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ABSTRACT: Purpose
Our goal was to demonstrate that lymphatic drainage fluid (lymph) has improved sensitivity in quantifying postoperative minimal residual disease (MRD) in locally advanced human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) compared with plasma, and leverage this novel biofluid for patient risk stratification.Experimental design
We prospectively collected lymph samples from neck drains of 106 patients with HPV (+) OPSCC, along with 67 matched plasma samples, 24 hours after surgery. PCR and next-generation sequencing were used to quantify cancer-associated cell-free HPV (cf-HPV) and tumor-informed variants in lymph and plasma. Next, lymph cf-HPV and variants were compared with TNM stage, extranodal extension (ENE), and composite definitions of high-risk pathology. We then created a machine learning model, informed by lymph MRD and clinicopathologic features, to compare with progression-free survival (PFS).Results
Postoperative lymph was enriched with cf-HPV compared with plasma (P < 0.0001) and correlated with pN2 stage (P = 0.003), ENE (P < 0.0001), and trial-defined pathologic risk criteria (mean AUC = 0.78). In addition, the lymph mutation number and variant allele frequency were higher in pN2 ENE (+) necks than in pN1 ENE (+) (P = 0.03, P = 0.02) or pN0-N1 ENE (-) (P = 0.04, P = 0.03, respectively). The lymph MRD-informed risk model demonstrated inferior PFS in high-risk patients (AUC = 0.96, P < 0.0001).Conclusions
Variant and cf-HPV quantification, performed in 24-hour postoperative lymph samples, reflects single- and multifeature high-risk pathologic criteria. Incorporating lymphatic MRD and clinicopathologic feature analysis can stratify PFS early after surgery in patients with HPV (+) head and neck cancer. See related commentary by Shannon and Iyer, p. 1223.
SUBMITTER: Earland N
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10982646 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Earland Noah N Semenkovich Nicholas P NP Ramirez Ricardo J RJ Gerndt Sophie P SP Harris Peter K PK Gu Zhuosheng Z Hearn Andrew I AI Inkman Matthew M Szymanski Jeffrey J JJ Whitfield Damion D Wahle Benjamin M BM Xu Zhongping Z Chen Kevin K Alahi Irfan I Ni Gabris G Chen Andrew A Winckler Wendy W Zhang Jin J Chaudhuri Aadel A AA Zevallos Jose P JP
Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research 20240401 7
<h4>Purpose</h4>Our goal was to demonstrate that lymphatic drainage fluid (lymph) has improved sensitivity in quantifying postoperative minimal residual disease (MRD) in locally advanced human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) compared with plasma, and leverage this novel biofluid for patient risk stratification.<h4>Experimental design</h4>We prospectively collected lymph samples from neck drains of 106 patients with HPV (+) OPSCC, along with 67 matche ...[more]