Scholars@Duke
Gordana Vlahovic

Gordana Vlahovic

Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine
Medicine, Medical Oncology
vlaho001@mc.duke.edu
Duke Box 3624, Durham, NC 27710
Trent Drive, Baker House, DUMC Box 3624, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Durvalumab With or Without Tremelimumab for Patients With Metastatic Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: A Phase 2 Randomized Clinical Trial.

Journal Article JAMA Oncol · October 1, 2019 IMPORTANCE: New therapeutic options for patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC) are needed. This study evaluated dual checkpoint combination therapy in patients with mPDAC. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the ant ... Full text Link to item Cite

Tolerability and efficacy of durvalumab in Japanese patients with advanced solid tumors.

Journal Article Cancer Sci · May 2019 Blockade of programmed cell death ligand-1 with durvalumab has shown efficacy and safety in large, international studies of patients with advanced solid tumors. A phase 1, non-randomized, open-label multicenter study was initiated to evaluate durvalumab in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Phase II Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Rilotumumab and Bevacizumab in Subjects with Recurrent Malignant Glioma.

Journal Article Oncologist · August 2018 LESSONS LEARNED: Due to evolving imaging criteria in brain tumors and variation in magnetic resonance imaging evaluation, it is not ideal to use response rate as a primary objective. Future studies involving antiangiogenic agents should use overall surviva ... Full text Link to item Cite

Recurrent Glioblastoma Treated with Recombinant Poliovirus.

Journal Article N Engl J Med · July 12, 2018 BACKGROUND: The prognosis of patients with recurrent World Health Organization (WHO) grade IV malignant glioma is dismal, and there is currently no effective therapy. We conducted a dose-finding and toxicity study in this population of patients, evaluating ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Phase I Trial of the IGF-1R Antibody Ganitumab (AMG 479) in Combination with Everolimus (RAD001) and Panitumumab in Patients with Advanced Cancer.

Journal Article Oncologist · July 2018 PURPOSE: This study evaluated the maximum tolerated dose or recommended phase II dose (RPTD) and safety and tolerability of the ganitumab and everolimus doublet regimen followed by the ganitumab, everolimus, and panitumumab triplet regimen. MATERIALS AND M ... Full text Link to item Cite

Nivolumab with or without ipilimumab in patients with recurrent glioblastoma: results from exploratory phase I cohorts of CheckMate 143.

Journal Article Neuro Oncol · April 9, 2018 BACKGROUND: Immunotherapies have demonstrated efficacy across a diverse set of tumors supporting further evaluation in glioblastoma. The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety/tolerability and describe immune-mediated effects of nivolumab ± ipi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Dendritic Cells Enhance Polyfunctionality of Adoptively Transferred T Cells That Target Cytomegalovirus in Glioblastoma.

Journal Article Cancer Res · January 1, 2018 Median survival for glioblastoma (GBM) remains <15 months. Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigens have been identified in GBM but not normal brain, providing an unparalleled opportunity to subvert CMV antigens as tumor-specific immunotherapy targets. A recen ... Full text Link to item Cite

A cross sectional analysis from a single institution's experience of psychosocial distress and health-related quality of life in the primary brain tumor population.

Journal Article J Neurooncol · September 2017 Primary brain tumor patients experience high levels of distress. The purpose of this cross-sectional, retrospective study is to evaluate the level and different sources of psychosocial distress and how these pertain to health-related quality of life (HRQoL ... Full text Link to item Cite

Long-term Survival in Glioblastoma with Cytomegalovirus pp65-Targeted Vaccination.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · April 15, 2017 Purpose: Patients with glioblastoma have less than 15-month median survival despite surgical resection, high-dose radiation, and chemotherapy with temozolomide. We previously demonstrated that targeting cytomegalovirus pp65 using dendritic cells (DC) can e ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunotherapy Clinical Trials in Neuro-Oncology

Chapter · March 2, 2017 The treatment landscape of cancer is being quickly transformed by harnessing the power of the immune system. Its utilization has yielded remarkable responses in a wide range of malignancies and is being explored in a variety of carefully designed clinical ... Full text Cite

Immunotherapy approaches in the treatment of malignant brain tumors.

Journal Article Cancer · March 1, 2017 Glioblastoma is the most common malignant primary brain tumor. Despite standard-of-care treatment, consisting of maximal surgical resection followed by chemoradiation, both morbidity and mortality associated with this disease remain very poor. Therefore, t ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Phase I, First-in-Human Study of AMG 780, an Angiopoietin-1 and -2 Inhibitor, in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · September 15, 2016 PURPOSE: To assess the toxicity, pharmacokinetics, tumor vascular response, tumor response, and pharmacodynamics of AMG 780, a mAb designed to inhibit the interaction between angiopoietin-1 and -2 and the Tie2 receptor. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: This was a phas ... Full text Link to item Cite

Embracing rejection: Immunologic trends in brain metastasis.

