Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology - Research Publications

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    Detection of clinically relevant early genomic lesions in B-cell malignancies from circulating tumour DNA using a single hybridisation-based next generation sequencing assay
    Blombery, PA ; Ryland, GL ; Markham, J ; Guinto, J ; Wall, M ; McBean, M ; Jones, K ; Thompson, ER ; Cameron, DL ; Papenfuss, AT ; Prince, MH ; Dickinson, M ; Westerman, DA (WILEY, 2018-10)
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    Outcomes of synchronous systemic and central nervous system (CNS) involvement of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma are dictated by the CNS disease: a collaborative study of the Australasian Lymphoma Alliance
    Wight, JC ; Yue, M ; Keane, C ; Johnston, A ; Linton, K ; Chin, C ; Wai, SH ; Talaulikar, D ; Gasiorowski, R ; Cheah, CY ; Gregory, GP ; Dickinson, M ; Minson, A ; Coombes, C ; Ku, M ; Lam, S ; Hawkes, EA (WILEY, 2019-10)
    De novo diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) presenting with synchronous central nervous system (CNS) and systemic disease (synDLBCL) is not well described and is excluded from clinical trials. We performed a retrospective analysis of 80 synDLBCL patients treated across 10 Australian and UK centres. Of these patients, 96% had extranodal systemic disease. CNS-directed treatment with combination intravenous cytarabine and high-dose methotrexate ("CNS-intensive") (n = 38) was associated with favourable survival outcomes compared with "CNS-conservative" strategies such as intravenous high-dose methotrexate monotherapy, intrathecal therapy and/or radiotherapy (2-year progression-free survival [PFS] 50% vs. 31%, P = 0·006; 2-year overall survival [OS] 54% vs. 44%, P = 0·037). Outcomes were primarily dictated by the ability to control the CNS disease, with 2-year cumulative CNS relapse incidence of 42% and non-CNS relapse 21%. Two-year OS for CNS-relapse patients was 13% vs. 36% for non-CNS relapses (P = 0·02). Autologous stem cell transplantation as consolidation (n = 14) was not observed to improve survival in those patients who received CNS-intensive induction when matched for induction outcomes (2-year PFS 69% vs. 56%, P = 0·99; 2-year OS 66% vs. 56%, P = 0·98). Hyperfractionated or infusional systemic treatment did not improve survival compared to R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisolone) (2-year OS 49% for both groups). Our study suggests that adequate control of the CNS disease is paramount and is best achieved by intensive CNS-directed induction.
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    Characterization of a novel venetoclax resistance mutation (BCL2 Phe104Ile) observed in follicular lymphoma
    Blombery, P ; Birkinshaw, RW ; Nguyen, T ; Gong, J-N ; Thompson, ER ; Xu, Z ; Westerman, DA ; Czabotar, PE ; Dickinson, M ; Huang, DCS ; Seymour, JF ; Roberts, AW (WILEY, 2019-09)
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    Management of patients with follicular lymphoma treated first line with obinutuzumab
    Opat, S ; Dickinson, M ; Cheah, CY ; Tam, C ; Boulos, J ; Thorburn, AN ; Trotman, J (WILEY, 2019-05)
    Recently, obinutuzumab was included in the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for use in first line, advanced or bulky stage 2, follicular lymphoma, providing more immunochemotherapy treatment options available than ever before. Rituximab with chemotherapy has been the standard of care since reimbursement in the late 1990s; however, obinutuzumab-based regimens have shown superior progression-free survival in comparison to rituximab-based options, albeit at an increased risk of grade ≥3 adverse events. As median overall survival approaches 20 years or more, the long-term effects and sequencing of any strategy should be considered. Here we discuss the considerations for selection of front-line therapy, based on evidence and local Australian clinician experience, in the management of first line follicular lymphoma.
