Clinical Trial Sequencing Program (CTSP)

NCI’s CCG and Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) are engaged in a collaboration named Clinical Trial Sequencing Project (CTSP). This project has launched out of a joint aspiration to promote the use of genomics in NCI-sponsored clinical trials of the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). CTSP’s goal is to elucidate the molecular basis of response and resistance to therapies studied. Biospecimens collected from NCI-sponsored NCTN clinical trials will undergo whole genome or whole exome sequencing in conjunction with transcriptome sequencing to identify genomic alterations important to the hypotheses stated in the proposals. The genomic and anonymized clinical data from CTSP will be made publically available in the Genomic Data Commons (GDC) to benefit the cancer research community. The cancer types currently under study are breast cancer, renal cell carcinoma, and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

ECOG-ACRIN E2805 Trial of Renal Cell Carcinoma

CCG will receive tissue samples of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common kidney cancer in adults, from a recent NCI-sponsored clinical trial that tested the effectiveness of two inhibitors of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with high-risk, non-metastatic RCC.

Abnormal activity of the VEGF pathway drives RCC by stimulating the development of blood vessels that provide nutrients to the tumor. Inhibition of VEGF has been shown to be effective for the treatment of advanced RCC that has metastasized to other areas of the body. However, patients with high-risk, non-metastatic disease treated with sunitinib or sorafenib, both VEGF inhibitors, received no benefit compared to patients who received a placebo following surgical removal of their tumors.

CCG will analyze approximately 400 tissue samples from the ECOG-ACRIN E2805 trial of sunitinib and sorafenib to learn more about genomic drivers of RCC development, metastasis, and recurrence.

Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma Trial

CCG will perform a comprehensive molecular analysis of tissue samples of Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common adult non-Hodgkin lymphoma, from a Phase III clinical trial run by Cancer and Leukemia Group B.

The trial, Rituximab and Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma (NCT00118209) treated 430 DLBCL patients with rituximab, an antibody that targets B cells for destruction, in combination with one of two different chemotherapy regimens. By randomly assigning patients to either R-CHOP or Dose Adjusted-EPOCH-R, the study aims to establish which chemotherapy best complements rituximab in the treatment of DLBCL and to develop a molecular predictor of patient responses.

The goal of CCG’s in-depth analysis of the DNA, RNA, and protein of DLBCL samples from this trial is to bolster the findings with rich molecular data and to add key information, including multi-platform analysis of DLBCL subtypes and predictors of tumor resistance.