Journal Article Oncoimmunology · July 2016 Brain metastases represent the most common type of brain tumor. These tumors offer a dismal prognosis and significantly impact quality of life for patients. Their capacity for central nervous system (CNS) invasion is dependent upon induced disruptions to t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunotherapy for gliomas

Chapter · March 31, 2016 Full text Cite

Vaccine Therapy, Oncolytic Viruses, and Gliomas.

Journal Article Oncology (Williston Park) · March 2016 After years of active research and refinement, vaccine therapy and oncolytic viruses are becoming part of the arsenal in the treatment of gliomas. In contrast to standard treatment with radiation therapy and chemotherapy, vaccines are more specific to the ... Link to item Cite

Detecting somatic mutations in genomic sequences by means of Kolmogorov-Arnold analysis.

Journal Article R Soc Open Sci · August 2015 The Kolmogorov-Arnold stochasticity parameter technique is applied for the first time to the study of cancer genome sequencing, to reveal mutations. Using data generated by next-generation sequencing technologies, we have analysed the exome sequences of br ... Full text Link to item Cite

Phase 1 study of ixazomib, an investigational proteasome inhibitor, in advanced non-hematologic malignancies.

Journal Article Invest New Drugs · June 2015 PURPOSE: Ixazomib is an investigational proteasome inhibitor with demonstrated antitumor activity in xenograft models of multiple myeloma (MM), lymphoma, and solid tumors. This open-label, phase 1 study investigated intravenous (IV) ixazomib, in adult pati ... Full text Link to item Cite

A phase I safety and pharmacokinetic study of ABT-263 in combination with carboplatin/paclitaxel in the treatment of patients with solid tumors.

Journal Article Invest New Drugs · October 2014 Bcl-2 family proteins are the key regulators of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway, controlling the point-of no-return and setting the threshold to engage the death machinery in response to chemical damage. Bcl-2 proteins have emerged as attractive targets fo ... Full text Link to item Cite

PET with 62Cu-ATSM and 62Cu-PTSM is a useful imaging tool for hypoxia and perfusion in pulmonary lesions.

Journal Article AJR Am J Roentgenol · November 2013 OBJECTIVE: Hypoxia is a characteristic of many tumors and portends a worse prognosis in lung, cervical, prostate, and rectal cancers. Unlike the others, lung cancers present a unique challenge in measuring hypoxia, with invasive biopsies and higher rates o ... Full text Link to item Cite

A phase I study of bevacizumab, everolimus and panitumumab in advanced solid tumors.

Journal Article Cancer Chemother Pharmacol · July 2012 PURPOSE: Preclinical data suggest concurrent inhibition of VEGF, mTOR and EGFR pathways may augment antitumor and antiangiogenic effects compared to inhibition of each pathway alone. This study evaluated the maximum tolerated dose/recommended phase II dose ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cancer- and chemotherapy-induced anemia.

Journal Article J Natl Compr Canc Netw · May 2012 Anemia is prevalent in 30% to 90% of patients with cancer. Anemia can be corrected through either treating the underlying cause or providing supportive care through transfusion with packed red blood cells or administration of erythropoiesis-stimulating age ... Full text Link to item Cite

Lower incidence of deletions in the survival of motor neuron gene and the neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein gene in children with spinal muscular atrophy from Serbia.

Journal Article Tohoku J Exp Med · November 2011 Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the second most frequent autosomal recessive disease characterized by degeneration of the anterior horn cells of the spinal cord, leading to muscular atrophy. SMA is classified into three types according to disease severity ... Full text Link to item Cite

Efficacy of bevacizumab plus erlotinib versus erlotinib alone in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer after failure of standard first-line chemotherapy (BeTa): a double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial.

Journal Article Lancet · May 28, 2011 BACKGROUND: Bevacizumab and erlotinib target different tumour growth pathways with little overlap in their toxic-effect profiles. On the basis of promising results from a phase 1/2 trial assessing safety and activity of erlotinib plus bevacizumab for recur ... Full text Link to item Cite

MHC class I-presented lung cancer-associated tumor antigens identified by immunoproteomics analysis are targets for cancer-specific T cell response.

