Clinical trial NCT03962088: Timisnar - Biomarkers Substudy (Timisnar-mirna)
Official title: Timing To Minimally Invasive Surgery After Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy For Rectal Cancer: A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial - Biomarkers SubStudy
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: RECRUITING
Conditions: Rectal Cancer
Lead sponsor: Azienda Ospedaliera SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo di Alessandria
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2019-05-23
Enrollment: 200
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: All included patients in the TiMiSNAR Trial (already approved by local Ethical Committees on 8/5/2018 - NCT3465982) are supposed to undergo blood collection at the time of diagnosis, after neoadjuvant treatment, after 1 month from surgery and after adjuvant chemotherapy whenever indicated.

Brief summary: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCHT) followed by surgery is the mainstay treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer, leading to significant decrease in tumor size (downsizing) and a shift towards earlier disease stage in the primary tumor and lymph nodes (downstaging). Extensive histopathological work-up of the tumor specimen after surgery including tumor regression grading (TRG) and lymph node status (ypN) helped to visualize individual tumor sensitivity to CRT retrospectively. Since the response to nCHT is heterogeneous, however, valid biomarkers are needed to monitor tumor response. A relevant number of studies aimed to identify molecular markers retrieved from tumor tissue while the relevance of blood-based biomarkers is less stringent assessed.

As a potential alternative to CEA and ctDNA, microRNAs (miRNAs) are currently under investigation to serve as blood-based biomarkers. miRNAs are small, noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression by post-transcriptional mRNA binding, which promotes the destabilization of target miRNAs. The target specificity of miRNAs is largely predetermined by their so-called "seed-sequence" (containing nucleotides at position 2-7 of the miRNA). They are highly conserved between species, stable and easy detectable even in small concentrations. They have been widely analyzed in physiological and pathological processes, and their expression is tissue specific.

Detailed description: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCHT) followed by surgery is the mainstay treatment for locally advanced rectal cancer, leading to significant decrease in tumor size (downsizing) and a shift towards earlier disease stage in the primary tumor and lymph nodes (downstaging). Extensive histopathological work-up of the tumor specimen after surgery including tumor regression grading (TRG) and lymph node status (ypN) helped to visualize individual tumor sensitivity to CRT retrospectively. Since the response to nCHT is heterogeneous, however, valid biomarkers are needed to monitor tumor response. A relevant number of studies aimed to identify molecular markers retrieved from tumor tissue while the relevance of blood-based biomarkers is less stringent assessed.

Blood samples, i.e. Liquid Biopsy, however, offer several advantages:

1. Taking blood samples is less invasive, less expensive, easy to schedule, and nearly without any severe complications.
2. Blood samples are a source of fresh DNA and RNA, without modifications due to preservatives; especially in the case of rectal cancer, beyond intratumoral heterogeneity, tumor biopsies are in general accompanied by normal, adenomatous or stromal tissue. This contamination may affect results of molecular analyses
3. Investigating blood from patients can account for molecular heterogeneity and surrogate for tumor burden since tumor-derived fragments or biomarkers are collected from all tumor cells in a patients' body through circulation.
4. Liquid biopsy may offer both the possibility of dynamic monitoring under treatment and the possibility to assess disease activity even after pathologic complete response (pCR) or after resection of the tumor when no tissue is left for molecular analyses.

In clinical routines, to date, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is established as a colorectal cancer (CRC) related tumor marker but is not recommended as a screening test for colorectal cancer. First, normal levels of CEA do not exclude the possibility of a colorectal cancer. Second, an elevated CEA is not categorically associated with CRC, or in the period of follow-up with disease progression. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) represents nowadays, the main approach to monitor tumor burden and therapy resistance, to evaluate the presence of residual disease after potentially curative treatment and to monitor disease recurrence with high sensitivity and specificity.

