Abstract LB358: Efficacy of a functional precision medicine approach in relapsed/refractory pediatric cancer patients: results from a prospective clinical study
Authors: de la Rocha Arlet Maria Acanda , Fader Maggie , Coats Ebony R. , Dunn Joseph , Perez Leat , Velasquez Carolina , Galano Jeanette , Saghira Cima , Sotto Ileana , Vorontsova Yana , Khatib Ziad , Abdella Haneen , Andrade-Feraud Cristina M. , Jacome Alexa , Reis Victoria , Rimblas Lilliam , Tomas Nicole , Espinal Paula S. , Berlow Noah , Guilarte Tomás R. , McCafferty-Fernandez Jennifer , Salyakina Daria , Azzam Diana J. 
Published: April 2023

Personalized medicine often serves as the first salvage therapy strategy when standard oncology treatments fail. However, most precision oncology approaches rely on molecular profiling which, unfortunately, provides therapeutic options for less than 10% of cancer patients. Functional precision medicine (FPM) complements molecular profiling by combining it with rapid, high-throughput drug testing on live patient cells to identify promising treatment options. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of FPM in the management of pediatric patients with recurrent and/or refractory cancers. We enrolled 25 pediatric/young adult patients with refractory solid or liquid cancers in this clinical trial (number NCT03860376). Enrolled patients represented the breadth of cancer indications generally presenting in pediatric patients: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (3 patients), acute myeloid leukemia (3 patients), astrocytoma (1 patient), ependymoma (1 patient), Ewing’s sarcoma (4 patients), glioblastoma (1 patient), malignant rhabdoid tumor (1 patient), medulloblastoma (1 patient), neuroblastoma (1 patient), osteosarcoma (4 patients), rhabdomyosarcoma (4 patients) and Wilms’ tumor (1 patient). We used a functional ex vivo drug sensitivity test (DST) panel encompassing 40 formulary drugs frequently used at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital and 47 non-formulary drugs approved by FDA for cancer treatment, as well as drugs from phase III and IV clinical trials. Drug sensitivity scores (DSS) were calculated for each drug based on cancer cells’ responses. DST results were then combined with results from targeted mutation profiles to match actionable mutations with selective targeted therapies. FPM and molecular data were prospectively generated and treatment recommendations were provided to an FPM Molecular Tumor Board (MTB) of clinicians. In total, 19 of 25 patients (76%) had complete functional and molecular profiling data provided to the MTB to support clinical decision-making. Six patients had their subsequent treatment guided by FPM recommendations, of which 83% (five of six patients) demonstrated greater than 1.3x increased progression-free survival compared to their previous therapy. Interestingly, hierarchical clustering analysis of DST results shows that patients with the same subtype of cancer do not cluster together, and no cancer subtype is differentially represented in either high-level cluster, suggesting the importance of functional profiling to provide deeper insight into individual patient pharmacological response. This FPM study is the first pediatric cancer study to enroll both solid and hematologic cancers regardless of tumor type, and the first FPM study in the United States to generate prospective treatment data on pediatric oncology patients. We illustrate the feasibility and efficacy of FPM to meet the needs of cancer patients with both liquid and solid tumors, especially for high-risk populations such as pediatric cancer patients.

Citation Format: Arlet Maria Acanda de la Rocha, Maggie Fader, Ebony R. Coats, Joseph Dunn, Leat Perez, Carolina Velasquez, Jeanette Galano, Cima Saghira, Ileana Sotto, Yana Vorontsova, Ziad Khatib, Haneen Abdella, Cristina M. Andrade-Feraud, Alexa Jacome, Victoria Reis, Lilliam Rimblas, Nicole Tomas, Paula S. Espinal, Noah Berlow, Tomás R. Guilarte, Jennifer McCafferty-Fernandez, Daria Salyakina, Diana J. Azzam. Efficacy of a functional precision medicine approach in relapsed/refractory pediatric cancer patients: results from a prospective clinical study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 2 (Clinical Trials and Late-Breaking Research); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(8_Suppl):Abstract nr LB358.