), 83.9% and 16.1% harbored BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, respectively. No deaths from breast cancer were recorded. Overall survival did not differ statistically between patients with an ovarian cancer diagnosis only and those diagnosed with breast cancer after ovarian cancer. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:The low incidence of breast cancer after ovarian cancer in women carrying BRCA1/2 mutations suggests that routine breast surveillance, rather than risk-reducing surgical interventions, may be sufficient in ovarian cancer survivors.

Intraperitoneal (IP) delivery of cisplatin was developed in the 1970s based on a strong pharmacologic rationale and rodent models. Its advantage over intravenous (IV) administration was supported initially by observational studies in treating recurrent ovarian cancer and eventually by better outcomes from IP vs. IV cisplatin in randomized studies in patients undergoing optimal surgical debulking at diagnosis. In the past two decades, with the introduction of novel anticancer interventions (such as taxanes, bevacizumab, inhibitors of DNA repair, and immune check point inhibitors), advantages of IP drug delivery are less clear and concerns are raised on cisplatin's therapeutic index. The discovery of BRCA genes and their key role in DNA repair, on the other hand, have strengthened the rationale for IP drug delivery: high grade serous cancers arising in the Mullerian epithelium in association with hereditary or somatic BRCA function inactivation are linked to peritoneal spread of cells that - while initially sensitive - are prone to emergence of platinum resistance. Therefore, selection of patients based on genomic features and focusing on the better tolerated IP carboplatin are ongoing. Recent examples of leveraging the peritoneal route include (1) targeting the cell membrane copper transport receptor - that is shared by platinums - by the combination of the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib and IP carboplatin; and (2) enhancing IP 5-fluoro-2-deoxyuridine cytotoxicity when coupled with PARP inhibition.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVE:Advances in cancer treatment have increased survival for many patients, prompting a need for greater recognition of the long-term complications of treatment. Chemotherapy agents have the potential to induce carcinogenesis and can increase the risk of secondary malignancy. Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) used for maintenance treatment of recurrent high-grade serous cancers has been associated with the development of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). STUDY DESIGN/METHODS:Retrospective review. METHODS:Cases of oral cavity SCC in patients with recurrent high-grade serous cancer treated with PLD between 1997 and 2017 at a single institution were reviewed. RESULTS:). Seven patients tested positive for BRCA mutations (four BRCA 1+, three BRCA 2+). No patients had a history of alcohol or tobacco use. All had early-stage oral cavity disease; five were T1N0, two were T2N0, and one had carcinoma in situ. All patients underwent surgery, and two received adjuvant radiation. Four developed locoregional recurrence requiring additional treatment. Of these, one patient died from complications of oral SCC, one developed recurrent ovarian cancer, and two had no evidence of disease of the oral cavity or ovarian cancer at the last follow-up. CONCLUSIONS:Long-term PLD therapy may be associated with the development of oral cavity SCC. A high index of suspicion and routine head and neck examination should be included in follow-up for exposed patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE/METHODS:4 Laryngoscope, 2019.

