NZ615544B2 - A prognostic and therapeutic signature for malignant melanoma - Google Patents
A prognostic and therapeutic signature for malignant melanoma Download PDFInfo
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- NZ615544B2 NZ615544B2 NZ615544A NZ61554412A NZ615544B2 NZ 615544 B2 NZ615544 B2 NZ 615544B2 NZ 615544 A NZ615544 A NZ 615544A NZ 61554412 A NZ61554412 A NZ 61554412A NZ 615544 B2 NZ615544 B2 NZ 615544B2
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Classifications
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- G—PHYSICS
- G01—MEASURING; TESTING
- G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
- G01N2800/00—Detection or diagnosis of diseases
- G01N2800/52—Predicting or monitoring the response to treatment, e.g. for selection of therapy based on assay results in personalised medicine; Prognosis
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G01—MEASURING; TESTING
- G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
- G01N2800/00—Detection or diagnosis of diseases
- G01N2800/56—Staging of a disease; Further complications associated with the disease
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G01—MEASURING; TESTING
- G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
- G01N33/00—Investigating or analysing materials by specific methods not covered by groups G01N1/00 - G01N31/00
- G01N33/48—Biological material, e.g. blood, urine; Haemocytometers
- G01N33/50—Chemical analysis of biological material, e.g. blood, urine; Testing involving biospecific ligand binding methods; Immunological testing
- G01N33/53—Immunoassay; Biospecific binding assay; Materials therefor
- G01N33/574—Immunoassay; Biospecific binding assay; Materials therefor for cancer
- G01N33/57407—Specifically defined cancers
- G01N33/5743—Specifically defined cancers of skin, e.g. melanoma
Abstract
Discloses a method of predicting the course of disease in a patient having a malignant melanoma, the method comprising determining in melanoma cells comprised in a sample obtained from said malignant melanoma the presence or amount of at least five biomarkers selected from the group comprising or consisting of MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, beta-Catenin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1, wherein the absence or decreased amount of MTAP and beta-Catenin and/or the presence or increased amount of PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1 is associated with a disadvantageous course of disease. Also discloses a method of preparing a tailored pharmaceutical composition for a patient having a malignant melanoma using the same biomarkers. nsisting of MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, beta-Catenin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1, wherein the absence or decreased amount of MTAP and beta-Catenin and/or the presence or increased amount of PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1 is associated with a disadvantageous course of disease. Also discloses a method of preparing a tailored pharmaceutical composition for a patient having a malignant melanoma using the same biomarkers.
Description
A prognostic and therapeutic signature for malignant melanoma
The present invention s to a method of predicting the course of disease in a patient
having a malignant melanoma, the method comprising determining in melanoma cells
comprised in a sample obtained from said malignant melanoma the presence or amount of at
least five kers selected from the group comprising or consisting of MTAP, PTEN, Bax,
Bcl-X, B-Catenin, CD20, Cox—2, CD49d and MLH1, n the absence or decreased amount
of MTAP and B-Catenin and/or the presence or increased amount of PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, CD20,
Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1 is associated with a disadvantageous course of disease. The
present invention further relates to a method of preparing a tailored ceutical
composition for a patient having a malignant melanoma, a kit for predicting the course of
disease in a t having a malignant ma, a kit for preparing a ed
pharmaceutical composition for a t having a malignant melanoma as well as a
pharmaceutical composition for use in treating or preventing malignant melanoma.
In this specification, a number of documents including patent applications and manufacturer’s
manuals are cited. The disclosure of these documents, while not considered relevant for the
patentability of this invention, is herewith incorporated by nce in its entirety. More
specifically, all referenced documents are incorporated by nce to the same extent as if
each individual document was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by
reference.
Cutaneous malignant melanoma (MM), represents the most common cause of death from skin
cancer, and, apart from female lung cancer, it is the tumour entity with the highest increase of
3O incidence worldwide.1 Malignant melanoma is characterized by a factorial aetiology. Sun
exposure and genetic susceptibility have been proposed as major aetiological and
predisposing factors and may explain the reported increase of incidence to some degree.2
The metastatic stage N of malignant melanoma with an average 10—year survival rate ranging
from 9% to 15% (depending on its pattern of metastasis)3 cannot yet be cured and
improvement in overall survival among these patients remains an elusive goal. Despite novel
therapeutic approaches, the sis of ts suffering from metastatic stage lV malignant
melanoma s unfavourable.4
De facto, the prognosis of ts with malignant melanoma may only in part be derived from
clinical and histological parameters. According to the AJCC 2009 classifications, the findings
of vertical tumour thickness,6 tumour ulceration7 and el node biopsy8 represent the most
dominant prognostic factors. in stage pT1 melanomas ($1.00 thickness), the mitotic rate
(histologically defined as mitoses/mmz) has to be considered as additional prognostic
parameter.5These current g methods such as tumour thickness, ulceration and on
of the sentinel node are known to be prognostic parameters in patients with malignant
melanoma. However, predictive molecular marker profiles for risk stratification and therapy
optimization are not yet available for routine clinical assessment.
Rothberg et al. 20099 describe a meta—analysis of published literature to identify associations
between immunohistochemical sion and survival es in melanoma. Promising
s identified by Rothberg and co—workers e MUCt8, MMP-Z, Ki-67, PCNA and
P16/lNK4A. The authors conclude that these results require validation in tely powered
studies.
Rothberg and lem 201010 describe the analysis of data not eligible for the meta-analysis
performed in Rothberg et al. 20099 but nonetheless of potential value in providing a prioritised
list of protein candidates for further studies with the aim of identifying ctive prognostic
markers. The authors provide a list of proteins that they recommend as a priority set for
inclusion in studies of melanoma prognosis.
Alonso et al. 200412 describe protein expression profiles at the different stages of malignant
melanoma progression. A predictor model for survival was ished, including the proteins
p16'NK4a, Ki67, i321CIP1 and BcI-6. The proteins , MLH—1 and TOP2A, gh
analysed, were not further considered in the prognostic model.
Wild et al. 200613 describe a reduced expression of MTAP in primary malignant melanomas
and in melanoma metastases ed with benign nevi. However, in the overall cohort,
MTAP expression was not associated with prognosis. Instead, MTAP expression was found to
correlate with responsiveness to interferon therapy.
in a later study based on a larger cohort of patients, Meyer et al. 201040 further investigated
whether expression of MTAP is of stic or therapeutic relevance in patients with
melanoma. An association between MTAP immunoreactivity and overall survival as well as
recurrence-free survival was shown in this patient group.
Meyer et al. 200914 describe a study to ate Cox-2 immunoreactivity in tumours to the
outcome of patients with malignant melanoma. Cox-2 sion was found to be significantly
increased from nevi to primary malignant melanoma and metastases and Cox-2 positivity was
associated with shorter recurrences-free survival of the patients. The authors concluded that
Cox-2 expression in primary malignant melanoma indicates an increased risk of tumour
recurrence. However, no association with longer progression-free al could be shown in
patients with malignant melanoma metastases who had received biomodulatory y.
Thus, the authors conclude that Cox-2 might mainly contribute to early steps in melanoma
progression, such as growth and invasion of primary malignant melanoma but might be less
essential in the advanced metastatic setting of melanoma disease. Nonetheless, a different
study by Reichle et al. 200733 describes a phase II trial showing beneficial s of a Cox-2
inhibitor in patients with stage IV (i.e. metastatic) melanoma.
describes a large amount of molecular markers expressed at certain stages
of malignant melanoma and states that said markers may be employed to t the
malignancy potential of a malignant melanoma and to determine the correct treatment
regimen. However, no correlation of molecular markers with the course of disease, such as
recurrence-free survival or overall survival, is shown in .
Despite the fact that hundreds of studies sought to assess the potential prognostic value of
molecular markers in predicting the course of ous malignant melanoma, according to
the latest review meta-analyses,9,10 there are no predictive molecular profiles for risk
association or therapy optimisation applicable for routine al assessment of malignant
ma. rmore, the variability of clinical behaviour in patients with malignant
melanoma can only partially be explained by al and histological data and, thus, there is a
need to identify biological marker profiles for use in assigning patients to a specific risk group.
This need is addressed by the provision of the embodiments characterised in the claims.
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as
an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge
in the field.
Accordingly, in a first aspect, the present invention relates to a method of predicting the course of
e in a t having a malignant melanoma, the method comprising determining in
melanoma cells comprised in a sample obtained from said ant melanoma the presence
or amount of at least five biomarkers selected from the group comprising or ting of
MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, nin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1, wherein the absence
or decreased amount of MTAP and -Catenin and/or the presence or increased amount of
PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1 is associated with a disadvantageous
course of disease.
In a second aspect, the present invention relates to a kit when used to predict the course of
disease in a patient having a malignant melanoma according to a method of the first aspect,
the kit comprising:
(a) means for determining the presence or amount of the set of biomarkers as
defined by step (i) of any one of claims 5 to 8 in a sample obtained from said
malignant melanoma,
(b) instructions how to use the kit.
In a third aspect, the present invention relates to a kit when used to derive a treatment
regimen for an individual patient having a malignant melanoma according to a method of the
first , the kit comprising:
(a) means for determining the presence or amount of the set of kers as
defined by step (i) of any one of claims 5 to 8 in a sample obtained from said
malignant melanoma,
(b) instructions how to use the kit.
Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the
words ise”, “comprising”, and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense as
opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not
limited to”
In a further aspect, the present invention relates to a method of predicting the course of
disease in a t having a ant melanoma, the method sing determining in
melanoma cells sed in a sample obtained from said malignant melanoma the presence
or amount of at least five biomarkers selected from the group comprising or consisting of
MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, -Catenin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1, wherein the absence
or decreased amount of MTAP and -Catenin and/or the presence or increased amount of
PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, CD20,
WO 31052
Cox—2, CD49d and MLH1 is associated with a disadvantageous course of disease.
ln accordance with the present invention, the term "predicting the course of disease" refers to
the provision of an assessment whether the malignant melanoma has a favourable
ssion/outcome or an unfavourable progression/outcome. The term disease, in this
regard, refers to malignant melanoma. A favourable progression/outcome, also referred to
herein as an advantageous course of disease, relates to no risk or a low risk of recurrence of
malignant melanoma and/or a long time of disease—free survival, such as for e more
than 5 years. An urable progression/outcome, also referred to herein as a
disadvantageous course of disease, relates to a high risk of recurrence of malignant
melanoma, including e.g. the formation of local malignant melanoma as well as the formation
of regional or distant metastases, and/or a short time of disease-free survival such as e.g. less
than 5 years and/or a short overall al time. The term "recurrence", as used herein,
relates to the repeated outbreak of malignant melanoma, or a progression of the malignant
melanoma such as for e in terms of formation of metastases from the malignant
melanoma analysed but independently of whether the disease was cured before said outbreak
or progression.
As used herein, the term "malignant melanoma" refers to a type of skin cancer well known in
the medical art. Melanoma is the type of skin cancer that has the highest grade of malignancy.
Among cells composing skin, meIanin-pigment-producing cells are referred to as pigment cells
or cytes. When these melanocytes become cancerous, a malignant melanoma is
developed. Malignant ma is staged according to the severity of the disease into stage
0 to stage 4. Stage 0 refers to melanoma in situ with 99.9% survival. Stage l/ll refers to
invasive melanoma with 85 to 99% survival and is further divided into T1a (less than 1.00 mm
primary tumour thickness, t ulceration and mitosis < , T1b (less than 1.00 mm
primary tumour thickness, with ulceration or mitoses 21/mm2) and T2a (1.00 to 2.00 mm
primary tumour thickness, without ulceration). Stage ll refers to high risk melanoma with 40 to
85% al and is further divided into T2b (1.00 to 2.00 mm primary tumour ess, with
tion), T3a (2.00 to 4.00 mm primary tumour thickness, without tion), T3b (2.00 to
4.00 mm primary tumour thickness, with ulceration), T4a (4.00 mm or greater y tumour
thickness without ulceration) and T4b (4.00 mm or greater primary tumour thickness with
ulceration). Stage lll refers to regional metastasis with 25 to 60% survival and is further
d into N1 (single positive lymph node), N2 (2 to 3 positive lymph nodes or regional
skin/ln-transit metastasis) and N3 (four positive lymph nodes or lymph node and regional
skin/in—transit metastases). Finally, stage lV refers to distant metastasis with only 9 to 15%
survival. Stage IV is further divided into Mta (distant skin metastasis and normal lactate
dehydrogenase), Mtb (lung metastasis, normal e dehydrogenase) and Mtc (other
distant metastasis or any distant metastasis with elevated lactate ogenase).
The term "melanoma , as used herein, refers to melanocytes that have become
cancerous. Melanocytes, including melanoma cells, are well known to the skilled person and
can be easily identified in a sample due to their location in the stratum basale of the epidermis
as well as via melanocyte-specific markers including, but not limited to, Melan-A, HMB45,
Protein S100, DOT and TRP2.
The term "biomarker ed from the group [...]" according to the present invention s to
the d markers in any of their naturally occurring forms, including nucleic acid molecules
such as e.g. DNA, including cDNA or c DNA, and RNA as well as proteins.
As used herein, the term "determining the [...] ce" refers to ining whether the
analysed biomarker is present or absent in ma cells comprised in the sample
investigated. The biomarker is considered present in accordance with the t invention
when it is detected in amounts exceeding the standard procedural error, such as for example
ed in the form of background staining obtained in immunohistochemical or western blot
analyses. The skilled person knows how to determine such procedural errors, for example by
analysing non-disease control samples or by omitting certain steps or nds in the
procedure, such as for example a primary antibody in immunohistochemical stainings or a
template in nucleic acid amplification techniques etc.. In the case that the amount of ker
detected corresponds to or is less than the standard procedural error, e.g. the background
staining in an immunohistochemical analysis, the biomarker is considered as not being
present in the sample.
As used , the term "determining the [...] amount" refers to quantitatively or semi—
quantitatively determining amounts of the respective biomarkers. Quantitative analysis refers
3O to the determination of absolute or normalised (e.g. compared to a non-changing reference
marker) values of biomarker amounts, such as e.g. copy numbers of nucleic acids or
ities of stainings in immunohistochemical or western blot techniques. Furthermore, the
number of stained cells versus cells not stained may be evaluated. Semi—quantitative analysis
refers to the determination of relative amounts, such as for example by visual analysis of
immunohistochemically stained samples by a skilled person, such as e.g. a dermato-
histopathologist or a surgical pathologist. As described in the appended examples, such
analyses may be performed based on a step-wise scoring system allocating different scores to
samples containing e.g. no staining, weak staining, moderate staining, strong staining, very
strong ng etc..
