Background Cancer patients are thought to have an increased risk of developing severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and of dying from the disease. In this work, predictive factors for COVID-19 severity and mortality in cancer patients were investigated. Patients and Methods In this large nationwide retro-prospective cohort study, we collected data on patients with solid tumours and COVID-19 diagnosed between March 1 and June 11, 2020. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality and COVID-19 severity, defined as admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) and/or mechanical ventilation and/or death, was one of the secondary endpoints. Results From April 4 to June 11, 2020, 1289 patients were analysed. The most frequent cancers were digestive and thoracic. Altogether, 424 (33%) patients had a severe form of COVID-19 and 370 (29%) patients died. In multivariate analysis, independent factors associated with death were male sex (odds ratio 1.73, 95%CI: 1.18-2.52), ECOG PS ≥ 2 (OR 3.23, 95%CI: 2.27-4.61), updated Charlson comorbidity index (OR 1.08, 95%CI: 1.01-1.16) and admission to ICU (OR 3.62, 95%CI 2.14-6.11). The same factors, age along with corticosteroids before COVID-19 diagnosis, and thoracic primary tumour site were independently associated with COVID-19 severity. None of the anticancer treatments administered within the previous 3 months had any effect on mortality or COVID-19 severity, except cytotoxic chemotherapy in the subgroup of patients with detectable SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR, which was associated with a slight increase of the risk of death (OR 1.53; 95%CI: 1.00-2.34; p = 0.05). A total of 431 (39%) patients had their systemic anticancer treatment interrupted or stopped following diagnosis of COVID-19. Conclusions Mortality and COVID-19 severity in cancer patients are high and are associated with general characteristics of patients. We found no deleterious effects of recent anticancer treatments, except for cytotoxic chemotherapy in the RT-PCR-confirmed subgroup of patients. In almost 40% of patients, the systemic anticancer therapy was interrupted or stopped after COVID-19 diagnosis.

Background Cancer patients are considered as highly vulnerable to COVID-19 pandemic. However, delaying cancer specific therapies could have a deleterious effect on survival. The potential suppressive effects of chemotherapies or cancer-related microenvironment raised the question on how cancer patients’ immune system responds to SARS-CoV-2 virus. Methods We have started a prospective monocentric trial entitled COV-CREM (NCT04365322) on April 2020. The primary trial objective was to assess specific immune response’s intensity and diversity to SARS-CoV-2 for infected patients. Results In this study, we showed that cancer patients (28 solid tumors, 11 hematological malignancies) exposed to SARS-CoV-2 produced high rate of specific antibodies, as observed in patients without cancer history (n=29). However, our results highlight a lack in the generation of T-cell responses against CoV-N, M and S proteins from SARS-CoV-2 virus, suggesting that cancer patients failed to mount a protective T-cell immunity. Nevertheless, SARS-CoV-2 infection did not impair established immune memory since specific responses against common viruses was not hampered in cancer patients. Conclusion Given the severity and the unknown evolution of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is of fundamental importance to integrate cancer patients in vaccination programs.

Aims: The addition of docetaxel to cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil (DCF) has shown promising efficacy in advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (SCCA). Preliminary results of Epitopes-HPV01 study showed a high rate of long-lasting complete response to DCF. The prospective, multicenter, Epitopes-HPV02 trial then confirmed the high efficacy of the modified DCF (mDCF) regimen in terms of complete response rate and long-term survival in metastatic or non-resectable locally advanced recurrent SCCA. Here, we present updated results of the Epitopes-HPV01 and Epitopes-HPV02 studies. Patients & methods: Epitopes-HPV01 is a prospective study performed by the regional cancer network of Franche-Comté, France. Epitopes-HPV02 is a phase II study supported by two French collaborative oncological groups, performed in 25 centers. Both studies included patients with metastatic, or with unresectable local recurrent SCCA, treated with DCF regimen. Results: In Epitopes-HPV01, 51 patients were enrolled between September 2012 and January 2019, and 49 patients were included for analysis; while 69 patients were included between September 2014 and December 2016 in Epitopes-HPV02, and 66 patients for analysis. Pooled analysis of 115 patients showed a median progression-free survival of 12.2 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 10.6–16.1] [11.0 months (9.3–16.0) in -HPV02, and 15.6 months (11.2–34.5) in -HPV01, ( p = 0.06)]. The median overall survival was 39.2 months (26.0–109.1) [36.3 in -HPV02 (25.2–NR), and 61.1 months (21.4–120.0) in -HPV01 ( p = 0.62)]. Objective response rate was 87.7% (90.9% in -HPV02 and 83.3% in -HPV01) with 40.3% of complete response (45.5% in -HPV02 and 33.3% in -HPV01). No differences were observed between standard DCF ( n = 54) and mDCF ( n = 58) in terms of OS ( p = 0.57) and PFS ( p = 0.99). 5-years PFS and OS rates were 24.5% and 44.4%, respectively, in the whole population. No treatment-related death was observed. Conclusion: Updated results of Epitopes-HPV01 and 02 studies, as well as the pooled analysis, confirm mDCF as a standard treatment in patients with advanced SCCA.

Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome is an autosomal dominant disease caused primarily by germline mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. Rare cases of double heterozygosity for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations have been reported quite exceptionally in non-Ashkenazi individuals. We describe the case of a woman who developed a bilateral breast cancer, discovered concomitantly, at 46 years old. Biopsies confirmed the presence of two breast cancers with distinct histology. BRCA analysis was tested due to a positive family history of breast cancer, and two pathogenic monoallelic mutations were detected, one in the BRCA1 gene and one in the BRCA2 gene. There is no known Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. We report the first description of a never described double heterozygosity for BRCA1 and BRCA2 pathogenic variants in a French metastatic breast cancer patient, with two distinct histology, and two distinct mutations.

Angiopoietin‐2 (ANGPT2) is a prognostic factor in metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC). Nevertheless, it remains to be elucidated which molecular characteristics make up the ANGPT2‐related poor‐prognosis CRC subset. Public transcriptomic datasets were collected from Gene Expression Omnibus GEO and with the TCGAbiolinks R‐package for the TCGA. After appropriate normalization, differential expression analysis was performed using Benjamini and Hochberg method for false discovery rate. Plasma from two prospective clinical trials were used to investigate the clinical impact of ANGPT2‐related biomarkers. In the 935 samples included in four annotated platforms (GPL) and derived from localized CRC, ANGPT2hi expression conferred a worst overall survival (HR = 1.20; p = 0.02). CRC stage, ANGPT2hi expression but not Consortium Molecular Subtype (CMS) predict overall survival in multivariate analysis. ANGPT2 expression was not correlated with a specific CMS nor to RAS, RAF, MSI, p53, CIN, CIMP genomic alterations. Gene expression analysis revealed that ANGPT2hi CRC subset is characterized by angiogenesis‐related gene expression, presence of myeloid cells, stromal organization and resistance to chemotherapy. A prognostic model was proposed using seric levels of ANGPT2, STC1 and CD138 in 97 mCRC patients. Our results provide evidence that ANGPT2 is a prognostic factor in localized CRC and defined a specific CRC subset with potential clinical implementation.