scholarly journals Immune-Related Circulating miR-125b-5p and miR-99a-5p Reveal a High Recurrence Risk Group of Pancreatic Cancer Patients after Tumor Resection

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (22) ◽  
pp. 4784
Author(s):  
Vietsch ◽  
Peran ◽  
Suker ◽  
van den Bosch ◽  
Sijde ◽  
...  

Clinical follow-up aided by changes in the expression of circulating microRNAs (miRs) may improve prognostication of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients. Changes in 179 circulating miRs due to cancer progression in the transgenic KrasG12D/+; Trp53R172H/+; P48-Cre (KPC) animal model of PDAC were analyzed for serum miRs that are altered in metastatic disease. In addition, expression levels of 250 miRs were profiled before and after pancreaticoduodenectomy in the serum of two patients with resectable PDAC with different progression free survival (PFS) and analyzed for changes indicative of PDAC recurrence after resection. Three miRs that were upregulated ≥3-fold in progressive PDAC in both mice and patients were selected for validation in 26 additional PDAC patients before and after resection. We found that high serum miR-125b-5p and miR-99a-5p levels after resection are significantly associated with shorter PFS (HR 1.34 and HR 1.73 respectively). In situ hybridization for miR detection in the paired resected human PDAC tissues showed that miR-125b-5p and miR-99a-5p are highly expressed in inflammatory cells in the tumor stroma, located in clusters of CD79A expressing cells of the B-lymphocyte lineage. In conclusion, we found that circulating miR-125b-5p and miR-99a-5p are potential immune-cell related prognostic biomarkers in PDAC patients after surgery.

Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandros Papalampros ◽  
Michail Vailas ◽  
Konstantinos Ntostoglou ◽  
Maria Lopez Chiloeches ◽  
Stratigoula Sakellariou ◽  
...  

Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is resistant to single-agent immunotherapies. To understand the mechanisms leading to the poor response to this treatment, a better understanding of the PDAC immune landscape is required. The present work aims to study the immune profile in PDAC in relationship to spatial heterogeneity of the tissue microenvironment (TME) in intact tissues. Methods: Serial section and multiplex in situ analysis were performed in 42 PDAC samples to assess gene and protein expression at single-cell resolution in the: (a) tumor center (TC), (b) invasive front (IF), (c) normal parenchyma adjacent to the tumor, and (d) tumor positive and negative draining lymph nodes (LNs). Results: We observed: (a) enrichment of T cell subpopulations with exhausted and senescent phenotype in the TC, IF and tumor positive LNs; (b) a dominant type 2 immune response in the TME, which is more pronounced in the TC; (c) an emerging role of CD47-SIRPα axis; and (d) a similar immune cell topography independently of the neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Conclusion: This study reveals the existence of dysfunctional T lymphocytes with specific spatial distribution, thus opening a new dimension both conceptually and mechanistically in tumor-stroma interaction in PDAC with potential impact on the efficacy of immune-regulatory therapeutic modalities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e15613-e15613
Author(s):  
Huan Chen ◽  
Haibei Xin ◽  
Lihong Wu ◽  
Yanhui Chen ◽  
Hongli Luo ◽  
...  

e15613 Background: Within the tumor microenvironment (TME), infiltrating lymphocytes and myeloid cells including tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) are key players involved in liver cancer progression. The purpose of the study was to explorer whether distinct infiltrated immune cell features differentially affect clinical outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: We obtained respectable stage II HCC specimens, along with adjacent para-tumor tissues from 221 patients who underwent surgical resection at Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, (in Shanghai, China) from 2015 through April 2018. CD8+, CD163+ and CD66B+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in the cancer area (CA) and stroma area (SA), as well paratumor stroma area, were analyzed by multiple immunohistochemistry. Results: Hierarchical clustering analysis of immune cell densities revealed that all HCC samples can be classified into three distinct groups. The three immune oncology types (IO-types) were characterized by a strong CD8 T cell density in CA and SA region (IO-1), an intermediate state of CD8 and CD163+ (IO-2), and a strong CD163+ macrophage density in IO-3. Remarkably increasing risks of mortality and recurrence, as well as elevated AST, ALP, GGT and AFP levels, were identified in IO-3 group, when compared with IO-1 group. We then identified that percentages of CA-CD8+ TILs in the tumor sample and SA-CD163+ macrophages in the para-tumor region showed opposite distribution pattern among the three IO types, suggesting a predictive role for CD8/TAM ratio in HCC cohort. Therefore, we next classified all HCC samples into two subgroups, according to the levels of tumor-CA-CD8/paratumor-SA-CD163 ratio. Expectedly, higher rate of CD8/CD163 represented significantly improved overall survival (OS) and progression free survival (PFS), verses lower rate of CD8/CD163. Further association studies suggested that the two subgroups correlated with HBV DNA, tumor size, and microvascular invasion (MVI). Of note, a prognostic signature combining portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) and CD8/CD163 ratio discriminated HCC patients into four subtypes with increasing risk of mortality and recurrence. Conclusions: The current results indicated that the CD8/CD163 is a novel, independent prognostic factor for a lower rate of disease recurrence and favorable OS in patients with resectable HCC.


