Clinical Research Directory

Evaluation of Skin Tests in Biotherapy Allergies

Biotherapies are biological (extracted from an organism or living tissue) or biotechnological drugs used in the treatment of multiple conditions, such as autoimmune inflammatory diseases, cancers, and hematologic diseases. In recent years, these biotherapies have notably emerged in the treatment of cancers and hematologic disorders. As such, most patients with cancers or hematologic diseases will likely receive a biotherapy as part of their care pathway. These biotherapies are associated with various side effects, including hypersensitivity or allergic reactions, which are often poorly characterized in clinical trials. These reactions manifest as symptoms without specific dermatologic or allergologic semiology (such as itching, erythema, shortness of breath, sometimes digestive issues, or discomfort, and in some cases, an anaphylactic reaction). Unlike other treatments, such as antibiotics and neuromuscular blockers, there are currently no guidelines on the concentrations to use in skin tests for biotherapies. We propose conducting prospective clinical research to scientifically establish the concentrations to be used when investigating hypersensitivity to a biotherapy, in line with best practice recommendations for drug skin testing.

Clinical Benefit and Biomarker Analysis of Combination of PD-1/PD-L1 Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors and Radiotherapy

Inhibitors of the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/PD-L1 immune checkpoint signaling pathway are already approved in the treatment of various tumor entities in relapsed or metastatic stages. Different exploratory trials suggest that the combination of radiotherapy and PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors is highly effective, especially in oligometastatic stages and if all lesions are treated with ablative radiotherapy. In addition, the role of predictive biomarkers is becoming increasingly important for future therapy algorithms. First data, also from our group, indicate clearly that dynamic changes of immune cells and their activation markers in the peripheral blood (immune matrix) can be used as predictive biomarkers. During the planned STICI-02 trial predictive immune matrix derived from the STICI01 trial (NCT03453892) will be validated in the groups of patient suffering from HNSCC (palliative), NSCLC (separately palliative and adjuvant) and "other solid tumors" (including in particular esophageal carcinomas, urothelial and renal carcinomas, small cell bronchial carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas of the skin \[depending on the current drug approval\]). Within the framework of scientific accompanying projects, the predictive value of markers in tumor tissue and of pattern radiomics analyses will be analyzed accompanying the immunophenotyping in peripheral blood. The side effects