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    A multicentre retrospective comparison of central nervous system prophylaxis strategies among patients with high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
    Cheah, CY ; Herbert, KE ; O'Rourke, K ; Kennedy, GA ; George, A ; Fedele, PL ; Gilbertson, M ; Tan, SY ; Ritchie, DS ; Opat, SS ; Prince, HM ; Dickinson, M ; Burbury, K ; Wolf, M ; Januszewicz, EH ; Tam, CS ; Westerman, DA ; Carney, DA ; Harrison, SJ ; Seymour, JF (NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, 2014-09-09)
    BACKGROUND: Central nervous system (CNS) relapse in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a devastating complication; the optimal prophylactic strategy remains unclear. METHODS: We performed a multicentre, retrospective analysis of patients with DLBCL with high risk for CNS relapse as defined by two or more of: multiple extranodal sites, elevated serum LDH and B symptoms or involvement of specific high-risk anatomical sites. We compared three different strategies of CNS-directed therapy: intrathecal (IT) methotrexate (MTX) with (R)-CHOP 'group 1'; R-CHOP with IT MTX and two cycles of high-dose intravenous (IV) MTX 'group 2'; dose-intensive systemic antimetabolite-containing chemotherapy (Hyper-CVAD or CODOXM/IVAC) with IT/IV MTX 'group 3'. RESULTS: Overall, 217 patients were identified (49, 125 and 43 in groups 1-3, respectively). With median follow-up of 3.4 (range 0.2-18.6) years, 23 CNS relapses occurred (12, 10 and 1 in groups 1-3 respectively). The 3-year actuarial rates (95% CI) of CNS relapse were 18.4% (9.5-33.1%), 6.9% (3.5-13.4%) and 2.3% (0.4-15.4%) in groups 1-3, respectively (P=0.009). CONCLUSIONS: The addition of high-dose IV MTX and/or cytarabine was associated with lower incidence of CNS relapse compared with IT chemotherapy alone. However, these data are limited by their retrospective nature and warrant confirmation in prospective randomised studies.
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    Molecular Mechanisms of Disease Progression in Primary Cutaneous Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma, Leg Type during Ibrutinib Therapy
    Fox, LC ; Yannakou, CK ; Ryland, G ; Lade, S ; Dickinson, M ; Campbell, BA ; Prince, HM (MDPI, 2018-06)
    Primary cutaneous diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, leg type (PCDLBCL-LT) is one of the well-recognized extranodal lymphomas commonly addicted to the B-cell receptor-MYD88 superpathway. We aimed to describe the genomic changes in a patient who progressed through treatment with ibrutinib, a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor. An 80-year-old woman presented with multiply relapsed PCDLBCL-LT after multiple lines of chemoimmunotherapy and radiotherapy. Pre-treatment testing of the localized cutaneous tumor lesion on a lymphoid amplicon panel demonstrated an MYD88 p.L265P mutation. Ibrutinib therapy was subsequently commenced, resulting in complete resolution of the skin disease. Despite an ongoing skin response, the patient developed progressive nodal disease at two months. Genomic analysis of the cutaneous tumor sample at baseline was compared to that of the inguinal lymph node upon progression, and revealed the acquisition of multiple genomic changes. These included several aberrations expected to bypass BTK inhibition, including two CARD11-activating mutations, and a deleterious mutation in the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) negative regulator, NFKBIE. In addition, an IgH-IRF8 translocation was detected (which brings the IRF8 transcription factor under control of the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus), representing a third plausible mechanism contributing to ibrutinib resistance. Several copy-number changes occurred in both samples, including an amplification of 18q, which encodes the anti-apoptotic protein BCL2. We describe the first case of novel genomic changes of PCDLBCL-LT that occurred while on ibrutinib, providing important mechanistic insights into both pathogenesis and drug resistance.