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1016-1019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Qu ◽  
Qing Wang ◽  
Zhiqiang Meng ◽  
Peng Wang

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is characterized by an extensive stromal response called desmoplasia. Within the tumor stroma, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the primary cell type. CAFs have been shown to play a role in pancreatic cancer progression; they secrete growth factors, inflammatory cytokines, and chemokines that stimulate signaling pathways in cancer cells and modulate the cancer biology toward increased aggressiveness. Therefore, targeting CAFs may serve as a powerful weapon against pancreatic cancer and improve therapeutic effects. However, a previous study aiming to deplete CAFs by inhibiting sonic Hedgehog signaling failed to show any benefit in survival time of pancreatic cancer patients. We reported that the natural product curcumin reeducated CAFs in pancreatic cancer treatment. A low concentration of curcumin reversed the activation of fibroblasts without exhibiting growth suppression effects. In addition, curcumin suppressed CAF-induced pancreatic cancer cell migration and invasion in vitro and lung metastasis in vivo. The results of our study suggest that active CAFs can be inactivated by certain natural products such as curcumin. Reeducation of CAFs back to their normal state, rather than their indiscriminate depletion, may broaden our view in the development of therapeutic options for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaolong Cao ◽  
Zeya Wang ◽  
Fan Gao ◽  
Jingxiao Chen ◽  
Feng Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractThe deconvolution of transcriptomic data from heterogeneous tissues in cancer studies remains challenging. Available software faces difficulties for accurately estimating both component-specific proportions and expression profiles for individual samples. To address these challenges, we present a new R-implementation pipeline for the more accurate and efficient transcriptome deconvolution of high dimensional data from mixtures of more than two components. The pipeline utilizes the computationally efficient DeMixT R-package with OpenMP and additional cancer-specific biological information to perform three-component deconvolution without requiring data from the immune profiles. It enables a wide application of DeMixT to gene expression datasets available from cancer consortium such as the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) projects, where, other than the mixed tumor samples, a handful of normal samples are profiled in multiple cancer types. We have applied this pipeline to two TCGA datasets in colorectal adenocarcinoma (COAD) and prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD). In COAD, we found varying distributions of immune proportions across the Consensus Molecular Subtypes, from the highest to the lowest being CMS1, CMS3, CMS4 and CMS2. In PRAD, we found the immune proportions are associated with progression-free survival (p<0.01) and negatively correlated with Gleason scores (p<0.001). Our DeMixT-centered analysis protocol opens up new opportunities to investigate the tumor-stroma-immune microenvironment, by providing both proportions and component-specific expressions, and thus better define the underlying biology of cancer progression.Availability and implementation: An R package, scripts and data are available: https://github.com/wwylab/DeMixTallmaterials.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e15730-e15730
Author(s):  
Moh'd M. Khushman ◽  
Arun Bhardwaj ◽  
Girijesh K. Patel ◽  
Javier Laurini ◽  
Kelly Roveda ◽  
...  