The term ased amount", as used herein, refers to lower expression levels of the
ker of interest in melanoma cells in the sample obtained from the malignant melanoma
as ed to expression levels observed in a control sample, such as for example non-
malignant tissues. Preferably, the term relates to statistically significant lower expression
levels of the biomarker of interest in melanoma cells in the sample obtained from the
malignant melanoma of interest as compared to expression levels observed in the control
tissues. Expression levels observed in non-malignant tissues may for example be ed in
a parallel control experiment based on a disease-free , such as for example on benign
nevi obtained from the same patient. The amount of ker is ered to be decreased
when its amount is at least 10% lower in the malignant melanoma sample than in non—
ant tissues, such as for example at least 20% lower, at least 30% lower, at least 40%
lower, at least 50% lower, at least 75% lower, at least 100% lower (i.e. twice as low), at least
200% lower, at least 300% lower, at least 500% lower etc..
The term "increased amount", as used herein, refers to higher expression levels of the
biomarker of interest in melanoma cells in the sample obtained from the malignant melanoma
as compared to expression levels observed in a control sample, such as for example non-
malignant tissues. Preferably, the term relates to statistically significant higher expression
levels of the biomarker of interest in melanoma cells in the sample obtained from the
malignant ma of interest as compared to expression levels observed in the control
tissues. Expression levels observed in non-malignant tissues may for example be analysed in
a parallel control experiment based on a disease-free sample, such as for example on benign
nevi obtained from the same patient. The amount of biomarker is considered to be abnormally
sed when its amount is at least 10% higher in the malignant melanoma sample than in
non-malignant s, such as for example at least 20% higher, at least 30% higher, at least
40% , at least 50% higher, at least 75% higher, at least 100% higher (i.e. twice as high),
at least 200% higher, at least 300% , at least 500% higher etc..
The term "expression level", as used herein, refers to a value of expression of a particular
marker in a sample of interest. The expression level of a marker corresponds to the number of
copies of the sion product of the corresponding gene, either on a nucleic acid level (e.g.
mRNA) or on the protein level. Thus, the determination of the expression level of a particular
marker can, for example, be carried out on the nucleic acid level or on the level of the
respective protein encoded by said gene.
Methods for the determination of expression levels of a n on the amino acid level include
but are not limited to immunohistochemical s as described in the appended examples
but also e.g. Western blotting or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in conjunction with protein
staining techniques such as Coomassie Brilliant blue or silver-staining. For these latter
methods, the total protein is loaded onto a polyacrylamide gel and separated by
electrophoresis. Afterwards, the separated proteins are transferred onto a membrane, e.g. a
polyvinyldifluoride (PVDF) membrane, by ng an electrical current. The proteins on the
membrane are exposed to an antibody specifically recognizing the n of interest. After
washing, typically a second antibody specifically recognizing the first dy and carwing a
readout system such as a fluorescent dye is applied. The amount of the protein of interest is
often determined by comparing the fluorescence intensity of the protein derived from a sample
of the patient of interest with the fluorescence intensity obtained with the protein derived from
a control sample. Also of use in protein quantification is the Agilent Bioanalyzer technique.
s for determining expression levels on the nucleic acid level include, but are not limited
to, Northern blotting, PCR, RT-PCR or real . PCR is well known in the art and is
ed to make large numbers of copies of a target sequence. This is done on an
automated cycler device, which can heat and cool containers with the reaction mixture in a
very short time. The PCR, generally, ts of many repetitions of a cycle which consists of:
(a) a denaturing step, which melts both s of a DNA molecule and terminates all previous
enzymatic reactions; (b) an annealing step, which is aimed at allowing the primers to anneal
specifically to the melted strands of the DNA molecule; and (c) an extension step, which
elongates the annealed primers by using the information ed by the template strand.
Generally, PCR can be performed, for example, in a 50 pl reaction mixture containing 5 pl of
x PCR buffer with 1.5 mM MgCl2, 200 pM of each deoxynucleoslde triphosphate, 0.5 pl of
each primer (10 pM), about 10 to 100ng of template DNA and 1 to 2.5 units of Taq
Polymerase. The s for the amplification may be labelled or be unlabelled. DNA
amplification can be performed, e.g., with a model 2400 thermal cycler (Applied Biosystems,
Foster City, CA): 2 min at 94°C, followed by 30 to 40 cycles consisting of annealing (e. g. 30 s
at 50°C), extension (e. g. 1 min at 72°C, depending on the length of DNA template and the
enzyme used), denaturing (e. g. 10 s at 94°C) and a final ing step at 55°C for 1 min as
well as a final ion step at 72°C for 5 min. Suitable polymerases for use with a DNA
te e, for example, E. coli DNA polymerase I or its Klenow fragment, T4 DNA
2012/055827
polymerase, Tth polymerase, Taq polymerase, a heat—stable DNA polymerase isolated from
Thermus aquaticus Vent, Amplitaq, Pfu and KOD, some of which may exhibit reading
function and/or different temperature optima. The person skilled in the art knows how to
optimize PCR conditions for the ication of specific nucleic acid molecules with primers of
different length and/or composition or to scale down or increase the volume of the reaction
mix. The “reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction” (RT-PCR) is used when the
c acid to be amplified consists of RNA. The term "reversetranscriptase" refers to an
enzyme that catalyzes the rization of deoxyribonucleoside sphates to form primer
extension products that are complementary to a ribonucleic acid template. The enzyme
initiates synthesis at the 3'-end of the primer and proceeds toward the 5'-end of the template
until sis terminates. Examples of suitable polymerizing agents that convert the RNA
target sequence into a complementary, copy-DNA (cDNA) sequence are avian myeloblastosis
virus reverse transcriptase and Thermus thermophilus DNA polymerase, a thermostable DNA
polymerase with reverse transcriptase activity marketed by Perkin Elmer. Typically, the
genomic RNA/cDNA duplex te is heat denatured during the first denaturation step after
the initial reverse transcription step leaving the DNA strand available as an amplification
te. High-temperature RT provides greater primer specificity and improved efficiency.
U.S. patent ation Serial No. , 121, filed Aug. 15, 1991, describes a
"homogeneous RT-PCR" in which the same primers and polymerase suffice for both the
reverse transcription and the PCR amplification steps, and the reaction conditions are
optimized so that both reactions occur without a change of reagents. Thermus thermophilus
DNA polymerase, a thermostable DNA polymerase that can function as a reverse
transcriptase, can be used for all primer extension steps, regardless of template. Both
processes can be done without having to open the tube to change or add reagents; only the
temperature e is adjusted between the first cycle (RNA template) and the rest of the
amplification cycles (DNA template). The RT Reaction can be performed, for example, in a
20ul on mix containing: 4 pl of 5x AMV-RT buffer, 2 pl of Oligo dT (100 pg/ml), 2ul of 10
lel dNTPs, 1p! total RNA, 10 Units of AMV reverse transcriptase, and H20 to 20p! final
. The on may be, for example, performed by using the ing conditions: The
reaction is held at 70 C" for 15 minutes to allow for reverse transcription. The reaction
temperature is then raised to 95 0° for 1 minute to denature the RNA—cDNA duplex. Next, the
reaction temperature undergoes two cycles of 95°C for 15 seconds and 60 0° for 20 seconds
followed by 38 cycles of 90 0° for 15 seconds and 60 0° for 20 seconds. Finally, the reaction
temperature is held at 60 C° for 4 minutes for the final extension step, cooled to 15 C°, and
held at that temperature until further processing of the amplified sample. Any of the above
mentioned reaction conditions may be scaled up according to the needs of the particular case.
The resulting products may be loaded onto an agarose gel and band intensities are ed
after ng the nucleic acid molecules with an intercalating dye such as umbromide or
Syerreen.
Real-time PCR employs a ic probe, in the art also referred to as TaqMan probe, which
has a reporter dye covalently attached at the 5’ end and a quencher at the 3’ end. After the
TaqMan probe has been hybridized in the annealing step of the PCR reaction to the
complementary site of the polynucleotide being amplified, the 5’ fluorophore is cleaved by the
5’ nuclease activity of Taq polymerase in the ion phase of the PCR reaction. This
enhances the scence of the 5’ donor, which was formerly quenched due to the close
proximity to the 3’ or in the TaqMan probe sequence. Thereby, the process of
amplification can be monitored directly and in real time, which permits a significantly more
precise determination of expression levels than conventional end—point PCR. Also of use in
Real-time RT-PCR experiments is a DNA intercalating dye such as Syerreen for monitoring
the de novo synthesis of double stranded DNA molecules.
The skilled person is aware that mutations and/or variations in the genes encoding the
biomarkers in accordance with the present invention as well as in the regulatory elements of
said genes (e.g. promoters, enhancers etc.) may be causative or associated with a change of
expression levels of said biomarkers. For e, PTEN mutations and deficiencies are
prevalent in many types of human cancers, leading to a loss of functional PTEN protein in
those cancers (Mirmohammadsadegh et al. 200643; Lahtz et al. 201044; Zhou et al. 200045;
Zhang and Yu ). Furthermore, promoter hyper—methylation has been shown to lead to a
loss of MTAP expression (Behrmann ez‘ al. 2003). Thus, it is also envisaged herein that the
determination of the presence or amount of the biomarkers in accordance with the present
invention is based on the detection of mutations (i.e. genetic changes) or variations (i.e.
epigenetic changes) of said biomarkers. s for determining mutations and/or variations
in genes are well known in the art and e, without being limiting PCR based techniques,
DNA sequencing-based techniques, hybridization—based techniques, single—strand
mation polymorphism analysis (SSCA), denaturating gradient gel electrophoresis
(DGGE), mismatch cleavage detection, heteroduplex analysis, primer extension-based
techniques, 5'-nuclease assay-based techniques, using antibodies or sequence—specific DNA-
binding ns as well as methylation-sensitive arily primed PCR (e.g. Gonzalgo et al.
1997, Cancer Res. 57:594-599), quantitative methylation-specific PCR (Q—MSP; as described
eg. in Current Protocols in Human cs, DOl: 10.1002/ O471142905.hg1006s61),
2012/055827
methylation—sensitive restriction analysis (e.g. Singer-Sam et al. 1990, Nucl. Acids Res.
), methylation-quantification of endonuclease-resistant DNA (Bettstetter et al. 200842) or
methylation-sensitive sequencing methods (such as e.g. bisulfite DNA sequencing; Frommer
et al. 1992, PNAS 89:1827—1831).
Said techniques are well known to the person skilled in the art.
Non-limiting examples for c acid amplification assays and means to perform such
include PCR, (including nested PCR, RT—PCR, quantitative real-time detection, PCR
extension assays, c Acid Sequence Base ication (NASBA), single—strand
confirmation polymorphism (SSCP) PCR, PCR-restriction enzyme fragment length
polymorphism (RFLP) is), amplification refractory mutation systems (ARMSTM) and
amplification refractory mutation system linear extension (ALEXTM) assays. Details of such
s can be found in art, see, for example, Newton et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 17 (1989)
2503-2516; Agrawal (Ed), “Protocols for Oligonucleotides and Analogs: Synthesis and
Properties (Methods in Molecular Biology, 20)”, Humana Press, 1993; Haque et al., Diagn.
Mol. Pathol. 7 (1998) 248—252; lnnis et al. (Ed), “PCR Applications: ols for Functional
Genomics”, Academic Press, 1999; Chen and Janes (Ed), “PCR Cloning Protocols: From
Molecular Cloning to Genetic”, 2nd n, Humana Press, 2002; Pissard et al., Clin. Chem.
48 (2002) 769-772; Blondal et al., Nucleic Acids Res 31 (2003) e155; Steemers et al., Nature
Meth. 3 (2006) 31—33; Kakavas et al., J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 20 (2006) 1—7.
Examples for sequencing assays comprise without limitation approaches of sequence analysis
by direct sequencing, fluorescent SSCP in an automated DNA sequencer and
Pyrosequencing. These ures are common in the art, see e.g. Adams et al. (Ed),
“Automated DNA Sequencing and Analysis”, Academic Press, 1994; Alphey, “DNA
Sequencing: From Experimental s to Bioinformatics”, Springer Verlag Publishing,
1997; Ramon et al., J. Transl. Med. 1 (2003) 9; Meng et al., J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 90
(2005) 3419-3422.
Examples for hybridization assays comprise without limitation Northern and Southern blot
assays, heteroduplex is, detection of mutations by sequence specific oligonucleotide
hybridization, allele-specific oligonucleotide ization on DNA chips, assays based on
Illumina's® technology, assays based on the BeadArray® logy, see, for example, Barnes
et al., Nucleic Acids Res. 33 (2005) 5914—5923; Fan et al., Biotechniques 39 (2005) 583-588;
Shen et al., Mutat. Res-Fund. Mol. M. 573 (2005) 70—82; Steemers and Gunderson,
‘l 1
Pharmacogenomics, 6 (2005) 777-782.
The term "at least five biomarkers", as used herein, refers to five or more biomarkers.
Preferably, said term s to at least six biomarkers, more preferably at least seven
biomarkers. The term also s to at least eight biomarkers or at least nine biomarkers. The
term further encompasses y five or exactly six or exactly seven or exactly eight or
exactly nine kers. In accordance with this method of the invention, the presence or
amount of at least five biomarkers ed from the recited list is determined. Also
encompassed by the method is that additional biomarkers and/or reference markers are
analysed, wherein said additional biomarkers may or may not be selected from the d list
of biomarkers. in other words, whereas the at least five biomarkers have to be Chosen from
MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, nin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1, further different
biomarkers and/or reference markers may additionally be analysed in ance with the
present invention.
The term ence marker", as used herein, refers to a marker that is present in melanocytes
at substantially constant levels. in other words, the expression level of a reference marker
should not differ (apart from deviations caused by the limits of accuracy of established
detection methods) between samples of ent origin and between benign and malignant
samples. Due to the essentially unchanged amounts of such reference markers in different
samples, they may be employed to normalise values of biomarker amounts, e.g. by
comparison between the expression levels of said non-changing reference marker with the
expression level of the biomarker of interest. Often, housekeeping genes are used as
nce markers. Examples of reference markers include, t being limiting, GAPDH,
RPLPO, PGK1, HSP90ABt, cyclophilin, actin and many more. Further examples are detailed
for example in Eisenberg et al. 2003 (Trends Genet -5) and Velculescu et al. 1999 (Nat
Genet 23:387—8.).
in accordance with the present invention, the term lising values of biomarker amounts"
or "normalising the expression levels" relates to a tion of the measured value. This
correction is usually carried out in order to control for bias introduced during the process of
sample collection and analysis, which can for example arise due to variations based on
different laboratories and/or different machines used, due to differences in staining protocols
or ences between extraction protocols that may co-purify inhibitors, and due to different
reverse transcription and PCR efficiencies. Importantly, normalisation enables a direct
comparison of values obtained from individual patients and/or in different laboratories.
Several strategies for normalisation are known in the art. For example, in case of
immunohistochemical methods or quantitative PCR measurement, normalising may be carried
out against the expression Ievel(s) of (an) internal reference gene(s)/reference protein(s),
which is determined in the same sample; against sample size; against total amount of RNA or
genomic DNA or protein; or against an artificially introduced le of known amount.
