Clinical and Biological Interest of Taxanes in Advanced Squamous Cell Anal Carcinoma

Summary

Squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (SCCA) is a rare disease and mostly diagnosed at an early stage. After standard concurrent chemoradiation (CRT) with mitomycin (MMC) and 5-fluorouracil (5FU), the disease will recur in 20% of patients. After treatment failure (including salvage surgery), cisplatin-5FU combination is the standard option but complete response is a rare event and the prognosis remains poor with most patients' death occurring in the first 12 months. Decision making for physicians in this setting is only based on retrospective studies or small phase II clinical trials including less than 20 patients. Hence, no efficient standard of care is currently available for relapsing SCCA patients who are currently treated with a palliative intent. Between 2007 and 2013, 8 consecutive patients with advanced recurrent SCCA after CRT were treated with DCF regimen (docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil) in the Regional Cancer Institute of Franche Comté. After a median follow-up of 41 months, 4 patients (50%) achieved a complete response. Three patients underwent surgery of all involved metastatic sites. A pathological complete response was observed for all of them including in metastases occurring in irradiated fields, suggesting that taxane-based chemotherapy might be an effective strategy to circumvent resistance to radiotherapy (a preliminary cohort of 8 patients was published (Kim S et al Annals of oncology 2013). Furthermore, all complete responders were HPV 16, and high levels of specific T cell responses against Human Papillomavirus (HPV) HPV16-derived E6/E7 and telomerase were detected in 50% of complete responders suggesting the potential restoration of cancer immunosurveillance by this regimen. Then, the Epitopes-HPV02 multicenter phase II study will aim to confirm the new role of taxane-based chemotherapy in SCCA patients.

Timeline

Start

2014-09

Primary completion

2018-06

Completion

2020-06-30

Outcome

Met primary endpoint

paper The primary endpoint was met: 31 (47%) of 66 patients were alive and progression free at 12 months. PMID 30042063 ↗

Publications

• Background Kim S, Jary M, Mansi L, Benzidane B, Cazorla A, Demarchi M, Nguyen T, Kaliski A, Delabrousse E, Bonnetain F, Letondal P, Bosset JF, Valmary-Degano S, Borg C. DCF (docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil) chemotherapy is a promising treatment for recurrent advanced squamous cell anal carcinoma. Ann Oncol. 2013 Dec;24(12):3045-50. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdt396. Epub 2013 Oct 10.
• Background Kim S, Meurisse A, Spehner L, Stouvenot M, Francois E, Buecher B, Andre T, Samalin E, Jary M, Nguyen T, El Hajbi F, Baba-Hamed N, Pernot S, Kaminsky MC, Bouche O, Desrame J, Zoubir M, Ghiringhelli F, Parzy A, de la Fouchardiere C, Boulbair F, Lakkis Z, Klajer E, Jacquin M, Taieb J, Vendrely V, Vernerey D, Borg C. Pooled analysis of 115 patients from updated data of Epitopes-HPV01 and Epitopes-HPV02 studies in first-line advanced anal squamous cell carcinoma. Ther Adv Med Oncol. 2020 Dec 4;12:1758835920975356. doi: 10.1177/1758835920975356. eCollection 2020.
• Background Spehner L, Kim S, Vienot A, Francois E, Buecher B, Adotevi O, Vernerey D, Abdeljaoued S, Meurisse A, Borg C. Anti-Telomerase CD4+ Th1 Immunity and Monocytic-Myeloid-Derived-Suppressor Cells Are Associated with Long-Term Efficacy Achieved by Docetaxel, Cisplatin, and 5-Fluorouracil (DCF) in Advanced Anal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Translational Study of Epitopes-HPV01 and 02 Trials. Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Sep 17;21(18):6838. doi: 10.3390/ijms21186838.
• Background Stouvenot M, Meurisse A, Saint A, Buecher B, Andre T, Samalin E, Jary M, El Hajbi F, Baba-Hamed N, Pernot S, Kaminsky MC, Bouche O, Desrame J, Zoubir M, Smith D, Ghiringhelli F, Parzy A, de la Fouchardiere C, Almotlak H, Vienot A, Jacquin M, Taieb J, Nguyen T, Vernerey D, Borg C, Kim S. Second-line treatment after docetaxel, cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil in metastatic squamous cell carcinomas of the anus. Pooled analysis of prospective Epitopes-HPV01 and Epitopes-HPV02 studies. Eur J Cancer. 2022 Feb;162:138-147. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2021.11.019. Epub 2022 Jan 4.
• Results Kim S, Francois E, Andre T, Samalin E, Jary M, El Hajbi F, Baba-Hamed N, Pernot S, Kaminsky MC, Bouche O, Desrame J, Zoubir M, Ghiringhelli F, Parzy A, De La Fouchardiere C, Smith D, Deberne M, Spehner L, Badet N, Adotevi O, Anota A, Meurisse A, Vernerey D, Taieb J, Vendrely V, Buecher B, Borg C. Docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil chemotherapy for metastatic or unresectable locally recurrent anal squamous cell carcinoma (Epitopes-HPV02): a multicentre, single-arm, phase 2 study. Lancet Oncol. 2018 Aug;19(8):1094-1106. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30321-8. Epub 2018 Jul 2.
• Kim S, Jary M, Andre T, Vendrely V, Buecher B, Francois E, Bidard FC, Dumont S, Samalin E, Peiffert D, Pernot S, Baba-Hamed N, El Hajbi F, Bouche O, Desrame J, Parzy A, Zoubir M, Louvet C, Bachet JB, Nguyen T, Abdelghani MB, Smith D, De La Fouchardiere C, Aparicio T, Bennouna J, Gornet JM, Jacquin M, Bonnetain F, Borg C. Docetaxel, Cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil (DCF) chemotherapy in the treatment of metastatic or unresectable locally recurrent anal squamous cell carcinoma: a phase II study of French interdisciplinary GERCOR and FFCD groups (Epitopes-HPV02 study). BMC Cancer. 2017 Aug 25;17(1):574. doi: 10.1186/s12885-017-3566-0.

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