e15730 Background: Exosomes are important mediators of intercellular communication, and play pivotal roles in cancer progression, metastasis and chemoresistance. Exosomal membranes are enriched in endosomes-specific tetraspanins (CD63 and CD9). In patients with PDAC, positive correlation between CD9 expression and overall survival (OS) was reported. However, CD63 expression was conserved in all patients without reported prognostic significance. Here, we explored the prognostic significance of CD63 expression using IHC in patients with PDAC of mixed gender and racial background. Methods: Between 2012 and 2016, 49 patients with PDAC treated at Mitchell Cancer Institute had available tissue (pancreatic resected tissue/biopsy [N = 29] or metastatic site biopsy liver, omentum or bone (N = 20)) for CD63 staining using IHC. Two pathologists independently scored the expression of CD63. Staining intensity was graded from 1-3. Staining percentage was estimated in 10% increments. Mean Quick-score (Intensity X Percentage of staining) was calculated. Unpaired t test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Median age was 64 years (range 42-85). 53% are males. 67% white, 27% African Americans (AA) and 6% are other ethnicities. 41% had stage IV disease while 49% had stage I, II and III. Tumor involved the head (51%), body (20%) and tail (29%). The mean CD63 Q score is slightly higher in AA compared to white (157 vs 149, P = 0.76). The mean CD63 Q score is higher in the pancreatic tissues compared to metastatic sites tissues (185 Vs 102, P = 0.0002). In our cohort, patients with mean CD63 Q score > = 140 had longer median OS compared to patients with mean Q score of < 140 (19 months Vs 3 months, P = 0.0003) and progression free survival (PFS) (12 months vs 1 month, P = 0.0043). Conclusions: In our cohort of patients with PDAC, there was no racial difference in CD63 expression between white and AA. The expression of CD63 is higher in the pancreas compared to metastatic sites (liver, omentum and bone). There is positive correlation between CD63 expression and PFS and OS. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show prognostic significance of CD63 expression in patients with PDAC using IHC.


2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. TPS465-TPS465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Wang-Gillam ◽  
Eileen Mary O'Reilly ◽  
Johanna C. Bendell ◽  
Zev A. Wainberg ◽  
Erkut Hasan Borazanci ◽  
...  

TPS465 Background: Treatment options for PDAC are limited; thus, new therapies that can improve outcomes and extend survival are needed. PDAC is associated with high infiltration by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) that inhibit antitumor T-cell activity. Blocking colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R) signaling—which supports the recruitment, differentiation, and maintenance of immunosupressive macrophages in tumors—may lead to depletion of TAMs and upregulation of T-cell checkpoints. Cabira, a humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody, binds to CSF-1R and blocks its signaling, a key determinant of TAM activation and survival. By reducing TAMs and promoting a proinflammatory microenvironment, cabira may stimulate T-cell responses, thereby sensitizing PDAC to therapy with nivo (anti‒PD-1). In a phase 1a/b study cabira + nivo was tolerable and showed evidence of on-target tumor immune modulation and durable clinical benefit in heavily pretreated patients (pts) with advanced PDAC (Wainberg et al. J Immunother Cancer. 2017 [abst O42]; Carleton et al. J Clin Oncol. 2018 [abst 3020]). Here we describe a randomized, open-label, phase 2 study evaluating the safety and efficacy of cabira + nivo ± chemo in advanced PDAC. Methods: Pts aged ≥18 y with locally advanced/metastatic PDAC that progressed on/after first-line chemo (gemcitabine [gem] or 5-fluorouracil [5-FU] based) will be enrolled. Pts with active/suspected autoimmune disease, uncontrolled/significant cardiovascular disease, or prior exposure to select immune cell–modulating antibodies are not eligible. Depending on prior chemo received, pts will be randomized to 1 of 4 arms (n≈40 each): cabira + nivo; cabira + nivo + gem/nab-paclitaxel; cabira + nivo + oxaliplatin/5-FU/leucovorin; or investigator’s choice of standard-of-care chemo. Endpoints include median progression-free survival (primary), overall survival rate, objective response rate, median duration of response, pharmacokinetics, and safety. In a completed preliminary safety cohort, 12 pts were treated with cabira + nivo + chemo and monitored for 4 wk; competitive enrollment is open, with 32 pts enrolled. (NCT03336216, NCT02526017) Clinical trial information: NCT03336216.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 146
Author(s):  
Stephan Niland ◽  
Andrea Ximena Riscanevo ◽  
Johannes Andreas Eble

Cancer progression with uncontrolled tumor growth, local invasion, and metastasis depends largely on the proteolytic activity of numerous matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which affect tissue integrity, immune cell recruitment, and tissue turnover by degrading extracellular matrix (ECM) components and by releasing matrikines, cell surface-bound cytokines, growth factors, or their receptors. Among the MMPs, MMP-14 is the driving force behind extracellular matrix and tissue destruction during cancer invasion and metastasis. MMP-14 also influences both intercellular as well as cell–matrix communication by regulating the activity of many plasma membrane-anchored and extracellular proteins. Cancer cells and other cells of the tumor stroma, embedded in a common extracellular matrix, interact with their matrix by means of various adhesive structures, of which particularly invadopodia are capable to remodel the matrix through spatially and temporally finely tuned proteolysis. As a deeper understanding of the underlying functional mechanisms is beneficial for the development of new prognostic and predictive markers and for targeted therapies, this review examined the current knowledge of the interplay of the various MMPs in the cancer context on the protein, subcellular, and cellular level with a focus on MMP14.