Normalisation is preferably achieved by mathematically dividing the expression values from
the marker to be igated by the expression values of a reference . This is
particularly preferred if the expression values are given in a linear scale. If the expression
values are sed in a logarithmic scale, normalisation is achieved by subtracting the
expression value of the reference marker from the sion value of the marker of interest.
In case of microarray analysis normalisation techniques including, without being limiting, RMA,
GCRMA, MAS5, dChip and VSN and others could be used to process raw data to achieve
comparability. s of these methods can be found in Stafford (2008) “Methods in
microarray isation” (ISBN-13: 978—1420052787) and bush Nat. Gene. 2002
(Nat Genet;32 Suppl:496—501)).
In accordance with the present invention, the term "MTAP" refers to S-methyl-5'-thioadenosine
phosphorylase, which plays a major role in polyamine metabolism and is important for the
salvage of both adenine and methionine. MTAP protein is characterised by the EC number
28. Human MTAP is for example represented by the Entrez Gene ID 4507 and UniProt
ID Q13126 and is shown for example in SEQ ID NOs: 1 and 2. MTAP has been described in
the art, for example in Behrmann et a/., 2003.
As used herein, the term "PTEN" refers to the phosphatidylinositoI—3,4,5—trisphosphate 3—
phosphatase and dual-specificity protein phosphatase, which plays a major role as a tumour
suppressor. PTEN acts as a dual-specificity protein phosphatase, dephosphoryiating tyrosine—,
serine— and threonine-phosphorylated proteins. PTEN also acts as a lipid phosphatase,
removing the ate in the D3 position of the inositol ring from phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5—
trisphosphate, phosphatidylinositol 3,4-diphosphate, phosphatidylinositol phate and
inositol 1,3,4,5-tetrakisphosphate. PTEN protein is characterised by the EC numbers 16,
48 and 3.1.3.67. Human PTEN is for example represented by the Entrez Gene ID 5728
and UniProt ID P60484 and is shown for example in SEQ ID NOs: 3 and 4 PTEN has been
described in the art, for example in Zhang and Yu 201028.
The term "Bax", as used herein refers to the BCL2-associated X protein, which accelerates
programmed cell death by binding to, and antagonising the apoptosis repressor BCL2 or its
adenovirus homolog E1B 19k protein. Bax also induces the release of cytochrome c,
activation of CASP3, and thereby apoptosis. Human Bax is for example represented by the
Entrez Gene ID 581 and UniProt ID Q07812 and is shown for example in SEQ ID NOs: 5 and
6. Bax has been described in the art, for example in Lowe et al. 2004.
As used herein, the term "BcI-X" refers to the BcI—2—Iike protein 1, which is a potent inhibitor of
cell death and inhibits the activation of caspases. Human Bcl-X is for example represented by
the Entrez Gene ID 598 and UniProt ID Q07817 and is shown for example in SEQ ID NOs: 7
and 8. BcI-X has been described in the art, for e in Lowe et al. 2004.
As used herein, the term "B-Catenin" refers to CTNNB1, which is involved in the tion of
cell adhesion. The majority of B-catenin is localized to the cell membrane and is part of E-
cadherin/ catenin adhesion complexes which are proposed to couple ins to the actin
cytoskeleton. It is also involved in signal transduction through the Wnt pathway and nuclear [3-
catenin is ed in transcriptional regulation by association with transcription factors of the
TCF/LEF family. Human B-Catenin is for example represented by the Entrez Gene ID 1499
and UniProt ID P35222 and is shown for example in SEQ ID NOS: 9 and 10. B—Catenin has
been described in the art, for e in Delmas et al. 2007.
The term "CD20", as used herein refers to the B—Iymphocyte cell-surface antigen B1, also
having the gene name MS4A1. CD20 is considered to play an important role in the regulation
of B-cell activation and proliferation. Human CD20 is for example represented by the Entrez
Gene ID 931 and t ID P11836 and is shown for example in SEQ ID N05: 11 and 12.
CD20 has been described in the art, for example in Zabierowski and Herlyn 2008.
In ance with the present ion, the term "Cox—2" refers to the prostaglandin-
roxide synthase 2, also ed to as PTGSZ. Cox—2 mediates the formation of
prostaglandins from arachidonate and may also have a role as a major mediator of
inflammation and/or a role for prostanoid signaling in activity-dependent plasticity. The Cox-2
n is characterised by the EC number 1.14.991. Human CD20 is for example
represented by the Entrez Gene ID 5743 and UniProt ID P35354 and is shown for example in
SEQ ID N03: 13 and 14. Cox—2 has been bed in the art, for example in Meyer et al.
2009.
As used herein, the term "CD49d" refers to integrin alpha 4, also ed to as ITGA4, antigen
CD49D or alpha 4 subunit of VLA—4 receptor. lntegrin 4/beta-1 (VLA-4) and alpha-
4/beta-7 are receptors for fibronectin. They recognise one or more domains within the
atively d 08-1 and CS—5 regions of fibronectin. They are also receptors for
VCAM1. lntegrin alpha-4/beta—1 recognises the sequence Q-I—D-S in VCAM1. lntegrin alpha-
4/beta—7 is also a receptor for MADCAM1. It recognises the sequence L-D-T in MADCAM1.
On activated endothelial cells integrin VLA—4 triggers homotypic aggregation for most VLA
positive leukocyte cell lines. It may also participate in cytolytic T-cell interactions with target
cells. Human CD49d is for example represented by the Entrez Gene ID 3676 and UniProt ID
P13612 and is shown for example in SEQ ID N05: 15 and 16. CD49d has been described in
the art, for example in Kuphal et al. 2005.
The term , as used herein refers to the DNA mismatch repair protein Mlh1, which
heterodimerises with PMSZ to form MutL alpha, a component of the post—replicative DNA
mismatch repair . It also heterodimerises with MLH3 to form MutL y, which plays a role
in meiosis and has further been implicated in DNA damage signaling, a process which induces
cell cycle arrest and can lead to apoptosis in case of major DNA damages. Human MLH1 is
for example represented by the Entrez Gene ID 4292 and UniProt ID P40692 and is shown for
example in SEQ ID N03: 17 and 18. MLH1 has been described in the art, for example in
Korabiowska et al. 2006.
In accordance with this method of the present invention, the absence or decreased amount of
MTAP and/or B-Catenin is associated with an disadvantageous course of the disease, i.e. the
malignant melanoma. In other words, when one or both of these markers are found to be
absent or lowered in melanoma cells comprised in a sample obtained from a patient, then this
increases the hood of said patient to have a ence of the disease. The presence of
one or both of these markers or elevated levels thereof, r, render it more likely that the
patient will not have a recurrence of the disease. Furthermore, in accordance with this method
of the invention, the presence or increased amount of PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, CD20, Cox-2,
CD49d and/or MLH1 is associated with a disadvantageous course of disease. Thus, when one
or more of these s are found to be sed or ed in melanoma cells comprised
in a sample obtained from a patient, then this renders it more likely that the patient will have a
recurrence of the disease while the absence of one or more of these markers or decreased
levels thereof increase the likelihood of said patient to not have a recurrence of the disease.
in accordance with the present invention, it was found that a set of 9 specific markers enables
the characterisation of melanoma cells sed in a tissue sample of a malignant
melanoma, thereby providing an independent prediction model for clinical outcome and
individualised, ed therapy options in patients with ant melanoma. A prognostic
score based on the expression levels of said d set of s achieved a higher
prognostic accuracy than any other previously used combination of prognostic markers in
malignant melanoma and will, therefore, greatly facilitate risk adapted therapy of malignant
melanoma patients. In other words, based on a simple and cost-effective analysis of markers
selected from this limited set, it is now possible to derive an assessment of the risk of an
dual malignant melanoma patient for being a poor prognosis patient vantageous
course of e), i.e. showing a high risk of e recurrence or being a good prognosis
patient (advantageous course of e), i.e. showing a low risk of disease recurrence.
Knowledge of these marker expression profiles additionally allows risk-adapted treatment,
which is of t for patients with malignant melanoma. For example, a diagnosis of
expression of MTAP enables practitioners to identify patients that may benefit from interferon
treatment, therefore providing a new basis for a clear targeted use of this expensive
immunotherapeutic agent and prevention of a considerable rate of serious side effects.
ln particular, using tissue microarrays (TMA), samples of 364 patients with primary malignant
melanoma were retrospectively analyzed. A panel of 70 immunohistochemical (lHC)
antibodies for proteins ed in cell cycle, apoptosis, DNA mismatch repair, differentiation,
proliferation, cell adhesion, signaling and metabolism was investigated. A marker ion
procedure based on univariate Cox regression and multiple testing correction was employed
to correlate the lHC expression data with the clinical follow—up ll and recurrence-free
survival). The model was thoroughly evaluated with two different cross tion experiments,
a permutation test and a multivariate Cox regression analysis. The predictive power of the
identified marker signature was validated on a second independent external test cohort
(n=225), thus rendering the total of patients 589. This study adheres to the reporting
recommendations for tumour marker prognostic studies, i.e. it implements the REMARK
ines (J Natl Cancer institute 2005; 97:1180-4).
The prognostic power of these 70 markers was assessed, yielding the 11 markers MTAP,
PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d, MLH1, TOPZA and Frizzled 7, which
were significantly associated with overall survival. While all eleven s are significantly
associated with overall survival, it was possible to further reduce the number of markers
required for a prognostic assessment to nine (MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, CD20,
Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1) based on the Cox sion coefficients and multiple testing
correction with FDR. These nine s were correlated with death from any cause. Two of
these markers were protective markers (associated with a hazard ratio of less than 1.00) and
seven were risk markers (associated with a hazard ratio of more than 1.00) (Fig. 4).
For the sake of clinical feasibility and cost saving, any marker set suitable for routine clinical
assessment should comprise a d number of markers. It was therefore the aim to provide
a maximum of prognostic and therapeutically relevant information by as few markers as
possible ed in a clear signature. ingly, it was shown that a further reduction of
the nine-marker signature still leads to prognostic and therapeutically relevant information. As
a proof of principle, this was carried out using a seven-marker signature (Bax, Bcl-X. [3-
f Catenin, CD20, COX-2, MTAP, PTEN), which was found to also provide prognostic and
therapeutically nt information. lmmunohistochemically stained TMA specimens
illustrating the seven-marker signature for one patient with high-risk and one patient with low-
risk melanoma is shown in Table 3.
Moreover, further reduction of the seven-marker set by one and two marker(s), respectively,
i.e. CD20 and PTEN, resulted in a six-lfive-marker set that significantly correlated with overall
and ence-free survival, as shown in Examples 5 and 6, and s 6 and 7 below.
RECTIFIED SHEET (RULE 91) ISA/EP
The data obtained for the seven-marker signature can reasonably be extended to marker sets
comprising only five marker or six markers, due to the high coincidence and ation of
some of the markers, such as eg. Bax and Cox-2 expression in the melanoma samples
analysed (see figure 5). In other words, when a highly correlated first marker is comprised in
the set of markers analysed, then the information provided by a second marker correlated to
said first marker might be limited and, consequently, such markers can be omitted.
With a total of 24,674 punch specimens of y malignant melanoma analyzed by IHC, this
TMA study is more comprehensive than previous studies described in the art (to the inventors
best knowledge). The detected signature might serve as a prognostic tool enabling physicians
to selectively choose, at the time of sis and l surgery, the subset of high recurrence
risk Stage l—ll patients for adjuvant therapy. Selective treatment of those patients that are
more likely to develop distant metastatic disease could ially lower the burden of
untreatable metastatic melanoma and promote the therapeutic management of ant
melanoma.
Means and methods to derive a risk estimate are well known in the art and, based on the
information provided in accordance with the t invention, the skilled person is able to
derive a risk tion.
One exemplary method is based on the following prognostic score calculation:
D D
.if ;sz- exists
score(;c) : gmflimi 1,
/ g m ., 057: Z {
0, if :14 is missing
n D is the number of markers analysed, [3; are the coefficients of the univariate Cox
model, eg. 0621 for MTAP, -0.34 for B—Catenin, 0.547 for CD20, 0.391 for Bcl-X, 0.297 for
COX-2, 0.272 for PTEN, 0.407 for CD49d, 0.254 for MLH1 and 0.441 for Bax as shown in
Figure 3F and x, is the value determined for the individual marker i in patient x. on, corrects for
markers not t in said patient or not evaluated. Based on this score calculation, a patient
3O is diagnosed to have an advantageous course of disease when the score is below a reference
score and to have a disadvantageous course of disease when the score is above said
reference score.
In accordance with the present invention, the term "reference score" relates to a f point
above or below which a diagnosis of the course of disease can be made, i.e. as advantageous
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
WO 31052
or disadvantageous course. Said reference score may for example be a mean, i.e. average,
score determined based on a malignant melanoma patient cohort comprising patients with
advantageous course of disease as well as disadvantageous course of disease without any
bias towards one of these groups. Such un-biased patient cohorts will be available to als
and can be analysed to derive the reference score. Preferably, a stic score significantly
below the reference score is indicative of an advantageous course of disease and a
prognostic score icantly above the reference score is indicative of a disadvantageous
course of disease.
For example, based on the above score calculation and on a scale for x, ranging from -0.5 to
+0.5, a patient is sed to have an advantageous course of disease when the score
based on the seven-marker signature (Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, CD20, COX-2, MTAP, PTEN) is
below 0.1346739 and to have a disadvantageous course of disease when the score is above
0.1346739, as shown in Figure 1A.
atively, the skilled person may initially determine in a sufficiently large patient group,
such as for example at least 10, more preferably at least 75 and most preferably at least 100
patients, the ce and amount of the markers MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin,
CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1. Preferably, the patient group is a representative group of
malignant melanoma patients predicted by conventional methods to be poor prognosis or
good prognosis patients. The data obtained from this group may then be correlated with
disease progression, as detailed in the examples below. For example, after measurement of
at least 10, more preferably at least 75 and most preferably at least 100 patients in a
heterogeneous prognostic group and determination of the above mentioned marker values,
correlation of the follow up data with the marker values using the univariate Cox model results
in the tion of specific coefficients. The calculated scores (sum of the marker values
lied with the coefficients) can be sorted due to their magnitude. The cut offs should be
selected due to clinical relevance. For e the magnitudes may be split at the 50th
percentile, whereas a lower score is indicative for good prognosis and a higher score is
indicative for poor prognosis. Alternatively, the patients may be grouped into more than two
groups, ing on the clinical information required. It will be understood by the skilled
person that such an initial determination of the presence and amount of markers does not
need to be carried out every time but may instead be carried out when first establishing the
method of predicting the course of ant melanoma in patients. The data obtained by
such initial ments may also be stored in databases accessible to other researchers, thus
obviating the need for these researchers to establish such initial data.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
atively, the risk of an individual patient may also be evaluated based on a simplified
score calculation wherein the coefficients from the univariate Cox proportional hazard models
are used in a weighted linear combination to t the risk score for each patient as shown
in Figure 3F. Such a fied score calculation would be: -0.6*MTAP - O.3*B-Catenin +
ZO + O.4*BCLX + O.4*Bax + EN 4- O.3*COX2. In other words, the score obtained
for MTAP is multiplied with -O.6, the score obtained for B-Catenin is multiplied with -O.3, the
score obtained for 0020 is multiplied with 0.5 and so on. The sum of all these weighted
scores provides a prognostic risk score for each patient. For example and as shown in the
appended examples, when a scoring system from 0 to 4 was employed, a risk score below
0.135 was found to be indicative of a good prognosis for said patient while a risk score above
0.135 was found to be indicative of a poor prognosis for said patient.
