Background We conducted a phase I study with a granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GMCSF)-expressing oncolytic adenovirus, ONCOS-102, in patients with solid tumors refractory to available treatments. The objectives of the study were to determine the optimal dose for further use and to assess the safety, tolerability and adverse event (AE) profile of ONCOS-102. Further, the response rate and overall survival were evaluated as well as preliminary evidence of disease control. As an exploratory endpoint, the effect of ONCOS 102 on biological correlates was examined. Methods The study was conducted using a classic 3 + 3 dose escalation study design involving 12 patients. Patients were repeatedly treated intratumorally with ONCOS-102 plus daily low-dose oral cyclophosphamide (CPO). Tumor response was evaluated with diagnostic positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT). Tumor biopsies were collected at baseline and after treatment initiation for analysis of immunological correlates. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected at baseline and during the study to assess antigen specificity of CD8+ T cells by interferon gamma (IFNγ) enzyme linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT). Results No dose limiting toxicity (DLT) or maximum tolerated dose (MTD) was identified for ONCOS-102. Four out of ten (40 %) evaluable patients had disease control based on PET/CT scan at 3 months and median overall survival was 9.3 months. A short-term increase in systemic pro-inflammatory cytokines and a prominent infiltration of TILs to tumors was seen post-treatment in 11 out of 12 patients. Two patients showed marked infiltration of CD8+ T cells to tumors and concomitant systemic induction of tumor-specific CD8+ T cells. Interestingly, high expression levels of genes associated with activated T_H1 cells and T_H1 type immune profile were observed in the post-treatment biopsies of these two patients. Conclusions ONCOS-102 is safe and well tolerated at the tested doses. All three examined doses may be used in further development. There was evidence of antitumor immunity and signals of clinical efficacy. Importantly, treatment resulted in infiltration of CD8+ T cells to tumors and up-regulation of PD-L1, highlighting the potential of ONCOS-102 as an immunosensitizing agent for combinatory therapies with checkpoint inhibitors. Trial registration NCT01598129. Registered 19/04/2012

A commercial deep learning (DL)-based automated segmentation tool (AST) for computed tomography (CT) is evaluated for accuracy and efficiency gain within prostate cancer patients. Thirty patients from six clinics were reviewed with manual- (MC), automated- (AC) and automated and edited (AEC) contouring methods. In the AEC group, created contours (prostate, seminal vesicles, bladder, rectum, femoral heads and penile bulb) were edited, whereas the MC group included empty datasets for MC. In one clinic, lymph node CTV delineations were evaluated for interobserver variability. Compared to MC, the mean time saved using the AST was 12 min for the whole data set (46%) and 12 min for the lymph node CTV (60%), respectively. The delineation consistency between MC and AEC groups according to the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) improved from 0.78 to 0.94 for the whole data set and from 0.76 to 0.91 for the lymph nodes. The mean DSCs between MC and AC for all six clinics were 0.82 for prostate, 0.72 for seminal vesicles, 0.93 for bladder, 0.84 for rectum, 0.69 for femoral heads and 0.51 for penile bulb. This study proves that using a general DL-based AST for CT images saves time and improves consistency.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcome after Radium-223-dichloride (²²³RaCl₂) treatment of patients with skeletal metastases of castration resistant prostate cancer using whole-body ¹⁸F-Fluoride PET/CT. Sodium ¹⁸F-fluoride [¹⁸F]-NaF PET/CT was performed prior the treatment of ²²³RaCl₂, after the first cycle and after the sixth cycle. The skeletal metastases were analyzed quantitatively using modified PET response evaluation PERCIST criteria. The patients were also analyzed for S-PSA. All ten patients responded in [¹⁸F]-NaF scans after 6 cycles, but interim analysis after the 1st cycle did not give additional information about the outcome. The S-PSA decrease correlated with [¹⁸F]-NaF response, only 1 patient demonstrated progressive disease, i.e., >25% increase in S-PSA values during ²²³RaCl₂. Our results (although preliminary) suggest that ¹⁸F-Fluoride PET/CT is useful in the follow-up of castration resistant prostate cancer with skeletal metastases.

