Plasma biomarkers of clinical response during chemotherapy plus combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) in HIV+ patients with advanced Kaposi sarcoma

• Published in: Oncotarget Vol. 6; no. 30; pp. 30334 - 30342
• Main Authors: Tedeschi, Rosamaria, Bidoli, Ettore, Bortolin, Maria Teresa, Schioppa, Ornella, Vaccher, Emanuela, De Paoli, Paolo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Impact Journals LLC 06-10-2015
• Subjects: Adult; Anti-Retroviral Agents - therapeutic use; Antigens, CD - blood; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols - therapeutic use; Biomarkers, Tumor - blood; Chemokines - blood; Clinical Research Paper; Cytokines - blood; Endoglin; Female; Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor - blood; Hepatocyte Growth Factor - blood; HIV Infections - blood; HIV Infections - diagnosis; HIV Infections - drug therapy; HIV Infections - mortality; HIV Infections - virology; Humans; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; Predictive Value of Tests; Proportional Hazards Models; Receptors, Cell Surface - blood; Remission Induction; Sarcoma, Kaposi - blood; Sarcoma, Kaposi - diagnosis; Sarcoma, Kaposi - drug therapy; Sarcoma, Kaposi - mortality; Sarcoma, Kaposi - virology; Time Factors; Treatment Outcome; Kaposi sarcoma (KS); endoglin; G-CSF; HGF; combination antiretroviral therapy (cART)
• ISSN: 1949-2553; 1949-2553
• DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.4571

This study aimed to evaluate plasma concentration of selected cancer-associated inflammatory and immune-modulated cytokines in HIV+ patients with advanced Kaposi sarcoma (KS), and to explore candidate biomarkers capable of predicting clinical outcome in response to chemotherapy (CT) plus combination antiretroviral therapy (cART).Thirty-seven plasma cytokines/chemokines were assessed by Luminex technology in 27 consecutive HIV+ KS patients, followed-up during CT and cART of maintenance (m-cART). Associations between plasma concentration of biomarkers and patient clinical response to m-cART were evaluated by means of Hazard Ratios (HRs) and corresponding 95% Confidence Intervals (CIs).Plasma baseline concentration of Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and endoglin were found to be associated with m-cART clinical response (HR:1.56, 95%CI:1.09-2.22, p = 0.01; HR:0.32, 95% CI:0.10-0.99, p = 0.05; HR:0.72, 95% CI:0.54-0.96, p = 0.03, respectively). The multivariate analysis confirmed the associations of baseline plasma G-CSF and HGF concentration with m-cART clinical complete remission response (HR:1.78, 95% CI:1.15-2.74, p = 0.009; HR:0.19, 95% CI:0.04-0.95, p = 0.04). Our exploratory study suggested that plasma G-CSF, HGF and endoglin may be novel predictors of clinical response during m-cART in HIV+ KS patients. Nonetheless, these findings should be further validated in an independent population study.