Agonists of the co-stimulatory molecule OX40 (CD134) are in clinical assessment alone and in combination with other immunotherapies. Recent pre-clinical studies have suggested that concurrent administration of OX40 agonists with anti-PD1 therapy is detrimental to the efficacy of such combinations and maximal efficacy may require sequential administration of the OX40 agonist followed by anti-PD1 therapy. In this report, we detail two patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma were treated with INCAGN01949, an agonistic OX40 Ab, as part of a clinical trial until disease progression. Both patients then received the combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab and experienced unusually deep and durable responses. These cases support the hypothesis raised in pre-clinical studies and highlight the potential relevance of sequence in combinational immunotherapy.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:To examine trends, characteristics and outcomes of women who develop both ovarian and breast cancers. METHODS:This is a retrospective study examining the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program from 1973 to 2013. Among ovarian cancer (n = 133,149) and breast cancer (n = 1,143,219) cohorts, women with both diagnoses were identified and temporal trends, tumor characteristics and survival were examined. RESULTS:There were 6446 women with both malignancies, representing 4.8% of the ovarian cancer cohort and 0.6% of the breast cancer cohort. Women with ovarian cancer who had secondary breast cancer were younger than those without secondary breast cancer early in the study period (52.3 versus 59.2 in 1973) but older in more recent years (68.5 versus 62.1 in 2013, P < 0.001). The number of breast cancer survivors who developed postcedent ovarian cancer decreased from 1.5 to 0.2% from 1979 to 2008 (relative risk reduction 90.0%, P < 0.05). Similarly, the number of ovarian cancer survivors who developed postcedent breast cancer decreased from 7.2 to 2.0% from 1973 to 2008 (relative risk reduction 72.4%, P < 0.05). Tumor characteristics were more likely to be favorable in women with ovarian cancer who developed postcedent breast cancer but unfavorable in those who had antecedent breast cancer (all, P < 0.05). Women with ovarian cancer who had secondary breast cancer had superior cause-specific survival compared to those who did not develop breast cancer regardless of breast cancer timing (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Our study demonstrated that the demographics of women who develop breast cancer and ovarian cancer have changed over time and diagnosis of secondary breast cancer after ovarian cancer has decreased.

Background: PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint blockade in combination with chemotherapy has improved outcomes in triple-negative breast cancer, but its role in hormone receptor-positive (HR+) metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is less clear. We report the results of the HR+ cohort of a HER2-negative MBC trial.
Method(s): Prospective phase 2 trial where 20 HR+/HER2- MBC patients (pts) received nab-paclitaxel (A) (100mg/m2 IV d1/8, q 3 wks) and pembrolizumab (P) (200mg IV d1, q 3 wks, starting with cycle 2). Eligibility: ER/PR >=1%, HER2 negative, maximum of 2 lines of cytotoxic therapy for MBC, pts could have received prior endocrine and/or targeted therapy. Primary endpoint: best overall response rate (BORR) by RECIST v1.1; secondary endpoints: safety, PFS, clinical benefit rate (CBR), duration of response (DOR), and overall survival (OS). Biomarker analyses are ongoing.
Result(s): In this 20-patient cohort, the median age was 56 (34-75), median lines of cytotoxic chemotherapy was 1 (0-2), 70% (14/20) were ER>10%, 80% (16/20) received prior hormone therapy, and 60% (12/20) received prior CDK 4/6 inhibitors. BORR was partial response (PR) in 5/20, stable disease (SD) in 7/20, and progressive disease (PD) in 7/20. CBR was 35% (7/20). Median PFS was 5.6 mos (95%CI 2.07-8.18), median OS 15.7 mos (95%CI 3.88-27.70) and median DOR was 3.9 mos (95%CI 2.07-not yet reached). Out of 5 pts who achieved PR, 4 (80%) received prior CDK 4/6 inhibitors. The most common related adverse events (AE) were anemia (50%), diarrhea, nausea and ALT abnormalities (40% each). 14 pts experienced grade 3 AEs, the most common being neutropenia, 1 pt had grade 4 AEs (pneumonitis, blood/lymphatics, hyponatremia), and no grade 5 AEs. [Formula presented]
Conclusion(s): P plus A was efficacious with PR in 5/20 and SD in 7/20 pts with a manageable toxicity profile. Importantly, responses were observed in patients previously treated with CDK 4/6 inhibitors. Further investigation of this regimen in HR+/HER2- MBC is warranted. Clinical trial identification: NCT02752685. Legal entity responsible for the study: NYU Langone Health.
Funding(s): Merck (drug-pembrolizumab and financial funding); Celgene (drug-nab-paclitaxel). Disclosure: F. Muggia: Advisory/Consultancy, Member of data safety monitoring committee of Pembrolizumab trials run by Merck: Merck. S. Adams: Advisory/Consultancy, Research grant/Funding (institution), consultant (uncompensated): Merck; Research grant/Funding (institution): Celgene. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
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