In a red ment of the method of the invention, the at least five biomarkers include
PTEN and/or MTAP.
Thus, the set of biomarkers employed in accordance with this preferred embodiment
comprises at least PTEN or MTAP, more preferably it comprises PTEN and MTAP.
MTAP expression was shown in accordance with the present invention to be the strongest
marker for a favourable e outcome (coefficient of -O.621) and is, furthermore, of
therapeutic relevance. In the adjuvant treatment of ant melanoma, interferon alpha is
tly the only clinically accepted therapeutic agent providing a significant (recurrence—free)
survival benefit for a small but distinct percentage of patients.34 On account of the serious side
effects and the high costs of the therapy, it is advantageous to determine those patients with a
realistic chance to benefit from interferon treatment. It has recently been shown that there is a
clear association between MTAP expression in the primary melanoma and melanoma
progression and, even more importantly, se to interferon treatment.“°"28'35 Biomarkers
like MTAP might therefore enable practitioners to assess which patients may benefit from
interferon treatment and could thus provide a new basis for a clear targeted use of this
expensive therapeutic agent and prevent the serious side effects ated with the
treatment with interferon.
The tumor suppressor phosphatase and tensin g PTEN was identified as another
signature protein. PTEN counteracts one of the most critical cancer promoting pathways,28 the
phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (Pl3K)/Akt signaling pathway. An established consequence of
PTEN inactivation is the constitutive aberrant activation of the Pl3K-signaling y that
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
drives uncontrolled cell , proliferation, and survival (Zhang and Yu, 201028). Thus,
including PTEN in the analysis not only provides a diagnostic tool, but may also be of
predictive relevance. In general, cancer cells contain multiple genetic and epigenetic
abnormalities. Despite this complexity, their growth and survival can often be ed by the
inactivation of a single oncogene. This phenomenon, called "oncogene addiction,” es a
rationale for molecular ed therapy. The efficacy of this gy requires novel methods,
including integrative cs and systems biology, to identify the state of oncogene
addiction (i.e., the “Achilles heel") in specific cancers. Combination therapy may also be
required to prevent the escape of cancers from a given state of oncogene ion
(Weinstein and Joe 2008"). Thus, including PTEN in the analysis not only provides a
diagnostic tool, but also is also of therapeutic relevance.
In another preferred embodiment of the method of the invention, at least seven biomarkers
are ined.
In a more preferred embodiment, the at least 7 biomarkers are MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, B-
Catenin, CDZO and Cox-2.
In accordance with the present invention, it has been shown that this set of seven kers
is closely associated with the prognosis of patients with malignant ma and may
therefore serve as an independent predictor for overall and recurrence-free survival in ts
with malignant melanoma.
Among the 362 patients of the primary cohort, patients with said high-risk seven-marker
signature had a shorter median overall survival than the patients with a low-risk seven-marker
signature (88 months versus not reached) and the difference between the two t groups
was highly significant (p=0.0000000042) (Fig. 1D). The high-risk seven-marker signature was
associated with a median recurrence-free survival of 33 months, whereas the low-risk seven-
marker signature was associated with a median recurrence-free survival of 88 months (LRT
p=0.00034) (Fig. 1E). According to multivariate Cox regression analysis, the seven-marker
3O risk score, tumour thickness, sex, and age were significantly associated with death from any
cause among the 356 patients (6 observations were deleted due to missing values) (Table 1).
Furthermore, a subgroup analysis of 253 patients with a tumour depth of $2 mm revealed that
those 148 patients with a high-risk marker signature had a significant (p=0.0053) shorter
overall survival (Fig. 3A) and recurrence-free survival (p=0.008) than the 105 ts with a
low-risk marker signature (Fig. 3B).
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
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Table 1. Clinical Characteristics of the Primary Cohort of Patients with MM (TMA 1).
Comparing high-risk patients (first column) with low-risk ts (second column) based on
their seven-marker risk score shows significant difference in tumour thickness 01) and
no difference in sex (p=1) and age (p=0.263). Furthermore, hazard ratios and p-values are
reported for a multivariate Cox regression model comprising all listed variables. Regarding
overall survival the seven—marker risk score is tically icant (p<0.001) independent of
sex, age and tumour thickness. Continuous variables are reported with mean and standard
deviation and categorical variables are listed with number of counts and percentages.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
Notably, the predictive power of the signature was carefully validated and confirmed on a
secondary, ndent external test cohort including melanoma samples of 225 patients
from a different hospital. In this external test cohort it was confirmed that patients with a high-
risk marker signature had a significantly (p=0.000017) different survival ance and
shorter median overall survival compared to patients with a sk ure (95 months
versus not reached) (Fig. 2A). According to multivariate Cox sion including sex, age,
tumour thickness, ulceration and nodal status, the seven-marker signature was significantly
associated with overall survival (p=0.0000098, Table 1). Additionally, the recurrence-free
survival differed significantly n the two risk groups (p=0.004; Fig. 28).
Thus, the seven-marker signature (Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, CDZO, COX-2, MTAP, PTEN) is
closely associated with the prognosis of patients with malignant melanoma, as the signature
was found to be an independent predictor for overall and recurrence-free survival ents
with malignant melanoma. .The seven-marker signature could also predict high recurrence risk
patients with localized primary malignant melanoma stage pT1-2 (tumour thickness 32.00
mm) and worse prognosis. In particular, three of these s (CDZO, COX-2, MTAP) were
shown to offer direct therapeutic implications.
In a further preferred embodiment of the method of the invention, at least nine biomarkers are
determined.
By increasing the number of biomarkers analysed, the ivity and specificity of the analysis
can be increased.
in accordance with this embodiment, all nine biomarkers MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin,
CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1 are ined.
It was found in accordance with the present invention that this set of nine biomarkers is closely
associated with the prognosis of patients with malignant melanoma and may therefore serve
as an independent predictor for l and recurrence-free survival in patients with malignant
melanoma.
Table 1 summarises the characteristics of 362 patients in the study. Among these 362 patients
of the primary cohort, tumours associated with high risk scores also expressed risk markers,
whereas tumours associated with low risk scores expressed protective markers (Fig. 1A).
Patients with a high-risk nine-marker ure had a lower median l survival than
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
patients with a low-risk nine—marker signature (90 months versus not reached) (Fig. 18).
Patients with tumours with a high-risk marker signature were associated with a lower median
recurrence-free survival than patients with tumours with a low-risk gene signature (36 months
versus 88) (Fig. 1C).
The present invention further relates to a method of preparing a tailored pharmaceutical
ition for a patient having a malignant melanoma, the method comprising (i)
determining in melanoma cells comprised in a sample obtained from said malignant
melanoma the presence or amount of at least five biomarkers selected from the group
comprising or ting of MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, CDZO, Cox-2, CD49d and
MLH1, wherein the absence or decreased amount of B-Catenin and MTAP and/or the
presence or increased amount of PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, CDZO, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1 is
associated with a disadvantageous course of disease; (ii) deriving a ent regimen for the
individual patient based on the presence or amount of markers determined in step (i); and (iii)
providing at least one pharmaceutical compound based on the treatment regimen derived in
step (ii).
In accordance with this embodiment, the course of disease is determined for a patient having
a malignant melanoma and, additionally, the data ed by ining the presence or
amount of at least five biomarkers selected from the group sing or ting of MTAP,
PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1 is employed to derive a
treatment regimen for the dual patient, i.e. to prepare a ed pharmaceutical
composition.
The term "pharmaceutical composition", as used herein, relates to a composition for
administration to a patient, preferably a human patient. The pharmaceutical composition of the
ion comprises a therapeutic compound, such as for example a compound selected from
the compounds d below, alone or in combination. lt may, optionally, comprise further
molecules capable of ng the characteristics of these compounds thereby, for example,
3O stabilizing, modulating and/or activating their function. The composition may e.g. be in solid or
liquid form and may be, inter alia, in the form of (a) powder(s), (a) (s), (a) on(s) or
(an) aerosol(s). The ceutical composition of the present invention may, optionally and
additionally, se a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. By “pharmaceutically acceptable
carrier” is meant a non-toxic solid, semisolid or liquid filler, diluent, encapsulating material or
formulation auxiliary of any type. Examples of suitable pharmaceutically acceptable carriers
are well known in the art and include phosphate buffered saline solutions, water, emulsions,
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
2012/055827
such as ter emulsions, various types of wetting agents, sterile solutions, organic solvents
including DMSO etc.. Compositions comprising such carriers can be formulated by well known
conventional methods.
These pharmaceutical itions can be stered to the subject at a suitable dose.
The dosage regimen will be determined by the attending physician and clinical factors. As is
well known in the medical arts, dosages for any one patient depend upon many factors,
ing the patient's size, body surface area, age. the particular compound to be
administered, sex, time and route of administration, general health, and other drugs being
stered concurrently. The therapeutically effective amount for a given situation will
readily be determined by routine experimentation and is within the skills and judgement of the
ordinary clinician or physician. The skilled person knows that the effective amount of a
pharmaceutical composition administered to an individual will, inter alia, depend on the nature
of the compound. For example, if said compound is a ptide, the total ceutically
effective amount of pharmaceutical composition administered parenterally per dose will be in
the range of about 1 pg protein/kg/day to 10 mg protein/kg/day of patient body weight,
although, as noted above, this will be subject to therapeutic discretion. More preferably, this
dose is at least 0.01 mg protein/kg/day, and most preferably for humans between about 0.01
and 1 mg protein/kg/day. Furthermore, if for example said nd is an iRNA agent, such
as an siRNA, the total pharmaceutically effective amount of pharmaceutical composition
administered will typically be less than about 75 mg per kg of body weight, such as for
example less than about 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10. 5, 2, 1, 0.5, 0.1, 0.05, 0.01, 0.005, 0.001,
or 0.0005 mg per kg of body . More ably, the amount will be less than 2000 nmol
of iRNA agent (e.g., about 4.4 x 1,016 copies) per kg of body weight, such as for example less
than 1,500, 750, 300, 150, 75, 15, 7.5, 1.5, 0.75, 0.15, 0.075, 0.015, 0.0075, 0.0015, 0.00075
or 0.00015 nmol of iRNA agent per kg of body weight. The length of treatment needed to
observe changes and the interval following treatment for ses to occur vary depending
on the desired effect. The particular amounts may be determined by conventional tests which
are well known to the person d in the art.
Pharmaceutical compositions of the invention may for example be administered orally,
rectally, parenterally, intracisternally, intraperitoneally, topically (as by powders, ointments,
drops or transdermal , bucally, or as a nasal spray. The term “parenteral” as used
herein refers to modes of administration, which include intravenous, intramuscular,
intrasternal, subcutaneous and intraarticular injection and infusion.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
2012/055827
The therapeutic compound, in accordance with the present invention, may for example be
selected from the group consisting of dies, aptamers, siRNAs, shRNAs, miRNAs,
ribozymes, antisense nucleic acid les, and a small molecule. Therapeutic compounds
further include but are not limited to, for example, peptides such as soluble peptides, ing
lg-tailed fusion peptides and members of random peptide libraries (see, e.g., Lam et al. (1991)
Nature 354: 82-84; Houghten et al. (1991) Nature 354: 84-86) and combinatorial chemistry-
derived lar libraries made of D-and/or L-configuration amino acids or phosphopeptides
(e.g., s of random and partially degenerate, directed phosphopeptide libraries, see,
e.g., ng et al. (1993) Cell 72: 767-778).
The term “antibody” as used in accordance with the present invention comprises onal
and monoclonal antibodies, as well as derivatives or fragments thereof, which still retain the
binding specificity. Antibody fragments or tives comprise, inter alia, Fab or Fab’
fragments as well as Fd, F(ab')2, Fv or scFv nts; see, for e Harlow and Lane
"Antibodies, A Laboratory Manual", Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1988 and Harlow
and Lane “Using Antibodies: A Laboratory Manual" Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,
1999. The term "antibody" also includes embodiments such as chimeric (human constant
domain, non—human variable domain), single chain and humanised (human antibody with the
exception of non-human CDRs) antibodies. The term antibodies also encompasses
peptidomimetics.
s techniques for the production of antibodies are well known in the art and described,
eg. in Harlow and Lane (1988) and (1999), loc. cit.. Further, techniques described for the
production of single chain antibodies (see, inter alia, US Patent 4,946,778) can be adapted to
produce single chain antibodies specific for the target of this invention. Also, transgenic
animals or plants (see, e.g., US patent 6,080,560) may be used to express (humanized)
antibodies specific for the target of this invention. Most preferably, the antibody is a
onal antibody, such as a human or humanized antibody. For the preparation of
monoclonal antibodies, any technique which provides antibodies produced by continuous cell
line cultures can be used. Examples for such techniques are bed, eg. in Harlow and
Lane (1988) and (1999), Ice. cit. and include the hybridoma technique (Kéhler and Milstein
Nature 256 (1975), 495-497), the trioma technique, the human B-cell hybridoma technique
(Kozbor, Immunology Today 4 (1983), 72) and the EBV—hybridoma technique to produce
human monoclonal dies (Cole et al., Monoclonal Antibodies and Cancer Therapy, Alan
R. Liss, Inc. (1985), 77-96). Surface plasmon resonance as employed in the BlAcore system
can be used to increase the efficiency of phage dies which bind to an epitope of the
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
kers (Schier, Human Antibodies Hybridomas 7 (1996), 97-105; Malmborg, J. Immunol.
Methods 183 (1995), 7-13). It is also envisaged in the context of this invention that the term
“antibody” comprises antibody constructs which may be expressed in cells, e.g. antibody
constructs which may be transfected and/or transduced via, inter alia, viruses or plasmid
vectors.
Aptamers are nucleic acid molecules or peptide molecules that bind a specific target molecule.
Aptamers are y created by ing them from a large random sequence pool, but
natural aptamers also exist in riboswitches. Aptamers can be used for both basic research and
clinical purposes as macromolecular drugs. Aptamers can be combined with ribozymes to self-
cleave in the presence of their target molecule. These compound molecules have additional
ch, industrial and clinical applications (Osborne et. al. (1997), t Opinion in
Chemical Biology, 1:5-9; Stull & Szoka (1995), Pharmaceutical Research, 12, 42465—483).
