The Royal Marsden Hospital (RM) is a specialist cancer treatment hospital in London based in Kensington and Chelsea, next to the Royal Brompton Hospital, in Fulham Road with a second site in Belmont, close to Sutton Hospital, High Down and Downview Prisons. It is managed by the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
Radiogenomics aims to non-invasively predict tumour genotypes from imaging, but most studies assume molecular homogeneity by assigning a single biopsy-derived label to all lesions within a patient. This approach risks substantial label noise given well-documented interlesional heterogeneity. We investigated whether anchoring training to biopsy-confirmed lesions improves radiogenomic model performance and generalisability. We retrospectively analysed 1646 patients (11473 segmented lesions) with contrast-enhanced CT and EGFR mutation status from next-generation sequencing at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, alongside an external NSCLC radiogenomics cohort (n = 158). All visible lesions were segmented, and the exact biopsy site was matched to its segmentation. Radiomic features were extracted, and machine learning models were trained with three lesion selection strategies: all lesions, non-biopsied lesions only, and biopsy-confirmed lesions only. To disentangle label quality from sample size, we created size-matched variants (one lesion per patient) for all-lesion and non-biopsied strategies. All models achieved significant discrimination of EGFR status on internal validation (AUC = 0.62–0.68). However, performance of the all-lesion and non-biopsied models declined on external validation (AUC = 0.55–0.63), while the biopsy-anchored model maintained stable performance (AUC = 0.62), despite having only 1/10th of the training sample size. When training sets were size-matched, the biopsy-anchored approach significantly outperformed a model trained on all available lesions on external validation (p = 0.037). Radiogenomic models trained on biopsy-confirmed lesions outperform conventional all-lesion strategies in external validation, despite using an order of magnitude fewer samples. Prioritising lesion-level label fidelity can mitigate heterogeneity-driven noise, enhancing robustness and clinical translation of imaging-based genomic prediction. Question Does assigning biopsy-derived molecular labels to all lesions introduce heterogeneity-driven label noise that reduces the generalisability of radiogenomic models? Findings Models trained exclusively on biopsy-confirmed lesions demonstrated superior external generalisability compared with all-lesion approaches, despite being trained on substantially fewer samples. Clinical relevance Biopsy-anchored radiogenomics improves the reliability of non-invasive mutation prediction by accounting for tumour heterogeneity, potentially supporting clinical decision-making when tissue sampling is limited or molecular results are discordant across lesions.
Abstract Background Age is a critical driver of the worldwide increasing cancer incidence rates, and with the growing number of older adults diagnosed with cancer, there is a rising need for specialized care. However, geriatric oncology (GO) education remains underrepresented in medical curricula. The gap between demand and adequately trained providers requires the development of more robust GO training programs. This study examined the current state of GO education, and the areas of interest within GO and the expected teaching methods for this specialized content. Methods A multi-center international online survey aimed at assessing the awareness and perceived significance of GO among early-career medical students and nursing trainees was conducted. Results Among 158 participants, only 36.5% had oncology training and 19.6% geriatrics training. Despite this, GO was consistently rated as highly important, with no difference by prior GO training (p = 0.853). Participants expressed strongest interest in mental health, palliative care, and quality-of-care topics, while satisfaction with current training was moderate. Teaching was predominantly lecture-based, although more interactive approaches such as seminars and bedside teaching were preferred. Over half of participants were willing to contribute to improving GO education through feedback or volunteering. Conclusion GO remains underrepresented in current training despite its high perceived importance among trainees. Participants preferred interactive teaching formats, particularly seminars and bedside teaching, and showed strong interest in mental health and palliative care topics. These findings support integrating geriatric oncology into curricula using more practice-oriented teaching strategies.