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    Rapid and Durable Complete Remission of Refractory AITL with Azacitidine Treatment in Absence of TET2 Mutation or Concurrent MDS
    Gregory, GP ; Dickinson, M ; Yannakou, CK ; Wong, J ; Blombery, P ; Corboy, G ; Kats, L ; Crozier, TME ; Kumar, B ; Prince, HM ; Opat, SS ; Shortt, J (LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS, 2019-04)
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    CNspector: a web-based tool for visualisation and clinical diagnosis of copy number variation from next generation sequencing
    Markham, JF ; Yerneni, S ; Ryland, GL ; Leong, HS ; Fellowes, A ; Thompson, ER ; De Silva, W ; Kumar, A ; Lupat, R ; Li, J ; Ellul, J ; Fox, S ; Dickinson, M ; Papenfuss, AT ; Blombery, P (Nature Publishing Group, 2019-04-23)
    Next Generation Sequencing is now routinely used in the practice of diagnostic pathology to detect clinically relevant somatic and germline sequence variations in patient samples. However, clinical assessment of copy number variations (CNVs) and large-scale structural variations (SVs) is still challenging. While tools exist to estimate both, their results are typically presented separately in tables or static plots which can be difficult to read and are unable to show the context needed for clinical interpretation and reporting. We have addressed this problem with CNspector, a multi-scale interactive browser that shows CNVs in the context of other relevant genomic features to enable fast and effective clinical reporting. We illustrate the utility of CNspector at different genomic scales across a variety of sample types in a range of case studies. We show how CNspector can be used for diagnosis and reporting of exon-level deletions, focal gene-level amplifications, chromosome and chromosome arm level amplifications/deletions and in complex genomic rearrangements. CNspector is a web-based clinical variant browser tailored to the clinical application of next generation sequencing for CNV assessment. We have demonstrated the utility of this interactive software in typical applications across a range of tissue types and disease contexts encountered in the context of diagnostic pathology. CNspector is written in R and the source code is available for download under the GPL3 Licence from https://github.com/PapenfussLab/CNspector. A server running CNspector loaded with the figures from this paper can be accessed at https://shiny.wehi.edu.au/jmarkham/CNspector/index.html.
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    Limited clinical benefit for surveillance PET-CT scanning in patients with histologically transformed lymphoma in complete metabolic remission following primary therapy
    Cheah, CY ; Dickinson, M ; Hofman, MS ; George, A ; Ritchie, DS ; Prince, HM ; Westerman, D ; Harrison, SJ ; Burbury, K ; Wolf, M ; Januszewicz, H ; Herbert, KE ; Carney, DA ; Tam, C ; Seymour, JF (SPRINGER, 2014-07)
    The optimum follow-up of patients with transformed indolent lymphoma (TrIL) is not well defined. We sought to determine the utility of surveillance positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) in patients with TrIL achieving complete metabolic remission (CMR) after primary therapy. We performed a retrospective analysis of patients with TrIL treated at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre between 2002 and 2012 who achieved CMR after primary therapy who had ≥1 subsequent surveillance PET-CT. Of 55 patients with TrIL, 37 (67 %) received autologous stem cell transplantation as consolidation following chemoimmunotherapy. After a median follow-up of 34 (range 3-101) months, the actuarial 3-year progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 77 % (95 %CI 62-86 %) and 88 % (75-94 %), respectively. Of 180 surveillance PET-CT scans, there were 153 true negatives, 4 false positives, 1 false negative, 7 indeterminate and 15 true positives. Considering indeterminate scans as false positives, the specificity of PET-CT for detecting relapse was 94 %, sensitivity was 83 %, positive predictive value was 63 % and negative predictive value was 98 %. All seven subclinical (PET detected) relapses were of low-grade histology; in contrast, all nine relapses with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) were symptomatic. In our cohort of patients with TrIL achieving CMR, PET-CT detected subclinical low-grade relapses but all DLBCL relapses were accompanied by clinical symptoms. Thus, surveillance imaging of patients with TrIL achieving CMR is of limited clinical benefit. PET-CT should be reserved for evaluation of clinically suspected relapse.