More specifically, aptamers can be classified as nucleic acid aptamers, such as DNA or RNA
aptamers, or peptide aptamers. Whereas the former normally consist of ly short) strands
of oligonucleotides, the latter ably consist of a short variable peptide domain, attached at
both ends to a protein ld.
Nucleic acid aptamers are nucleic acid species that, as a rule, have been engineered h
repeated rounds of in vitro selection or equivalently, SELEX (systematic evolution of ligands
by exponential enrichment) to bind to various lar targets such as small molecules,
proteins, nucleic acids, and even cells, tissues and organisms.
Peptide rs usually are peptides or proteins that are designed to ere with other
protein interactions inside cells. They typically consist of a variable e loop attached at
both ends to a protein scaffold. This double ural constraint greatly increases the binding
affinity of the peptide aptamer to levels able to an antibody‘s (nanomolar range). The
variable peptide loop typically comprises 10 to 20 amino acids, and the scaffold may be any
protein having good solubility properties. Currently, the bacterial protein doxin-A is the
most commonly used scaffold protein, the variable peptide loop being inserted within the
redox-active site, which is a -Cys-Gly-Pro-Cys- loop in the wild protein, the two cysteins lateral
chains being able to form a disulfide bridge. Peptide r selection can be made using
different systems, but the most widely used is currently the yeast two-hybrid system.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
Aptamers offer the y for biotechnological and therapeutic applications as they offer
molecular recognition properties that rival those of the commonly used biomolecules, in
particular antibodies. In on to their discriminate recognition, aptamers offer advantages
over antibodies as they can be engineered completely in a test tube, are readily ed by
chemical synthesis, possess desirable storage properties, and elicit little or no immunogenicity
in therapeutic applications. Non-modified aptamers are cleared rapidly from the bloodstream,
with a half—life of minutes to hours, mainly due to se degradation and clearance from the
body by the kidneys, a result of the aptamer's inherently low molecular weight. Unmodified
aptamer applications currently focus on treating transient conditions such as blood clotting, or
ng organs such as the eye where local delivery is possible. This rapid clearance can be
an advantage in applications such as in vivo diagnostic imaging. Several modifications, such
as 2'-f|uorine-substituted pyrimidines, polyethylene glycol (PEG) linkage, fusion to albumin or
other half life extending proteins etc. are available to scientists such that the half-life of
rs can be increased for several days or even weeks.
The term “peptide" as used herein describes a group of molecules consisting of up to 30
amino acids, whereas the term “protein" as used herein describes a group of molecules
consisting of more than 30 amino acids. Peptides and proteins may further form dimers,
s and higher oligomers, i.e. consisting of more than one molecule which may be identical
or non-identical. The corresponding higher order structures are, uently, termed homo-
or heterodimers, homo— or heterotrimers etc.. The terms “peptide” and in” (wherein
“protein” is interchangeably used with "polypeptide") also refer to naturally modified
peptides/proteins wherein the modification is effected eg. by glycosylation, acetylation,
orylation and the like. Such modifications are well-known in the art.
Antibodies or aptamers may further be used as a targeting moiety to r therapeutically
active compounds, such as known anti-cancer drugs (e.g. chemotherapeutic agents such as
Dacarbazine, Fotemustine or Cisplatin), to the malignant melanoma cells of a t.
In accordance with the present invention, the term "small interfering RNA )", also
known as short ering RNA or silencing RNA, refers to a class of 18 to 30, preferably 19 to
, most preferred 21 to 23 or even more preferably 21 tide-long double-stranded RNA
molecules that play a variety of roles in biology. Most notably, siRNA is involved in the RNA
interference (RNAi) pathway where the siRNA interferes with the expression of a ic
gene. In addition to their role in the RNAl pathway, siRNAs also act in RNAi-related pathways,
eg. as an antiviral mechanism or in shaping the chromatin structure of a genome.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
siRNAs naturally found in nature have a well defined structure: a short double—strand of RNA
(dsRNA) with 2-nt 3' overhangs on either end. Each strand has a 5' phosphate group and a 3'
hydroxyl (-OH) group. This structure is the result of processing by dicer, an enzyme that
converts either long dsRNAs or small hairpin RNAs into . siRNAs can also be
exogenously (artificially) introduced into cells to bring about the specific knockdown of a gene
of interest. Essentially any gene of which the sequence is known can thus be targeted based
on sequence complementarity with an appropriately tailored siRNA. The double-stranded RNA
molecule or a metabolic processing product thereOf is capable of mediating -specific
nucleic acid modifications, particularly RNA interference and/or DNA methylation.
Exogenously uced siRNAs may be devoid of overhangs at their 3' and 5' ends, however,
it is preferred that at least one RNA strand has a 5'- and/or 3'-overhang. Preferably, one end of
the double-strand has a 3'-overhang from 1—5 nucleotides, more preferably from 1-3
nucleotides and most preferably 2 nucleotides. The other end may be blunt-ended or has up
to 6 nucleotides 3'-overhang. In general, any RNA molecule suitable to act as siRNA is
envisioned in the present ion. The most efficient silencing was so far ed with
siRNA duplexes composed of 21-nt sense and 21-nt antisense strands, paired in a manner to
have 2-nt 3' overhangs on either end. The sequence of the 2-nt 3' overhang makes a small
contribution to the icity of target recognition restricted to the unpaired nucleotide
adjacent to the first base pair (Elbashir et al. 2001). 2'-deoxynucleotides in the 3' overhangs
are as efficient as ribonucleotides, but are often cheaper to synthesize and probably more
nuclease ant. Delivery of siRNA may be accomplished using any of the methods known
in the art, for example by combining the siRNA with saline and administering the combination
intravenously or asally or by formulating siRNA in glucose (such as for example 5%
glucose) or cationic lipids and polymers can be used for siRNA delivery in vivo through
systemic routes either enously (IV) or intraperitoneally (IP) (Fougerolles et al. ,
t Opinion in Pharmacology, 82280-285; Lu et al. (2008), Methods in Molecular Biology,
vol. 437: Drug Delivery Systems - Chapter 3: ring Small Interfering RNA for Novel
Therapeutics).
A short n RNA (shRNA) is a sequence of RNA that makes a tight hairpin turn that can be
used to typically silence gene expression via RNA interference. shRNA can for example use a
vector introduced into cells, in .which case the U6 promoter is utilized to ensure that the
shRNA is always expressed. This vector is usually passed on to daughter cells, allowing the
gene silencing to be inherited. The shRNA hairpin structure is cleaved by the ar
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
ery into siRNA, which is then bound to the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC).
This complex binds to and cleaves mRNAs which match the siRNA that is bound to it.
Preferably, NAs to be used in the present invention are chemically synthesized using
conventional methods that, for example, appropriately protected ribonucleoside
phosphoramidites and a conventional DNA/RNA synthesizer. Suppliers of RNA synthesis
reagents are o (Hamburg, Germany), Dharmacon Research (Lafayette, CO, USA),
Pierce Chemical (part of Perbio Science, Rockford, IL, USA), Glen ch (Sterling, VA,
USA), nes nd, MA, USA), and Cruachem (Glasgow, UK). Most conveniently,
siRNAs or shRNAs are ed from commercial RNA oligo synthesis suppliers, which sell
RNA-synthesis products of different quality and costs. In general, the RNAs applicable in the
present invention are conventionally synthesized and are readily provided in a quality suitable
for RNAi.
Further molecules effecting RNAi include, for example, microRNAs ). Said RNA
species are single-stranded RNA molecules which, as endogenous RNA molecules, regulate
gene expression. Binding to a complementary mRNA transcript triggers the degradation of
said mRNA transcript through a process similar to RNA interference. Accordingly, miRNA may
be employed as an inhibitor of the of the kers in accordance with the present invention.
A ribozyme (from cleic acid enzyme, also called RNA enzyme or tic RNA) is an
RNA molecule that catalyzes a chemical on. Many natural mes catalyze either
their own cleavage or the cleavage of other RNAs, but they have also been found to catalyze
the aminotransferase activity of the ribosome. Non-limiting examples of well—characterized
small self-cleaving RNAs are the hammerhead, hairpin, hepatitis delta virus, and in vitro-
ed lead-dependent ribozymes, whereas the group I intron is an example for larger
ribozymes. The principle of catalytic self-cleavage has become well established in the last 10
years. The hammerhead ribozymes are characterized best among the RNA molecules with
ribozyme activity. Since it was shown that hammerhead structures can be integrated into
heterologous RNA sequences and that ribozyme activity can thereby be transferred to these
molecules, it appears that catalytic antisense sequences for almost any target sequence can
be created, provided the target ce contains a potential ng cleavage site. The
basic principle of constructing hammerhead ribozymes is as follows: An interesting region of
the RNA, which contains the GUC (or CUC) triplet, is selected. Two oligdnucleotide strands,
each usually with 6 to 8 nucleotides, are taken and the catalytic hammerhead sequence is
inserted between them. Molecules of this type were synthesized for numerous target
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
sequences. They showed catalytic activity in vitro and in some cases also in vivo. The best
results are usually obtained with short ribozymes and target sequences.
A recent development, also useful in accordance with the present invention, is the
combination of an aptamer recognizing a small compound with a hammerhead ribozyme. The
conformational change induced in the r upon binding the target molecule is ed
to regulate the catalytic function of the ribozyme.
The term ense nucleic acid molecule" is known in the art and refers to a nucleic acid
which is complementary to a target nucleic acid. An antisense molecule in accordance with
the invention is capable of cting with the target c acid, more specifically it is
capable of hybridizing with the target c acid. Due to the formation of the hybrid,
transcription of the target gene(s) and/or translation of the target mRNA is reduced or blocked.
Standard methods ng to antisense technology have been described (see, e.g., Melani et
al., Cancer Res. (1991) 51:2897-2901).
A "small molecule" ing to the t invention may be, for e, an organic
molecule. Organic molecules relate or belong to the class of al compounds having a
carbon basis, the carbon atoms linked together by carbon-carbon bonds. The original
definition of the term organic related to the source of chemical compounds, with organic
compounds being those carbon-containing compounds obtained from plant or animal or
microbial sources, s inorganic compounds were obtained from mineral sources.
Organic compounds can be natural or synthetic. Alternatively, the "small molecule" in
accordance with the present invention may be an inorganic compound. Inorganic compounds
are derived from mineral sources and include all compounds without carbon atoms (except
carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and carbonates). Preferably, the small molecule has a
molecular weight of less than about 2000 amu, or less than about 1000 amu such as less than
about 500 amu, and even more preferably less than about 250 amu. The size of a small
le can be determined by methods well-known in the art, e.g., mass spectrometry. The
small molecules may be designed, for example, based on the crystal structure of the target
molecule, where sites presumably responsible for the biological activity, can be identified and
verified in in vivo assays such as in vivo high-throughput screening (HTS) assays. Such small
molecules may be particularly suitable to inhibit protein-protein-interaction by blocking specific
bindings sites of the target molecule. Suitable small molecules currently employed in the
treatment of cancer include, t being limiting, small molecule inhibitors for inhibiting the
Bcl-2 apoptosis inhibitor family , and Mohammad, 2009).
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
Also encompassed herein are modified versions of these therapeutic compounds.
The term “modified versions of these therapeutic nds" in accordance with the present
invention refers to versions of the compounds that are modified to achieve i) modified
spectrum of activity, organ specificity, and/or ii) improved potency, and/or iii) decreased
toxicity (improved therapeutic index), and/or iv) decreased side s, and/or v) modified
onset of eutic action, duration of effect, and/or vi) modified pharmacokinetic parameters
(resorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion), and/or vii) modified physico-chemical
parameters (solubility, hygroscopicity, color, taste, odor, ity, state), and/or viii) improved
general specificity, organ/tissue specificity, and/or ix) Optimised application form and route by
(a) esterification of yl groups, or (b) esterification of hydroxyl groups with carboxylic
acids, or (c) esterification of hydroxyl groups to, e.g. phosphates, pyrophosphates or sulfates
or hemi-succinates, or (d) formation of pharmaceutically acceptable salts, or (e) formation of
pharmaceutically acceptable complexes, or (f) synthesis of pharmacologically active rs,
or (g) introduction of hydrophilic moieties, or (h) introduction/exchange of substituents on
es or side chains, change of substituent pattern, or (i) modification by introduction of
isosteric or bioisosteric moieties, or (j) synthesis of homologous compounds, or (k) introduction
of branched side chains, or (k) conversion of alkyl substituents to cyclic analogues, or (I)
derivatisation of yl groups to ketales, acetales, or (m) ylation to amides,
phenylcarbamates, or (n) synthesis of Mannich bases, imines, or (o) transformation of ketones
or aldehydes to Schiff's bases, oximes, acetales, ketales, enolesters, oxazolidines,
lidines; or combinations thereof.
The various steps d above are generally known in the art. They include or rely on
quantitative structure-action relationship (QSAR) analyses (Kubinyi, "Hausch—Analysis and
Related Approaches", VCH Verlag, Weinheim, 1992), combinatorial biochemistry, cal
chemistry and others (see, for example, Holzgrabe and Bechtold, Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung
, 813-823, 2000).
3O The term "tailored pharmaceutical composition" in accordance with the t invention,
relates to a ceutical composition that is adjusted to the individual needs of a particular
patient. In other words, a tailored pharmaceutical composition is a patient-specific medication.
For the practitioner, the assessment of the markers in accordance with the invention provides
a helpful tool to answer the l question “whom to treat, and how to treat”, especially in the
nt setting after surgical excision of stage and localized primary malignant
melanoma (Stage I to Ila).
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
Several of the markers employed in ance with the present invention have previously
been shown to be le s or indicators in the treatment of cancers. Thus, therapeutic
compounds targeting said markers or targeting pathways associated with said markers are
already available in the art. For e, CD20, COX-2 and MTAP are three markers of the
present invention that offer direct therapeutic implications, since the corresponding drugs have
been approved by the FDA.
The CD20—antigen is known to be an effective therapeutic target in the treatment of patients
with CD20-positive B-CelI-Non-Hodgkin-Lymphomas. For example, the monoclonal ic
dy Rituximab has been described for immunotherapy.29 The. antibody binds specifically
with CD20-antigen presented on the e of normal and malignant B-lymphocytes and
causes a cell- and complement-mediated cytotoxic death of these cells. According to a small
phase II pilot trial in stage IV melanoma patients recently presented at the ASCO meeting
(2010), the anti-CD20-antibody Rituximab may potentially be suitable for immunotargeting of
CD20-positive melanoma ulations. Consequently, the presence of CD20 in ma
cells of a patient as determined with the method of the present invention is indicative for a
therapeutic treatment of said patient with compounds targeting CD20, such as for example
Rituximab. Further CD20 inhibitors are for example, the yttrium-[90]-|abeled 2138 murine
antibody ated Y2B8 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,736,137); murine |gG2a 131 optionally labeled
with 131 l to generate the 131 l-B1 dy R®) (US. Pat. No. 5,595,721); murine
monoclonal antibody 1F5 (Press et al. Blood 69(2): 584-591 (1987)); ic 2H7 antibody
(US. Pat. No. 5,677,180); and monoclonal antibodies L27, G28-2, 93—1 133, B—Cl or NU-B2
available from the International Leukocyte Typing Workshop (Valentine et al., In: Leukocyte
Typing ||| (McMichael, Ed., p. 440, Oxford sity Press (1987)).