LBA4 Background: ESR1 mutations ( ESR1 m) constitutively activate the estrogen receptor (ER) and are the most common mechanism of acquired resistance to aromatase inhibitor (AI) + CDK4/6i. Molecular monitoring by ctDNA analysis can detect the emergence of ESR1 m during 1L AI + CDK4/6i. Camizestrant, the next-generation selective ER degrader (SERD) and complete ER antagonist, has shown anti-tumor activity in pts with and without detectable ESR1 m. SERENA-6 is the first global registrational Phase 3 trial assessing a ctDNA-guided approach to detect the emergence of ESR1 m during 1L AI + CDK4/6i to inform a switch in therapy ahead of disease progression. Methods: Pts with HR+/HER2– ABC who had received ≥6 months of 1L AI (anastrozole/letrozole) + CDK4/6i (abemaciclib/palbociclib/ribociclib) were enrolled and had ctDNA tested for ESR1 m every 2–3 months, coinciding with routine imaging. At ESR1 m detection, pts without evidence of disease progression were randomized 1:1 to switch to camizestrant (75 mg) with continued CDK4/6i (type and dose maintained) + placebo for AI vs continuing AI + CDK4/6i + placebo for camizestrant. The primary endpoint was investigator-assessed PFS (per RECIST v1.1). Prespecified interim analysis data cutoff was Nov 28, 2024. Results: 3,256 eligible pts were surveilled for ESR1 m using ctDNA until 315 eligible pts were randomized to switch to camizestrant (n=157) or continue with AI (n=158). All pts remained on the same CDK4/6i. ~50% of randomized pts had ESR1 m detected at the first ctDNA test. Baseline characteristics were well balanced between treatments. After 171 PFS events, hazard ratio for PFS was 0.44 (95% CI 0.31–0.60, p<0.00001; median PFS 16.0 vs 9.2 months). PFS benefit was consistent across subgroups. PFS rate at 12 months was 60.7% (95% CI 51.1–69.0) vs 33.4% (95% CI 24.9–42.2) and at 24 months was 29.7% (95% CI 19.0–41.2) vs 5.4% (95% CI 0.7–18.2). PFS2 hazard ratio was 0.52 (95% CI 0.33–0.81; 27% maturity). OS is immature (12%). Camizestrant + CDK4/6i was well tolerated with safety consistent with the known profiles of camizestrant, and of each CDK4/6i. Rates of treatment discontinuation due to adverse events were 1.3% for camizestrant and 1.9% for AI. Conclusions: Camizestrant + CDK4/6i guided by emergence of ESR1 m during 1L AI + CDK4/6i in pts with HR+/HER2– ABC resulted in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in PFS. SERENA-6 is the first global Phase 3 trial to demonstrate clinical utility of using ctDNA to detect and treat emerging resistance, ahead of disease progression. These findings represent a potential new treatment strategy to optimize and improve 1L patient outcomes. Clinical trial information: NCT04964934 .
Background Consolidation durvalumab is standard of care treatment for patients with unresectable, stage III non-small-cell lung cancer without progression after chemoradiotherapy. Additional study is warranted to investigate the long-term efficacy of this regimen in real-world settings. Methods PACIFIC-R (NCT03798535) was an international, observational, cohort study of patients who started durvalumab 10 mg/kg intravenously every 2 weeks within an AstraZeneca-initiated early access program between September 2017 and December 2018. Data were extracted retrospectively from medical records to describe the real-world effectiveness of consolidation durvalumab in patients with unresectable non-small-cell lung cancer without progression after chemoradiotherapy. The primary endpoints were real-world progression-free survival (rwPFS) and overall survival (OS). Results Median age was 65.0 years (range 26-88 years); most patients [747/1153 (64.8%)] were male and current [300/1153 (26.0%)] or former [750/1153 (65.0%)] smokers. Among patients with reported data, most had Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status <2 [743/755 (98.4%)], stage IIIB/C disease [584/1090 (53.6%)], non-squamous histology [746/1137 (65.6%)], and programmed death-ligand 1 expression on ≥1% of tumor cells [572/791 (72.3%)]. Median follow-up (censored patients) was 63.5 months for rwPFS and 67.5 months for OS. Median rwPFS was 24.3 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 20.3-28.4 months]; 5-year rwPFS was 35.2% (95% CI 32.4% to 38.1%). Median OS was 59.0 months (95% CI 52.7-64.3 months); 5-year OS was 49.2% (95% CI 46.2% to 52.2%). Encouraging results were observed across subgroups, including among patients who received durvalumab after either concurrent or sequential chemoradiotherapy [median rwPFS (95% CI): 25.8 months (20.9-31.8 months) versus 23.2 months (16.9-29.5 months); median OS: 63.1 months (57.3-73.5 months) versus 47.1 months (35.3-58.1 months)], and irrespective of programmed death-ligand 1 expression [on ≥1% versus <1% of tumor cells; median rwPFS (95% CI): 25.5 months (19.1-32.8 months) versus 16.3 months (10.9-27.5 months); median OS: 62.4 months (55.0 months-not estimable) versus 43.3 months (31.6-60.7) months]. Conclusions PACIFIC-R provides mature data on OS and rwPFS from a large, real-world cohort, supporting consolidation durvalumab as a standard of care in this setting.
Dysregulation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway has been implicated in oncogenesis, treatment resistance, and disease progression, making it an attractive target for anticancer drug development. Early experiences with PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitors have highlighted challenges associated with their modest efficacy, as well as safety and tolerability issues; however, several effective next-generation PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitors have now been approved for patients with breast cancer. As a result, there is a growing need to understand the presentation, characteristics, and management of common toxicities (hyperglycemia, rash, stomatitis, and diarrhea). This review summarizes available safety data from phase III randomized clinical trials for approved PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway-targeted therapies (everolimus, alpelisib, capivasertib, and inavolisib), including incidence, severity, adverse event-related dose modifications, and time to onset. We also provide guidance for preparation, monitoring, and management strategies for integrating these therapies into clinical practice, with the hope that appropriate support will allow patients to tolerate higher PI3K/AKT/mTOR inhibitor dose intensities, which has the potential to translate to improved patient outcomes.