Purpose: Human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) commonly bear disruptive mutations in TP53, resulting in treatment resistance. In these patients, direct targeting of p53 has not been successful, but synthetic lethal approaches have promise. Although Aurora A kinase (AURKA) is overexpressed and an oncogenic driver, its inhibition has only modest clinical effects in HPV-negative HNSCC. We explored a novel combination of AURKA and WEE1 inhibition to overcome intrinsic resistance to AURKA inhibition. Experimental Design: AURKA protein expression was determined by fluorescence-based automated quantitative analysis of patient specimens and correlated with survival. We evaluated treatment with the AURKA inhibitor alisertib (MLN8237) and the WEE1 inhibitor adavosertib (AZD1775), alone or in combination, using in vitro and in vivo HNSCC models. Results: Elevated nuclear AURKA correlated with worse survival among p16(−) HNSCC patients. Alisertib caused spindle defects, G2/M arrest and inhibitory CDK1 phosphorylation, and cytostasis in TP53 mutant HNSCC FaDu and UNC7 cells. Addition of adavosertib to alisertib instead triggered mitotic entry and mitotic catastrophe. Moreover, in FaDu and Detroit 562 xenografts, this combination demonstrated synergistic effects on tumor growth and extended overall survival compared to either vehicle or single agent treatment. Conclusions: Combinatorial treatment with adavosertib and alisertib leads to synergistic antitumor effects in in vitro and in vivo HNSCC models. These findings suggest a novel rational combination, providing a promising therapeutic avenue for TP53-mutated cancers.

MicroRNAs have been established as key regulators of tumor gene expression and as prime biomarker candidates for clinical phenotypes in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). We analyzed the coexpression and regulatory structure of microRNAs and their co-localized gene targets in primary tumor tissue of 20 patients with advanced EOC in order to construct a regulatory signature for clinical prognosis. We performed an integrative analysis to identify two prognostic microRNA/mRNA coexpression modules, each enriched for consistent biological functions. One module, enriched for malignancy-related functions, was found to be upregulated in malignant versus benign samples. The second module, enriched for immune-related functions, was strongly correlated with imputed intratumoral immune infiltrates of T cells, natural killer cells, cytotoxic lymphocytes, and macrophages. We validated the prognostic relevance of the immunological module microRNAs in the publicly available The Cancer Genome Atlas data set. These findings provide novel functional roles for microRNAs in the progression of advanced EOC and possible prognostic signatures for survival.

Background: ARV-471 is a selective, orally administered PROteolysis TArgeting Chimera (PROTAC®) protein degrader that targets wild-type and mutant ER. ARV-471 is being evaluated in patients with ER+/HER2- locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer in a first-in-human phase 1/2 study (NCT04072952). In the phase 1 dose escalation, ARV-471 monotherapy (dose range: 30–700 mg total daily dose) showed a manageable safety profile in patients who had previously received endocrine therapy and a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6 inhibitor. The clinical benefit rate (CBR; rate of confirmed complete or partial response or stable disease ≥24 weeks) was 40% (95% CI: 26–56) in 47 evaluable patients. The phase 2 expansion portion of the study (VERITAC) evaluated 2 doses of ARV-471.Methods: In VERITAC, ARV-471 monotherapy was administered at doses of 200 mg once daily (QD) or 500 mg QD to patients with ER+/HER2- locally advanced/metastatic breast cancer who had received ≥1 prior endocrine therapy for ≥6 months, ≥1 CDK4/6 inhibitor, and ≤1 chemotherapy regimen. The primary endpoint of CBR was evaluated in patients enrolled ≥24 weeks prior to the data cutoff. Results: As of June 6, 2022, 71 patients received ARV-471 (200 mg QD [n=35]; 500 mg QD [n=36]) in VERITAC. Across all treated patients, 69 (97.2%) were female and median age was 60 y (range: 41–86). Patients had received a median of 4 prior regimens in all settings (range: 1–10); 100% had prior CDK4/6 inhibitors, 78.9% had prior fulvestrant, and 73.2% had prior chemotherapy. ARV-471 was well tolerated at both doses, with most treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) grade 1/2; the most common TRAEs were fatigue and nausea (Table). In all, 3 patients (1 in the 200 mg QD cohort and 2 in the 500 mg QD cohort) discontinued ARV-471 due to treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs); 3 patients had ARV-471 dose reductions due to TEAEs (all from 500 mg QD to 400 mg QD). CBR was 37.1% (95% CI: 21–55) in 35 evaluable patients treated at 200 mg QD and 38.9% (95% CI: 23–57) in 36 evaluable patients treated at 500 mg QD. CBR in evaluable patients with mutant ESR1 in the 200 mg QD (n=19) and 500 mg QD (n=22) cohorts was 47.4% (95% CI: 24–71) and 54.5% (95% CI: 32–76), respectively. Conclusions: In the phase 2 VERITAC expansion cohorts of patients with ER+/HER2- locally advanced/metastatic breast cancer and prior CDK4/6 inhibitor treatment, ARV-471 monotherapy showed evidence of clinical activity based on CBR, which was further enhanced in the subgroup with ESR1 mutations. The manageable AE profile observed in the phase 1 portion of the study was maintained during cohort expansion at doses of 200 mg QD and 500 mg QD. Additional analyses are ongoing.Table. TRAEs reported in ≥10% of patients overall aNo grade 3/4 TRAE occurred in >1 patient. AST=aspartate aminotransferase Citation Format: Anne F. Schott, Sara Hurvitz, Cynthia Ma, Erika Hamilton, Rita Nanda, George Zahrah, Natasha Hunter, Antoinette R. Tan, Melinda Telli, Jesus Anampa Mesias, Rinath Jeselsohn, Pamela Munster, Haolan Lu, Richard Gedrich, Cecile Mather, Janaki Parameswaran, Hyo S. Han. GS3-03 ARV-471, a PROTAC® estrogen receptor (ER) degrader in advanced ER-positive/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer: phase 2 expansion (VERITAC) of a phase 1/2 study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr GS3-03.

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