Cyclooxygenase 2 represents another promising therapeutic target. Cyclooxygenases (COXs)
catalyze the first rate-limiting ~step in the sion of arachidonic acid to prostaglandins. In
contrast to COX-1, the COX-2 isoenzyme is not able in most normal tissues and rapidly
induced by various stimuli such as inflammatory ons.30 It is also expressed in various
tumour types and levels of COX-2 expression have been shown to correlate with invasiveness
and prognosis in some tumour entities, including epithelial and melanocytic skin cancer.”31
Epidemiological studies showed that prolonged COX-2 inhibition through acetylsalicylic acid or
other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) might offer some protection against
colon cancer and some other malignancies.32 So far the benefit of COXinhibitors has not
been studied in the adjuvant treatment of early-stage melanomas to prevent metastasis. In the
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
second-line treatment of advanced metastatic melanoma disease, however, a survival benefit
was shown for targeted combined therapy using COX-Z—inhibitors and PPARG-agonists for
anti-inflammatory treatment together with low-dose metronomic chemotherapy.33 ering
this observation and the fact that melanoma ts with COX-Z-positive primary tumours
bear a significantly higher risk of tumour recurrence,14 it is concluded that the presence of
COX-2 in melanoma cells of a patient as determined with the method of the present ion
is indicative for a therapeutic ent of said t with compounds targeting COX-2, such
as for example COX-2 inhibitors including, but not limited, Celecoxib, Etoricoxib or Parecoxib
for primary adjuvant treatment of these patients.
Furthermore, in the adjuvant treatment of malignant melanoma, interferon alpha is currently
the only clinically ed therapeutic agent providing a significant (recurrence-free) survival
benefit for a small but ct percentage of patients.34 On account of the serious side effects
and the high costs of the y, it is advantageous to determine those patients with a
realistic chance to benefit from interferon treatment. It has recently been shown that there is a
clear association between MTAP expression in the primary melanoma and ma
progression and, even more importantly, response to eron treatment.‘3'2’3'35 Biomarkers
like MTAP might ore enable practitioners to assess which patients may benefit from
eron treatment and could thus provide a new basis for a clear targeted use of this
ive immunotherapeutic agent and prevent the serious side effects associated with the
treatment with interferon.
Also Bcl-X has been ed in preclinical tests and several targeting agents are in the
clinical testing phase by now:36 Bcl-X is related to the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein family. Over-
expression of these anti—apoptotic proteins protects cancer cells against death s of
apoptosis. stingly, tumours expressing high levels of Bcl-2 or Bcl-X are often found to be
resistant to chemotherapeutic agents or radiation therapy.37 In recent years, there has been
an exponential growth in the identification and synthesis of ptidic cell permeable “small
molecule inhibitors” (SMls) against anti-apoptotic proteins like Bcl-2 or Bcl-X (see e.g. Azmi
and Mohammad 2009). SMls inhibit distinct protein-protein interactions by blocking specific
binding sites of the target molecule, thus supporting the apoptotic machinery.38 Inhibition of
Bcl-X may exert a synergistic effect with conventional treatments like chemo- or radiation
therapy and with respect to melanoma therapy, this effect would be a decisive therapeutic
SUCCGSS.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
For PTEN oncogenic pathway addiction, as described herein above, has been described in
detail in the literature, for example in Weinstein and Joe 2008‘", Zhang and Yu 2010”,
Mirmohammadsadegh et al. 200643, Lahtz et al. 2010“4 or Zhou et al. .
In accordance with the present invention, the marker ure ents a highly promising
clinical tool to predict a patient's prognosis. Most importantly, the marker signature is expected
to improve the clinical management and adjuvant ent of early-stage malignant
melanoma with a high risk of recurrence. In the treatment of advanced metastatic melanoma,
novel immune-based anti—tumour ies targeting signal uction pathways or tumour
immunity barriers by monoclonal antibodies like selective BRAF inhibitors38 or anti—cytotoxic T-
lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA—4) antibodies39 have already entered clinical studies. This
promising therapeutic option in the treatment of ed metastatic malignant melanoma
development, together with the set of molecular markers identified in accordance with the
present invention is expected to provide new risk-oriented indications for an individualized
targeted anti-tumour therapy of malignant melanoma.
In a preferred embodiment of the method of ing a tailored pharmaceutical composition,
the at least five biomarkers include CD20, Cox—2 and/or MTAP.
Thus, the set of biomarkers employed in accordance with this preferred embodiment
comprises at least CD20, or Cox-2, or MTAP, or CD20 and Cox-2, or CD20 and MTAP, or
Cox-2 and MTAP, or CD20 and Cox—2 and MTAP.
In another preferred embodiment of the method of preparing a tailored pharmaceutical
composition, at least seven kers are determined.
In a more preferred embodiment of the method of ing a tailored pharmaceutical
composition, the at least seven biomarkers are MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl—X, B-Catenin, CD20
and Cox-2.
In a further preferred embodiment of the method of preparing a tailored pharmaceutical
ition, at least nine biomarkers are determined.
In accordance with this embodiment of the method of preparing a tailored pharmaceutical
composition, all nine kers MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d
and MLH1 are determined.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
In a further more preferred embodiment of the method(s) of the invention, the sample is
obtained from the y tumour, a lymph node or a asis.
The term "primary tumour" in accordance with the present invention refers to a ant
tumour (also referred to herein as a ) at a first site. i.e. in a first organ or part of the
body. In general, when the area of cancer cells at the originating site become ally
able, it is referred to as a primary tumour. In the present case of malignant melanoma,
said primary tumour is a malignant tumour of melanocytes, which are present in the skin (i.e.
the y tumour is skin cancer) but also in the mucous membrane and the eye. Some
cancer cells also acquire the ability to ate and infiltrate surrounding normal tissues in
the local area, forming a new tumour. The newly formed "daughter" tumour in the adjacent site
within the tissue is called a local metastasis while the formation of a new tumour in a non-
adjacent site is called a distant metastasis.
In accordance with the present invention, the term "lymph node" refers a small organ of the
immune system that is ant in the proper functioning of the immune system, as it acts as
a filter or trap for foreign particles. Lymph nodes are widely distributed throughout the body
including the armpit and stomach/gut and linked by lymphatic vessels. Lymph nodes become
inflamed or enlarged in s conditions, which can range from throat infections to life-
threatening diseases such as cancers.
In another more preferred embodiment of the method(s) of the invention, the sample is a
tissue sample, a blood sample or lymph.
In a further more preferred embodiment of the method(s) of the invention, the presence or
amount of the biomarkers is analysed by methods determining genetic or epigenetic
modifications or riptional or protein levels or a combination thereof.
Methods for determining genetic or epigenetic modifications or transcriptional or protein levels
have been defined herein above.
In another more preferred embodiment of the method(s) of the invention, the presence or
amount of the biomarkers is determined by immunohistochemistry, mass spectrometry,
Western Blot, Northern Blot, PCR, RNA in situ hybridisation or a combination thereof.
All of the above methods are well known in the art. Preferably, histochemical methods
include, without being limiting, tissue microarrays (TMA) as described in the appended
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
examples. Preferably, when employing TMAs, analysis is carried out in two representative
areas per TMA—spot, wherein each area comprises about 100 cells, such as for example
y 100 cells.
in a further more preferred embodiment of the method(s) of the invention, the biomarker is
protein.
The present invention further relates to a kit for predicting the course of disease in a patient
having a malignant melanoma, the kit comprising: (a) means for determining the presence or
amount of the set of biomarkers as defined in accordance with the methods of the present
invention in a sample obtained from said malignant melanoma, and (b) instructions how to use
the kit.
In its broadest sense, the term "kit" does not require the presence of any other compounds,
vials, containers and the like. Preferably, the various components of the kit may be packaged
in one or more containers such as one or more vials. uently, the various ents
of the kit may be present in isolation or combination. The containers or vials may, in addition
to the components, comprise preservatives or buffers for storage.
"Means for determining the presence or amount of [...] biomarkers" are well known in the art
and include, without being limiting, antibodies specifically binding (i.e. without cross-reacting
with unrelated markers) to the biomarkers in accordance with the present invention; c
acid probes for the detection of the kers on the nucleic acid level, such as for example
c acid probes specifically hybridising with parts or full-length nucleic acid molecules
(DNA as well as RNA) encoding said biomarkers; sequencing primers for the analysis and
ion of ic sequences of the DNA encoding the biomarkers, e.g. sequences
containing mutations known to ere with the sion of said biomarkers; amplification
primers for ying transcribed nucleic acid molecules of the respective biomarkers;
primers c for methylated DNA for use in quantitative ation-specific PCR (Q-MSP)
3O (as described eg. in t Protocols in Human Genetics, DOl: 10.1002/
O471142905.hg1006361); and also methylation-sensitive restriction enzymes.
The term "comprising" in the context of the kit(s) of the invention denotes that further
components can be t in the kit. Non-limiting examples of such further components
include, as mentioned, preservatives, buffers for storage, enzymes etc.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
Also encompassed by this embodiment is that the kit comprises further means for determining
the ce or amount of biomarkers or reference markers different from the biomarkers of
the present invention. Such biomarkers or nce markers ent from the biomarkers of
the present invention include, without being limiting, additional tumour s for malignant
melanoma, such as for example protein S100, HMB45, Melan-A, anti-Pan Melanoma
antibodies as well as reference markers, including, without being limiting, GAPDH, RPLPO,
PGK1, HSP90AB1, cyclophilin, actin.
If the kit comprises such onal means for determining the presence or amount of
biomarkers or reference markers different from the markers in accordance with the present
invention, it is preferred that at most 10.000 such additional markers are sed in the kit
of the invention. More preferably, at most 5.000, such as for example at most 2.000 and more
preferably at most 1.000 additional nucleic markers are comprised in the kit of the invention.
More preferably, at most 800, such as for example at most 600, more preferable at most 400,
such as for example at most 300, at most 200, at most 100 and more preferably at most 80
additional s are comprised in the kit of the invention. Even more preferably, at most 50,
such as for example at most 40, more preferable at most 30, such as for example at most 20,
at most 10, at most 9, at most 8, at most 7, at most 6, at most 5, at most 4, at most 3, at most
2 and yet more preferably at most 1 additional marker(s) is/are comprised in the kit of the
' invention. Also preferred is that the kit of the ion only comprises means for ining
the presence or amount of the set of biomarkers as defined in accordance with the methods of
the present ion.
Furthermore, the present invention also relates to a kit for deriving a treatment n for an
individual t having a malignant melanoma, the kit comprising: (a) means for determining
the presence or amount of the set of biomarkers as defined in accordance with the present
ion in a sample obtained from said malignant melanoma, (b) instructions how to use the
kit.
‘ The definitions
as well as the preferred embodiments provided herein above with regard to the
kit for predicting the course of disease apply mutatis mutandis also to this embodiments
relating to a kit for preparing a tailored pharmaceutical composition as outlined above.
The t invention also s to a pharmaceutical composition for use in treating or
preventing malignant melanoma, wherein the pharmaceutical composition comprises (an)
inhibitor(s) of CD20, Cox-2 and/or PTEN and/or (an) agent(s) affecting MTAP signalling
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
WO 31052
pathways.
The term "inhibitor", in accordance with the present invention, relates to a compound ng
the activity of a target molecule, i.e. CD20, Cox-2 and/or PTEN. The inhibitor may act
preferably by performing one or more of the following effects: (1) the transcription of the gene
encoding the protein to be inhibited is lowered, (ii) the translation of the mRNA ng the
protein to be inhibited is lowered, (iii) the protein performs its biochemical function with
lowered or abolished efficiency in presence of the inhibitor, and (iv) the protein performs its
ar function with lowered or abolished efficiency in ce of the inhibitor.
Compounds falling in class (i) include compounds interfering with the transcriptional
machinery and/or its interaction with the promoter of said gene and/or with expression control
elements remote from the promoter such as enhancers but also with epigenetic control
mechanisms, thus altering for example the ation status of the promoter of a target gene.
Compounds of class (ii) comprise antisense constructs and constructs for performing RNA
interference (e.g. siRNA, shRNA, miRNA) well known in the art (see, eg. Zamore (2001) Nat.
. Biol;'8(9), 746; Tuschl (2001) Chembiochem. 2(4), 239). Compounds of class (iii)
interfere with molecular function of the protein to be inhibited, in the present case with the
molecular function of CD20, Cox-2 and/or PTEN as described herein above. Accordingly,
active site g compounds are envisaged. Class (iv) includes compounds which do not
necessarily bind ly to the target proteins, but still interfere with their activity, for example
by binding to and/or inhibiting the function or expression of s of a y which
comprises the target proteins. These members may be either upstream or downstream of the
target protein within said pathway.
In a preferred ment, the level of activity (including, as defined above, the level
expression) is less than 90%, more preferred less than 80%, less than 70%, less than 60% or
less than 50% of the activity in the absence of the inhibitor. Yet more preferred are inhibitors
lowering the level to less than 25%, less than 10%, less than 5% or less than 1% of the
activity in the absence of the inhibitor.
The efficiency of the inhibitor can be quantified by comparing the level of activity in the
presence of the inhibitor to that in the absence of the inhibitor. For e, as an activity
e may be used: the change in amount of mRNA formed, the change in amount of
protein formed, the change in amount of activity of CD20, Cox-2 and/or PTEN, and/or a
change in the cellular phenotype or in the phenotype of an organism.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
The function of any of the inhibitors referred to in the present invention may be identified
and/or verified by using high hput screening assays (HTS). High-throughput assays,
independently of being biochemical, cellular or other , generally may be performed in
wells of microtiter , wherein each plate may n, for example 96, 384 or 1536 wells.
Handling of the plates, including incubation at temperatures other than ambient temperature,
and bringing into contact of test compounds with the assay e is preferably ed by
one or more computer-controlled robotic systems including pipetting devices. In case large
libraries of test compounds are to be screened and/or screening is to be effected within short
time, mixtures of, for example 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 100 test compounds may be added to
each well. In case a well exhibits biological activity, said mixture of test compounds may be
de-convoluted to identify the one or more test compounds in said mixture giving rise to the
observed biological activity.