Cancers ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer C. Miksch ◽  
Markus B. Schoenberg ◽  
Maximilian Weniger ◽  
Florian Bösch ◽  
Steffen Ormanns ◽  
...  

In patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the tumor microenvironment consists of cellular and stromal components that influence prognosis. Hence, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) may predict prognosis more precisely than conventional staging systems. Studies on the impact of TILs are heterogeneous and further research is needed. Therefore, this study aims to point out the importance of peritumoral TILs, tumor-infiltrating neutrophils (TINs), and immune subtype classification in PDAC. Material from 57 patients was analyzed with immunohistochemistry performed for CD3, CD8, CD20, CD66b, α-sma, and collagen. Hot spots with peritumoral TILs and TINs were quantified according to the QTiS algorithm and the distance of TILs hot spots to the tumor front was measured. Results were correlated with overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). High densities of peritumoral hot spots with CD3+, CD8+, and CD20+ TILs correlated significantly with improved OS and PFS. Combined immune cell subtypes predicted improved OS and PFS. High infiltration of CD3+ TILs predicted progression after 12 months. The location of TILs’ hot spots and their distance to the tumor front did not correlate with patient survival. Peritumoral TILs and the composition of the stroma predict OS and PFS in PDAC.


Author(s):  
Sen Yang ◽  
Qiaofei Liu ◽  
Quan Liao

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly lethal malignancy. PDAC is only cured by surgical resection in its early stage, but there remains a relatively high possibility of recurrence. The development of PDAC is closely associated with the tumor microenvironment. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are one of the most abundant immune cell populations in the pancreatic tumor stroma. TAMs are inclined to M2 deviation in the tumor microenvironment, which promotes and supports tumor behaviors, including tumorigenesis, immune escape, metastasis, and chemotherapeutic resistance. Herein, we comprehensively reviewed the latest researches on the origin, polarization, functions, and reprogramming of TAMs in PDAC.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. TPS785-TPS785
Author(s):  
E. Gabriela Chiorean ◽  
Paul S. Ritch ◽  
David Bing Zhen ◽  
Elizabeth Poplin ◽  
Ben George ◽  
...  

TPS785 Background: PDA is characterized by invasiveness and therapeutic resistance in part due to a desmoplastic stroma and an immunosuppressive microenvironment ( Provenzano PP, Hingorani S. Br J Cancer 2013). PD1/PD-L1 inhibitors have no single agent activity in PDA, except for pts with mismatch repair defects. There is high need to overcome resistance to immune targeted therapies and develop biomarkers for pts selection. Stromal HA poses a physical barrier and protects tumor cells from immune surveillance ( Kultti A, et al Biomed Res Int 2014). By remodeling the tumor stroma, PEGPH20 allows infiltration of cytotoxic T lymphocytes, and improves delivery of chemotherapy and PD1/PD-L1 antibodies ( Singha NC, et al Mol Cancer Ther 2015). mPDA pts refractory to 1st line therapy have median overall survival (OS) of 6 mos. We hypothesize that stroma remodeling with PEGPH20 sensitizes PDA to immune therapy, and stroma and immunologic biomarkers will identify pts most likely to benefit. In this trial we will evaluate the efficacy, safety and translational biomarkers of PEGPH20 plus pembrolizumab in HA-high refractory mPDA. Methods: Eligible pts have ECOG PS 0-1, ≤ 2 prior therapies for mPDA, life expectancy ≥ 12 wks, able/willing to have tumor biopsies at baseline and after 6 wks of treatment. PEGPH20 dosing is 3 µg/kg iv QW and pembrolizumab 200 mg iv Q3W (2-4 hrs after PEGPH20 on wk 1) in 3-wk cycles. All pts receive prophylactic low molecular weight heparin. Primary endpoint: progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary endpoints: safety, OS, response rates. Translational endpoints: flow cytometry of peripheral and intratumoral immune cells, T-cell receptor sequencing, immune transcriptome, immune subsets IHC, circulating cytokines, serial plasma and tumor HA levels. For the primary endpoint of PFS, with a sample size of 31 evaluable pts, a one-sided α-level of 0.05, assuming 12 mos of accrual and 6 mos of follow-up, this study has 80% power to detect a difference between the null hypothesis median PFS 3 mos, versus the alternative hypothesis median PFS 6 mos. The study was activated in May 2019 and is open to accrual; 6 pts were enrolled as of 24Sept 2019. Clinical trial information: NCT03634332.


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