Publications & Posters
Plasma Tie2 is a tumor vascular response biomarker for VEGF inhibitors in metastatic colorectal cancer.
Jayson GC, Zhou C, Backen A, Horsley L, Marti-Marti K, Shaw D, Mescallado N, Clamp A, Saunders MP, Valle JW, Mullamitha S, Braun M, Hasan J, McEntee D, Simpson K, Little RA, Watson Y, Cheung S, Roberts C, Ashcroft L, Manoharan P, Scherer SJ, Del Puerto O, Jackson A, O’Connor JPB, Parker GJM and Dive C
Nat Commun. 2018 Nov 7;9(1):4672
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07174-1
Abstract
Oncological use of anti-angiogenic VEGF inhibitors has been limited by the lack of informative biomarkers. Previously we reported circulating Tie2 as a vascular response biomarker for bevacizumab-treated ovarian cancer patients. Using advanced MRI and circulating biomarkers we have extended these findings in metastatic colorectal cancer (n = 70). Bevacizumab (10 mg/kg) was administered to elicit a biomarker response, followed by FOLFOX6-bevacizumab until disease progression. Bevacizumab induced a correlation between Tie2 and the tumor vascular imaging biomarker, Ktrans (R:-0.21 to 0.47) implying that Tie2 originated from the tumor vasculature. Tie2 trajectories were independently associated with pre-treatment tumor vascular characteristics, tumor response, progression free survival (HR for progression = 3.01, p = 0.00014; median PFS 248 vs. 348 days p = 0.0008) and the modeling of progressive disease (p < 0.0001), suggesting that Tie2 should be monitored clinically to optimize VEGF inhibitor use. A vascular response is defined as a 30% reduction in Tie2; vascular progression as a 40% increase in Tie2 above the nadir. Tie2 is the first, validated, tumor vascular response biomarker for VEGFi.