Furthermore, the determination of binding of potential inhibitors can be effected in, for
example, any binding assay, preferably sical binding assay, which may be used to
identify binding test molecules prior to performing the functional/activity assay with the
inhibitor. Suitable sical binding assays are known in the art and comprise cence
polarisation (FP) assay, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) assay and e
plasmon resonance (SPR) assay.
In cases where the inhibitor acts by affecting the expression level of the target protein, the
determination of the expression level of the protein can, for example, be carried out on the
nucleic acid level or on the amino acid level, as described herein above.
In a preferred embodiment, the inhibitor is an antibody, an aptamer, an siRNA, an shRNA, an
miRNA, a ribozyme, an nse nucleic acid molecule or a small molecule.
The term "agents affecting MTAP signalling pathways", in accordance with the present
3O invention, relates to agents which do not necessarily bind directly to MTAP, but interfere with
MTAP signalling activity, for e by binding to and/or inhibiting the function or expression
of members of the MTAP pathway. For example, Wild at al. 200613 describe that MTAP
expression ates with responsiveness to interferon y, thus rendering interferon a
suitable therapeutic agent in malignant melanomas expressing MTAP. Further details have
been described eg. in Behmann et al. 2003.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
Inhibitors of CD20, Cox-2 and/or agents affecting MTAP signalling pathways and/or the
oncogenic pathway addiction of PTEN are well known in the art and include, without being
limiting, any of the compounds recited herein above.
In a more preferred embodiment, the ceutical composition comprises Rituximab,
Celecoxib or interferon alpha.
Rituximab is an antibody also sold under the trade names MabThera® (by Roche) or Rituxan®,
(by Biogen ldec/Genentech) that has the DrugBank Accession number D800073 and the ATC
code (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System) L01XC02.
Celecoxib, also known as Celebrex, Celebra or Onsenal (sold by Pfizer), is a sulfa non-
dal anti-inflammatory drug and has the DrugBank Accession number APRD00373 as
well as the ATC code 3 M01AH01. Celecoxib has the structural formula:
HN2 ‘3
N4’ \
l /
Unless othewvise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same
meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention
s. In case of conflict, the patent specification, including definitions, will prevail.
The figures show:
Figure 1: The Seven-Marker Signature and Survival of 362 Patients with Primary
malignant melanoma. Panel A shows the IHC sion es of 362 tumour specimens
from the primary cohort ordered by their predicted risk score. Each column represents an
individual patient consisting of the expression values of the seven-marker ure (5 risk
markers and 2 tive s). The magnitude of the corresponding risk score is plotted
below for 181 low risk patients (light grey; left hand side of the Expression profile) and 181
high risk patients (dark grey; right hand side of the Expression profile). lHC sion values
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
were scaled between 0 (light grey) and 1 (dark grey) for plotting only. White cells represent
missing values (n.a.). Panels B - E show Kaplan-Meier estimates of overall and recurrence-
free al for high risk patients and low risk patients from the primary cohort according to
the nine-marker ure (Panels B, C) and its reduced version, the seven-marker signature
(Panels D, E), respectively. Equality in survival expectance of the subgroups is assessed by
the log-rank test. Removing the two “less specific" s (MLH1 and CD49d) from the
signature does not reduce the statistical power of the predicted risk score. The difference
between high risk patients and low risk patients is highly significant (p < 0.001) for the seven-
marker signature.
Figure 2: tion of the Seven-Marker Signature and the FDR Marker ion
Procedure. Kaplan-Meier estimates of overall (Panel A) and recurrence-free survival (Panel
B) for the independent external test cohort of 225 patients (TMA 2) confirm the predictive
prognostic power of the signature (p<0.001). In addition, the FDR marker selection procedure
was tested by a 10-fold cross validation experiment on the 362 patients of the primary cohort
(TMA 1) resulting in still significant estimates for overall survival 01; Panel C) and
recurrence—free survival (p=0.013; Panel D). t
Figure 3: The Seven-Marker Signature and Survival of Patients with a Tumour
Thickness $2.0 mm. Kaplan-Meier estimates show a significantly lower overall (p=0.0053,
Panel A) and recurrence-free survival (p=0.008, Panel B) for patients with a comparatively low
tumour ess 32.0 mm but high-risk score. C, D. Leave-One—Out Cross tion. To
investigate the generalization error of the models produced by the FDR signature learning
procedure a one—out cross validation experiment was conducted on the primary cohort
of 362 MM patients. The resulting risk score could significantly (p<0.001) differentiate between
ts with higher or lower overall survival expectance. The two patient groups also
significantly (p=0.0057) differ in recurrence-free survival. E. Permutation Test. In addition to
the cross validation experiments a permutation test was conducted to assess if the ure
learning procedure is over fitting the data set. The resulting signature, which was learned on
permuted overall survival data, was not able (p=1) to discriminate between patients with
differing survival expectance. This result tes that the proposed learning procedure does
not over fit the data. F. Coefficients and nce Intervals of the Seven-Marker
Signature. The coefficients from the univariate Cox proportional hazard models are used in a
ed linear combination to predict the risk score for each patient. s with ve
coefficients represent protective markers (MTAP, B-Catenin); those with positive coefficients
risk markers (Bax, CDZO, Bcl-X, PTEN and COX-2).
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
Figure 4. Hazard Ratios of the Nine-Marker Signature learned by the FDR selection
procedure. Markers with a hazard ratio smaller than 1.00 represent protective markers
(MTAP, β-Catenin). Those with hazard ratios larger than 1.00 represent risk markers (Bax,
Bcl-X, CD20, CD49d, COX-2, MLH1 and PTEN).
Figure 5. Correlation between markers of the invention
Figure 6: The Six-Marker Signature and al of 362 Patients with Primary Malignant
Melanoma.
s 6A and B show Kaplan-Meier tes of overall (Fig. 6A) and recurrence-free (Fig.
6B) survival for high-risk patients and sk patients from the primary cohort ing to a
further reduced six-marker signature. CD20 was removed from the seven-marker signature
and the statistical power of the corresponding six-marker risk score (by Bax, Bcl-X, β-Catenin,
COX-2, MTAP, PTEN) was tested. Among the 362 patients of the primary cohort, patients with
a high-risk six-marker signature had a significantly shorter median overall (Fig. 6A) and
recurrence-free survival (Fig. 6B) than the ts with a low-risk six-marker signature. The
difference between the two patient groups was highly significant for l survival
(p=0.000000047, Fig. 6A) and recurrence-free survival (p=0.0013, Fig. 6B), respectively. This
observation supports the strong statistical power and predictive value of this set of kers
with the course of melanoma disease. Figure 6 refers to the primary cohort of patients
terized in Fig.1.
Figure 7: The Five-Marker Signature and Survival of 362 Patients with Primary
ant Melanoma.
Figures 7A and B show Kaplan-Meier estimates of overall (Fig. 7A) and recurrence-free (Fig.
7B) survival for high-risk patients and low-risk patients from the primary cohort according to a
further reduced five-marker ure. CD20 and PTEN were removed from the marker
signature and the tical power of the corresponding five-marker risk score (by Bax, Bcl-X,
β-Catenin, COX-2, MTAP) was tested. Among the 362 patients of the primary cohort, patients
with a high-risk five-marker signature had a significantly shorter median overall (Fig. 7A) and
recurrence-free survival (Fig. 7B) than the patients with a low-risk five-marker signature. The
difference n the two patient groups was highly significant for l survival
(p=0.00000066, Fig. 7A) and recurrence-free survival (p=0.0024, Fig. 7B), respectively. This
observation supports the strong statistical power and predictive value of this set of only five
biomarkers with the course of melanoma disease. Figure 7 also refers to the primary cohort of
patients characterized in Fig.1.
Figure 7: Immunohistochemically stained TMA Specimens illustrating the Seven-Marker
Signature for one Patient with High-Risk and one Patient with Low-Risk Melanoma. The
low-risk melanoma (Column C) showed a strong cytoplasmic staining for β-Catenin and
MTAP, tively. Immunoreactivity of these two protective markers was not found in the
high-risk melanoma (Column D). In st, the high-risk melanoma demonstrated a
moderate to strong cytoplasmic staining for Bax, CD20, Bcl-X, PTEN and COX-2.
The examples illustrate the invention:
Example 1: Materials and Methods
Tissue Microarrays (TMAs)
TMAs were ucted as described previously‘""14 and based on primary melanoma
material, collected between 1994 and 2006. TMA 1, the primary , contained tissue
punch samples from 364 consecutive (non-selected), in-fixed, paraffin-embedded
malignant melanoma of 364 different patients and were from the Department of Dermatology,
University Hospital of Regensburg, Germany. TMA 2, the ary cohort, which was used
as independent external validation cohort, consisted of utive (non-selected) melanoma
s from 235 patients of the Department of ology, University al Hamburg-
Eppendori, Germany. For patients with multiple subsequent neoplasms, only initial and single
primary malignant melanomas were included. H&E-stained slides of all malignant melanomas
were evaluated by two histopathologists. The clinico-pathological characteristics of the two
independent cohorts of melanoma patients are given in Table 4. Clinical follow-up data,
provided by the local tumour registries, were available for all patients of the primary cohort
(n=364) and 231 ts of the ary cohort. Patients were censored at 120 months, if
their follow—up exceeded the 10-year scope of the study. The study for both cohorts was
approved by the local scientific ethics committees (approvals no.: 07/093 for Regensburg and
MC-028/08 for Hamburg). The retrospective study was conducted according to the Declaration
of Helsinki Principles.
Table 4
Frumaq} Ext. lest
c aracterlstlcs o 0
Origin burg Hamburg
Patients
No. of patients 354 235
No. follow—up 364 100.0 231 98.3
No. of patients with at least 1 signature 362 99.5 225 95.7
marker
TMA Spots
No. of biomarkers 70 7
Valid spots 23106 90.7 1541 93.7
Missing spots 2374 9.3 104 6.3
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
Cllnlcoeailiologlcal N I’l-o N lIl-o
<=50 180 49.5 139 59.1
>60 184 50.5 92 39.1
unknown 4 1.7
Male 195 53.6 126 53.6
Female 169 46.4 105 44.7
unknown 4 1.7
lumor ess
<= 1mm 163 44.8 110 46.8
1.01-- 92 25.3 47 20.0
2.01-- 61 16.8 36 15.3
> 4mm 42 11.5 36 15.3
unknown 6 1.6 6 2.6
_————Cla?ZTev—eI—_—
1 2 0.5 1 0.4
2 75 20.6 39 16.6
3 106 29.1 80 34.0
4 149 40.9 90 38.3
14 3.8 19 8.1
unknown 18 4.9 6 2.6
Growtfi pattern
SSM 170 46.7 146 62.1
NMM 56 15.4 49 20.9
LMM 42 11.5 12 5.1
ALM 28 7.7 8 3.4
N08 68 18.7 20 8.5
mmuno Istoc emlca ata o o
n 5 1.4 5 2.1
1 60 16.5 49 20.9
2 95 26.1 81 34.5
3 88 24.2 56 23.8
4 88 24.2 29 12.3
unknown 28 7.7 15 6.4
B-Cafenin
0 10 2.7 4 1.7
1 121 33.2 43 18.3
2 106 29.1 108 46.0
3 71 19.5 53 22.6
4 17 4.7 11 4.7
unknown 39 10.7 16 6.8
u—TUZO—‘—_———__
0 333 91.5 154 65.5
1 12 3.3 48 20.4
2 4 1.1 16 6.8
3 1 0.3 1 0.4
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
unknown 14 3.8 16 6.8
BCL-X
0 151 41.5 66 28.1
1 167 45.9 117 49.8
2 26 7.1 38 16.2
3 1 0.3 4 1.7
unknown 19 5.2 10 4.3
————MT7SP———————'
0 56 15.4 103 43.8
1 245 67.3 101 43.0
2 16 6.8
unknown 63 17.3 15 6.4
0 57 15.7 23 9.8
1 140 38.5 87 37.0
2 116 31.9 76 32.3
3 28 7.7 25 10.6
4 4 1 1 8 3.4
unknown 19 5 2 16 6.8
Cox-2
0 121 33.2 20 8.5
1 188 51.6 103 43.8
2 39 10 7 73 31.1
3 5 1 4 21 8.9
4 2 0.9
unknown 11 3.0 16 6.8
—__——CD71'9F—_——_
0 63 17.3 n.a
1 137 37.6
2 78 21.4
3 33 9.1
4 3 0.8
unknown 50 13.7
MLH1
0 65 17.9 n.a
1 130 35.7
2 99 27.2
3 37 10.2
4 13 3.6
n 20 5.5
Table 4: Characterization and Comparison of the y Cohort (TMA 1) and the
External Test Cohort (TMA 2). Reported are the number of counts and the associated
percentages for all specimens on the tissue microarrays. CD49d and MLH1 are not contained
in the final seven-marker signature and therefore were not analyzed on the external test TMA
2. Missing values are listed as “unknown".
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
lmmunohistochemical Analysis
Paraffin-embedded preparations of melanoma tissues were screened for protein expression
according to standardized immunohistochemical (IHC) ols as described previously.”‘“
The primary antibodies used in this study were selected for reporting on key aspects of
apoptosis, cell cycle, signal transduction, cell adhesion, melanoma differentiation and
proliferation, and tumour metabolism.
A|| IHC igations were based on an avidin-biotin peroxidase method with a 3-amino
ethylcarbazole (AEC) togen. After antigen retrieval (steam boiler with citrate-buffer, pH
6.0 or with Tris-EDTA—buffer, pH 9.0 for 20 min), immunohistochemistry was carried out
applying the ZytoChemPIus HRP Broad Spectrum Kit (Zytomed Systems, Berlin, Germany)
according to the cturer’s instructions. IHC stainings were performed for 70 different
primary antibodies (source and concentration are listed in Table 5). Cytoplasmic and nuclear
markers were visualized with AEC solution (AEC+ High Sensitivity Substrate Chromogen,
ready-to—use, DAKO, Glostrup, Denmark). The red colour of the AEC substrate chromogen (3-
amino-Q-ethylcarbazole) is very cial to rule out the possibility of a role of endogenous
' n in the observed reactiVity. All sections were counterstained with hematoxylin (DAKO).
ve controls were obtained by ng the y antibody. Two
dermatohistopathoiogists performed a blinded evaluation of the stained slides without
knowledge of clinical data. The specificity of the commercial antibodies has been thoroughly
tested by Western blotting using melanocytes and a variety of human cell lines including
several ma cell lines.