Radium-223-dichloride (²²³RaCl₂) is a new bone-seeking calcium analogue alpha-emitter, which has obtained marketing authorization for the treatment skeletal metastases of hormone-refractory prostate cancer. The current treatment regimen is based on six consecutive doses of ²²³RaCl₂ at 4 week intervals and the administered activity dose, 50 kBq/kg per cycle is based on patient weight. We analyzed two patients using quantitative serial gamma imaging to estimate dosimetry in tumors and see possible pharmacokinetic differences in the treatment cycles. The lesions were rather well visualized in gamma scintigraphy in spite of low gamma activity (<1.1% gamma radiation) at 0, 7 and 28 days using 30–60 min acquisition times. Both our patients analyzed in serial gamma imagings, had two lesions in the gamma imaging field, the mean counts of the relative intensity varied from 27.8 to 36.5 (patient 1), and from 37.4 to 82.2 (patient 2). The half-lives varied from 1.8 days to 4.5 days during the six cycles (patient 1), and from 1.5 days to 3.6 days (patient 2), respectively. In the lesion half-lives calculated from the imaging the maximum difference between the treatment cycles in the same lesion was 2.0-fold (1.8 vs. 3.6). Of these patients, patient 1 demonstrated a serum PSA response, whereas there was no PSA response in patient 2. From our data, there were maximally up to 4.0-fold differences (62.1 vs. 246.6 ) between the relative absorbed radiation doses between patients as calculated from the quantitative standardized imaging to be delivered in only two lesions, and in the same lesion the maximum difference in the cycles was up to 2.3-fold (107.4 vs. 246.6). Our recommendation based on statistical simulation analysis, is serial measurement at days 0–8 at least 3 times, this improve the accuracy significantly to study the lesion activities, half-lives or calculated relative absorbed radiation doses as calculated from the imaging. Both our patients had originally two metastatic sites in the imaging field; the former patient demonstrated a serum PSA response and the latter demonstrated no PSA response. In these two patients there was no significant difference in the lesion activities, half-lives or calculated relative absorbed radiation doses as calculated from the quantitative imaging. Our results, although preliminary, suggest that dose monitoring can be included as a part of this treatment modality. On the other hand, from the absorbed radiation doses, the response cannot be predicted because with very similar doses, only the former patient responded.

Background: Oncolytic viruses have shown potential as cancer therapeutics, but not all patients seem to benefit from therapy. Polymorphisms in Fc gamma receptors (FcgRs) lead to altered binding affinity of IgG between the receptor allotypes and therefore contribute to differences in immune defense mechanisms. Associations have been identified between FcgR polymorphisms and responsiveness to different immunotherapies. Taken together with the increasing understanding that immunological factors might determine the efficacy of oncolytic virotherapy we studied whether FcgR polymorphisms would have prognostic and/or predictive significance in the context of oncolytic adenovirus treatments. Methods: 235 patients with advanced solid tumors were genotyped for two FcgR polymorphisms, FcgRIIa-H131R (rs1801274) and FcgRIIIa-V158F (rs396991), using TaqMan based qPCR. The genotypes were correlated with patient survival and tumor imaging data. Results: In patients treated with oncolytic adenoviruses, overall survival was significantly shorter if the patient had an FcgRIIIa-VV/ FcgRIIa-HR (VVHR) genotype combination (P = 0,032). In contrast, patients with FFHR and FFRR genotypes had significantly longer overall survival (P = 0,004 and P = 0,006, respectively) if they were treated with GM-CSF-armed adenovirus in comparison to other viruses. Treatment of these patients with unarmed virus correlated with shorter survival (P < 0,0005 and P = 0,016, respectively). Treating FFHH individuals with CD40L-armed virus resulted in longer survival than treatment with other viruses (P = 0,047). Conclusions: Our data are compatible with the hypothesis that individual differences in effector cell functions, such as NK cell-mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and tumor antigen presentation by APCs caused by polymorphisms in FcgRs could play role in the effectiveness of oncolytic virotherapies. If confirmed in larger populations, FcgR polymorphisms could have potential as prognostic and predictive biomarkers for oncolytic adenovirus therapies to enable better selection of patients for clinical trials. Also, putative associations between genotypes, different viruses and survival implicate potentially important mechanistic issues.

Aim: We combined anti-androgen therapy with radiotherapy in a first-line setting for metastatic prostate cancer aiming to cause maximal cancer-cell death to delay the emergence of castration-resistant disease. Materials and Methods: In this non-randomized retrospective series of 46 patients, the initial median prostate-specific antigen (PSA) was 98.5 μg/l (range=6.7-15,500), median Gleason score 9 and most men had at least T₃N₁M₁ disease. All patients received luteinizing hormone releasing hormone analog or degarelix with bicalutamide. If PSA remained above 1 μg/l, docetaxel was initiated. At PSA nadir, all patients received radical radiotherapy of the prostate. Results: The median follow-up time was 4.38 years (range=0.36-11.24). Most radiotherapy-related adverse events were grade 1 and transient. There were no grade 4 events. Overall survival (OS) at 5 years was 81.3%. Conclusion: The feasibility and safety of aggressive multimodality treatment were good resulting in an excellent median OS of 8.35 years.