Journal Article J Proteomics · May 1, 2011 The development of potent cancer vaccines for common malignancies such as lung cancer requires identification of suitable target antigens. We hypothesized that peptide epitopes naturally presented by MHC class I molecules on the surface of cancer cells wou ... Full text Link to item Cite

Phase Ib study of CP-868,596, a PDGFR inhibitor, combined with docetaxel with or without axitinib, a VEGFR inhibitor.

Journal Article Br J Cancer · November 9, 2010 BACKGROUND: Tumoural interstitial hypertension, possibly modulated by platelet-derived and vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (PDGFR and VEGFR), may mediate resistance to chemotherapy. METHODS: Forty-eight patients with advanced solid tumours rec ... Full text Link to item Cite

Characterizing the clinical relevance of an embryonic stem cell phenotype in lung adenocarcinoma.

Journal Article Clin Cancer Res · December 15, 2009 PURPOSE: Cancer cells possess traits reminiscent of those ascribed to normal stem cells. It is unclear whether these phenotypic similarities are the result of a common biological phenotype, such as regulatory pathways. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Lung cancer cell ... Full text Link to item Cite

Hypoxia, angiogenesis, and lung cancer.

Journal Article Curr Oncol Rep · July 2008 Lung cancer is responsible for more deaths than any other cancer in America. As a result, novel ways to treat it are needed to improve patient outcomes. A tumor must form new blood vessels to grow and metastasize to distant sites; this angiogenesis is medi ... Full text Link to item Cite

PET of hypoxia and perfusion with 62Cu-ATSM and 62Cu-PTSM using a 62Zn/62Cu generator.

Journal Article AJR Am J Roentgenol · February 2008 OBJECTIVE: Copper-diacetyl-bis(N4-methylthiosemicarbazone) (Cu-ATSM) and copper-pyruvaldehyde-bis(N4-methylthiosemicarbazone) (Cu-PTSM) are being studied as potential markers of hypoxia and perfusion, respectively. The use of short-lived radionuclides (e.g ... Full text Link to item Cite

Treatment with imatinib improves drug delivery and efficacy in NSCLC xenografts.

Journal Article Br J Cancer · September 17, 2007 Imatinib, an inhibitor of PDGF-Rbeta and other tyrosine kinase receptors, has been shown to decrease microvessel density and interstitial fluid pressure in solid tumours, thereby improving subsequent delivery of small molecules. The purpose of this study w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Complete pathological response to bevacizumab and chemoradiation in advanced rectal cancer.

Journal Article Nat Clin Pract Oncol · May 2007 BACKGROUND: Localized rectal cancer responds well to 5-fluorouracil and radiation-based regimens. A phase I-II trial is currently testing the efficacy of adding bevacizumab, a VEGF-specific antibody, to standard chemoradiotherapy. The case presented here i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Treatment with Imatinib in NSCLC is associated with decrease of phosphorylated PDGFR-beta and VEGF expression, decrease in interstitial fluid pressure and improvement of oxygenation.

Journal Article Br J Cancer · October 23, 2006 Elevated intratumoral interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) and tumour hypoxia are independent predictive factors for poor survival and poor treatment response in cancer patients. However, the relationship between IFP and tumour hypoxia has not yet been clearl ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

[Aetiological aspects of West Syndrome].

Journal Article Srp Arh Celok Lek · May 2006 INTRODUCTION: West Syndrome involves epileptic encephalopathy in infants, occurring with an incidence of 5/10000 live births. Its main clinical feature are spasms that occur in clusters, which are associated with an EEG pattern called hypsarrhythmia and ps ... Full text Link to item Cite

Activation of tyrosine kinases in cancer.

Journal Article Oncologist · 2003 Receptor and nonreceptor tyrosine kinases (TKs) have emerged as clinically useful drug target molecules for treating certain types of cancer. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-TK is a transmembrane receptor TK that is overexpressed or aberrantly acti ... Full text Link to item Cite

[Schimke immuno-osseous dysplasia].

Journal Article Srp Arh Celok Lek · 2001 Schimke immuno-osseous dysplasia (OMIM *242900) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder that affects primarily the bone, the immune system, the kidneys, the skin and the vascular system. The patients have intrauterine growth retardation, short stature with ... Link to item Cite

Cellular and connective tissue changes in alveolar septal walls in emphysema.

Journal Article Am J Respir Crit Care Med · December 1999 Emphysema is commonly defined as enlargement of airspaces distal to terminal bronchioles accompanied by destruction of alveolar walls, but without obvious fibrosis. Morphometric techniques were used to correlate changes in components of the alveolar septa ... Full text Link to item Cite