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A dermatohistopathologist and a surgical pathologist performed a blinded, stringent evaluation
of the stained slides as previously described‘3'”. Cytoplasmic and nuclear immuno-reactivity
were evaluated using a stepwise scoring system (0 to 4+): 0 (negative): no cytoplasmic
staining or 0% of cell nuclei stained; 1+: weak cytoplasmic staining or less than 20% of cell
nuclei stained; 2+: moderate cytoplasmic staining or 21 to 50% of cell nuclei stained; 3+:
strong cytoplasmic staining or 51 to 90% of cell nuclei stained; 4+: very strong cytoplasmic
ng or nuclear staining greater than 90%. This semi-quantitative g system was
consistently used for all 70 markers analysed. asmic markers were estimated according
to the staining intensity found in the melanoma cells of the individual TMA spot. For nuclear
markers, the percentage of melanoma cell nuclei with positive staining was assessed. TMA
spots with a lack of tumour tissue or presence of necrosis or crush artefact were excluded
from the analysis.
Statistical Analysis
An estimation of statistical power versus total sample size N for different hazard ratios was
performed. Accordingly, the available sample size of 364 able patients on TMA1 would
be sufficient to detect a difference concerning survival with a significance of p<0.05 and a
power of almost 100%. Calculations were performed using the respective models of the PASS
2008 software (NCSS, Kaysville, UT).
One of the main statistical problems in large scale IHC studies are missing values in the
design matrix due to missing or corrupt spots on the TMA. The more markers are investigated
the higher the chance that at least one value is g per patient. Frequently, this problem is
tackled by either icing a larger number of patient s or by employing volatile
multiple tion techniques. ln this study 9.3% of values are missing which would reduce
the set of patients with all IHC measurements from 364 to 170. thms like random
al forests15 and ensemble learning with gradient boosting16 are capable of dealing with
missing values, but lead to , which are not intuitively interpretable and difficult to
implement in clinical practice. To overcome these problems the following learning procedure
was employed which is invariant to missing values and results in an easily retable and a
practically applicable linear model.
Prognostic power of the 70 markers was ed by learning univariate proportional hazard
models,17 yielding 11 s significantly associated with overall survival. To correct for
multiple testing, the false discovery rate (FDR) procedure18 was d with a FDR of 0.15
- reducing the set of significantly associated markers to 9. A risk score was calculated for each
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
patient by a linear combination of the univariate Cox regression coefficients [3 and the
corresponding IHC measurements x. Finally, the score is ised by the number of
markers measured:
IXl lxl
score(x) = 2(Bixi)1[3xi] Z 18%;]
i=1 i=1
Based on this risk score, patients were ed to a high risk group and a low risk group, split
at the 50th tile (median) of all . Thus, the final model consists of the coefficient
vector B and the median threshold 9.
A simplified version of this risk score calculation is as described herein above, i.e.:
1 If .‘L' ‘ BthS1:
_. E 2 : if :L'i is missing
i=1 1—1
Nonparametric Kaplan—Meier estimators19 were used to e overall survival and
recurrence-free survival. Differences between al estimates were assessed with the log-
rank test (LRT).2° P-values below 0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance.
Statistical analyses were conducted using R version 2.11.21
Statistical Validation
The validity of the ng procedure and hence the accuracy of the signature was assessed
in three different validation experiments. First, leave-one-out cross validation was employed
by excluding one patient at a time from the training set and subsequently scoring the left out
patient with the signature learned from the rest of the ts. Repeating this procedure 364
times yields a leave—one-out score estimate for each t in the study. The resulting
ence between high risk patients and low risk patients was highly significant (p<0.001)
and is depicted in Fig. 3C and D.
Second, 10-fold cross validation was conducted by partitioning the dataset into 10 parts of
equal size using 90% of the patients for learning and 10% for validation. The procedure was
repeated 10 times resulting in a 10-fold score for each patient. As expected, the resulting
differentiation n high risk and low risk patient was worse in terms of the LRT p—value
but was still highly significant (p<0.001) as shown in Fig. ZC and D.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
The third validation experiment was conducted to assess if the proposed marker selection
procedure is prone to over g. To this end, the target variable was randomly permuted and
a model was learned to t the risk score based on this distorted data. Fig. 3E illustrates
that it was impossible to learn a meaningful score (p>0.5) based on the permuted labels.
Although a large number of s were analysed to learn the signature, this result indicates
that the proposed algorithm does not over fit.
Example 2: The Nine-Marker Signature and Survival
The ed learning procedure based on the Cox regression coefficients and multiple
testing correction with FDR yielded nine markers which were correlated with death from any
cause. Two of these markers were protective markers (associated with a hazard ratio of less
than 1.00) and seven were risk markers (associated with a hazard ratio of more than 1.00)
(Fig. 4).
Among the nine markers were Bax and Bcl—X, two major regulators of the “intrinsic”
ondrial apoptosis pathway.22 Moreover, B-Catenin, a key ream effector in the
Wnt signaling pathway,23 and, CD20, a known B-cell marker recently suggested as candidate
marker for melanoma stem cells“. CD49d, an egrin (lTGA4) participating in cell—surface
mediated signaling and adhesion, was included, too.25 Apart from this, COX—2, a
cyclooxygenase also referred to as Prostaglandin H Synthase 2 with overexpression in a
variety of tumors including melanoma tumors was part of the signature.“ Two other markers
were MLH1, a DNA mismatch repair protein,26 and MTAP, a ,,housekeeping enzyme“ in
polyamine metabolism and ting protein of interferon response mechanisms.‘3'27 Finally,
the tumor suppressor phosphatase and tensin homolog PTEN was fied as another
signature protein. PTEN counteracts one of the most critical cancer promoting pathways,28 the
phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (Pl3K)/Akt signaling y. Clinically, PTEN mutations and
deficiencies are prevalent in many types of human cancers and loss of functional PTEN has
substantial impact on multiple aspects of cancer pment. MTAP and B-Catenin were the
only protective markers, whereas the other seven markers (Bax, Bcl-X, CD20, CD49d, COX-2,
MLH1, PTEN) were assigned risk markers.
Table 1 lists the characteristics of 362 patients in the study (two patients were removed due to
lack of all nine markers from the signature). Among these 362 patients of the primary cohort
tumors with high risk scores sed risk markers, whereas tumors with low risk scores
expressed protective markers (Fig. 1A). Patients with a high-risk nine-marker signature had a
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
2012/055827
lower median overall survival than those with a low-risk nine-marker signature (90 months
versus not reached) (Fig. 18). ts with tumors with a high-risk marker signature were
associated with a lower median recurrence-free survival than ts with tumors with a low-
risk gene signature (36 months versus 88) (Fig. 1C).
The cross validation experiments showed comparable results and demonstrated that ng
a marker signature for overall survival is feasible and reproducible (Fig. 20, D). For leave-one-
out cross validation, patients with high risk scores had a median survival of 94 month whereas
median survival for patients with low risk signature was not reached (Fig. 3C). The difference
in survival expectance between patients with isk score and sk score was highly
cant (p=0.000067). Although 10-fold cross validation has lower bias and higher variance
the difference between the high risk and low risk group (94 month versus not reached) was
still significant (p=0.00017) as shown in Fig. 2C. In contrast to the cross validation
experiments it was not le to learn a signature to predict permuted labels (p>0.5), which
indicates that the proposed ng procedure is not over fitting. In the permutation test
median survival was not reached by any risk-group (Fig. 3E).
Example 3: The Seven—Marker Signature and Survival
The aim of this study was to provide a maximum of prognostic and therapeutically relevant
information by a minimum of markers combined in a clear signature. For the sake of clinical
feasibility and cost saving, an IHC marker set suitable for routine clinical assessment should
be based on a limited number of antibodies. Accordingly, the 9-marker signature was reduced
by the risk marker with the lowest Cox regression coefficients B, i.e. MLH1 (B = 0.254).
Subsequently, the ing 8 risk markers were evaluated ing their impact on cancer
development and progression and potential therapeutic implications. In this g, CD49d, an
a4-integrin (lTGA4) participating in cell-surface mediated signaling and adhesion, was
considered to be the most dispensable . In particular, Western blot analysis of this 70-
180 kDa protein did not reveal one specific but several bands for a panel of melanoma cell
lines and cytes, respectively. Specificity of all other IHC antibodies of the ure
could be confirmed by immunoblotting.
Among the 362 patients of the primary cohort, patients with a high-risk seven-marker
signature (Bax, BcI-X, B-Catenin, CDZO, COX-2, MTAP, PTEN) had a shorter median overall
survival than the patients with a low-risk seven- marker signature (88 months versus not
reached) and the difference between' the two patient groups was highly significant
(p=0.0000000042) (Fig. 1D). The high-risk seven-marker signature was associated with a
median recurrence-free survival of 33 months, s the low-risk seven—marker signature
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
was associated with a median ence-free survival of 88 months (LRT p=0.00034, Fig.
1E).
According to multivariate Cox regression analysis, the seven-marker risk score, tumor
ess, sex, and age were significantly associated with death from any cause among the
356 patients (6 observations were deleted due to missing values) (Table 1).
A subgroup analysis of 253 patients with a tumor depth of $2 mm revealed that those 148
patients with a high-risk marker signature had a significant (p=0.0053) shorter overall survival
(Fig. 3A) and recurrence-free survival (p=0.008) than the 105 patients with a sk marker
signature (Fig. 38).
Example 4: Validation of the Seven-Marker Signature on an External Test Cohort
The clinical characteristics of the 225 patients in the al test cohort are listed in Table 2
(page 64). Patients with a high—risk marker signature had a significantly 00017) different
survival expectance and shorter median overall survival compared to patients with a low-risk
signature (95 months versus not reached) (Fig. 2A). ing to ariate Cox regression
including sex, age, tumor thickness, ulceration and nodal status, the seven-marker signature
was significantly associated with overall al (p=0.0000098, Table 1). Additionally, the
recurrence-free survival differed significantly between the two risk groups (p=0.004; Fig. 23).
Example 5: The Six-Marker Signature and Survival
After the seven-marker signature was reduced by the marker CD20, the corresponding six—
marker signature (Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, COX-2, MTAP, PTEN) still showed a significant
correlation with overall and recurrence-free survival; i.e. among the 362 patients of the primary
cohort, patients with a high-risk six-marker signature (Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, COX-2, MTAP,
PTEN) had a significantly shorter median overall (Fig. 6A) and recurrence-free survival (Fig.
BB) than the patients with a low-risk six-marker signature. The difference between the two
patient groups was highly significant for overall al 00000047, Fig. 6A) and
recurrence-free survival (p=0.0013, Fig. 63), respectively.
e 6: The Five-Marker Signature and Survival
After the seven-marker signature was reduced by the markers CDZO and PTEN, the
corresponding arker signature (Bax, Bcl-X, B-Catenin, COX-2, MTAP) still showed a
significant correlation with overall and recurrence-free survival; i.e. among the 362 patients of
the primary cohort, ts with a high-risk five-marker signature (Bax, BcI-X, B-Catenin,
COX-2, MTAP) had a icantly shorter median overall (Fig. 7A) and recurrence-free
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
survival (Fig. 78) than the patients with a low-risk five-marker signature. The difference
between the two patient groups was highly significant for overall survival (p=0.00000066, Fig.
7A) and ence—free survival (p=0.0024, Fig. 78), respectively.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
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Table 2. Clinical Characteristics of the the External Test Cohort of Patients with MM
(TMA 2). Comparing high-risk patients (first column) with low-risk patients (second column)
based on their seven-marker risk score shows significant difference in tumour thickness
(p<0.001) and no difference in sex (p=1) and age (p=0.267). Furthermore, hazard ratios and
p-values are reported for a multivariate Cox sion model comprising all listed les.
Regarding l survival the seven-marker risk score is statistically significant (p<0.001)
independent of sex, age and tumour thickness. Continuous variables are reported with mean
and standard deviation and categorical variables are listed with number of counts and
tages.
SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26)
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Claims (17)
1. A method of predicting the course of disease in a patient having a malignant melanoma, the method comprising determining in melanoma cells comprised in a sample 5 ed from said malignant melanoma the presence or amount of at least five biomarkers selected from the group comprising or consisting of MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, -Catenin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1, wherein the absence or decreased amount of MTAP and - Catenin and/or the presence or increased amount of PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1 is associated with a antageous course of disease. 10
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least five biomarkers include PTEN and/or MTAP.
3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein at least seven biomarkers are determined.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the at least 7 biomarkers are MTAP, 15 PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, -Catenin, CD20 and Cox-2.
5. A method of preparing a tailored ceutical composition for a patient having a malignant melanoma, the method sing (i) determining in melanoma cells comprised in a sample obtained from said malignant melanoma the presence or amount of at least five biomarkers selected from the 20 group comprising or consisting of MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, -Catenin, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1, wherein the absence or decreased amount of -Catenin and MTAP and/or the ce or increased amount of PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, CD20, Cox-2, CD49d and MLH1is associated with a disadvantageous course of disease; (ii) ng a treatment regimen for the individual patient based on the presence or 25 amount of markers determined in step (i); and (iii) preparing at least one pharmaceutical ition suitable for use in the treatment regimen derived in step (ii).
6. The method ing to claim 5, wherein the at least five biomarkers include CD20, Cox-2 and/or MTAP.
7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, wherein at least seven biomarkers are determined.
8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the at least 7 biomarkers are MTAP, PTEN, Bax, Bcl-X, -Catenin, CD20 and Cox-2. 5
9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, n the sample is ed from the primary tumour, a lymph node or a metastasis.
10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the sample is a tissue sample, a blood sample or lymph.
11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the presence or amount 10 of the biomarkers is analysed by methods determining genetic or epigenetic modifications or transcriptional or n levels or a combination thereof.
12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the presence or amount of the biomarkers is determined by immunohistochemistry, mass spectrometry, Western Blot, Northern Blot, PCR, RNA in situ hybridisation or a combination thereof. 15
13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein the biomarker is protein.
14. A kit when used to predict the course of disease in a patient having a malignant melanoma according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 4 or 9 to 13, the kit comprising: (a) means for determining the presence or amount of the set of kers as 20 defined by any one of claims 1 to 4 in a sample obtained from said malignant melanoma, (b) instructions how to use the kit.
15. A kit when used to derive a treatment n for an dual patient having a malignant ma according to the method of any one of claims 5 to 13, the kit comprising: (a) means for determining the presence or amount of the set of biomarkers as 25 defined by step (i) of any one of claims 5 to 8 in a sample obtained from said malignant melanoma, (b) instructions how to use the kit.
16. A method according to claim 1, substantially as herein described with reference to any one or more of the examples but excluding comparative examples.
17. A kit according to claim 14 or claim 15, substantially as herein described with 5 reference to any one or more of the es but excluding comparative examples.
Applications Claiming Priority (3)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
EP11002747.1 | 2011-04-01 | ||
EP11002747A EP2506015A1 (en) | 2011-04-01 | 2011-04-01 | A prognostic and therapeutic signature for malignant melanoma |
PCT/EP2012/055827 WO2012131052A1 (en) | 2011-04-01 | 2012-03-30 | A prognostic and therapeutic signature for malignant melanoma |
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
NZ615544A NZ615544A (en) | 2015-09-25 |
NZ615544B2 true NZ615544B2 (en) | 2016-01-06 |
Family
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