As a potential alternative to CEA and ctDNA, microRNAs (miRNAs) are currently under investigation to serve as blood-based biomarkers. miRNAs are small, noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression by post-transcriptional mRNA binding, which promotes the destabilization of target miRNAs. The target specificity of miRNAs is largely predetermined by their so-called "seed-sequence" (containing nucleotides at position 2-7 of the miRNA). They are highly conserved between species, stable and easy detectable even in small concentrations. They have been widely analyzed in physiological and pathological processes, and their expression is tissue specific.

To date, no screening approach to identify relevant miRNAs as biomarkers in blood of patients with rectal cancer was undertaken.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Age \>18 years
* cT3/4N0/+M0 confirmed on CT-scan, MRI (stratification for T3a-b-c-d)
* Histologically-proven adenocarcinoma of the rectum
* Eligible for a resective surgery with TME
* Eligible for chemoradiation treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

* Metastatic disease
* Squamous carcinoma of the anal canal
* Unable to complete neoadjuvant treatment

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in expression levels of plasma miRNA
timeFrame: 5 years
Secondary outcomes:
measure: miRNA expression and surgery
timeFrame: 5 years
measure: miRNA expression and surveillance
timeFrame: 5 years
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Alessandria
country: Italy
facility: SS. Antonio e Biagio e Cesare Arrigo
Study officials:
References:
citation: Yu J, Li N, Wang X, Ren H, Wang W, Wang S, Song Y, Liu Y, Li Y, Zhou X, Luo A, Liu Z, Jin J. Circulating serum microRNA-345 correlates with unfavorable pathological response to preoperative chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer. Oncotarget. 2016 Sep 27;7(39):64233-64243. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.11649.
citation: Dayde D, Tanaka I, Jain R, Tai MC, Taguchi A. Predictive and Prognostic Molecular Biomarkers for Response to Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation in Rectal Cancer. Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Mar 7;18(3):573. doi: 10.3390/ijms18030573.
citation: Rampazzo E, Del Bianco P, Bertorelle R, Boso C, Perin A, Spiro G, Bergamo F, Belluco C, Buonadonna A, Palazzari E, Lonardi S, De Paoli A, Pucciarelli S, De Rossi A. The predictive and prognostic potential of plasma telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) RNA in rectal cancer patients. Br J Cancer. 2018 Mar 20;118(6):878-886. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2017.492. Epub 2018 Feb 15.
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citation: Drebber U, Lay M, Wedemeyer I, Vallbohmer D, Bollschweiler E, Brabender J, Monig SP, Holscher AH, Dienes HP, Odenthal M. Altered levels of the onco-microRNA 21 and the tumor-supressor microRNAs 143 and 145 in advanced rectal cancer indicate successful neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Int J Oncol. 2011 Aug;39(2):409-15. doi: 10.3892/ijo.2011.1036. Epub 2011 May 10.
citation: Della Vittoria Scarpati G, Falcetta F, Carlomagno C, Ubezio P, Marchini S, De Stefano A, Singh VK, D'Incalci M, De Placido S, Pepe S. A specific miRNA signature correlates with complete pathological response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2012 Jul 15;83(4):1113-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2011.09.030. Epub 2011 Dec 13.
citation: Monsellato I, Garibaldi E, Cassinotti E, Baldari L, Boni L, Elmore U, Delpini R, Rosati R, Perinotti R, Alongi F, Bertocchi E, Gori S, Ruffo G, Pernazza G, Pulighe F, De Nisco C, Morpurgo E, Contardo T, Mammano E, Perna F, Menegatti B, Coratti A, Buccianti P, Balestri R, Ceccarelli C, Cavaliere D, Solaini L, Ercolani G, Traverso E, Fusco V, Torri V, Orecchia S. Expression levels of circulating miRNAs as biomarkers during multimodal treatment of rectal cancer - TiMiSNAR-mirna: a substudy of the TiMiSNAR Trial (NCT03962088). Trials. 2020 Jul 25;21(1):678. doi: 10.1186/s13063-020-04568-9.