Virus-associated Tumour Microenvironment

Recruiting now

Conditions studied: Lymphoma, Cancers of the Lung, Cancer Anal Canal

In brief

The presence or absence of viruses affects the characteristics of cancer, the response to anti-cancer treatments, and the prognosis of the disease. A cancerous tumor consists of cancerous cells as well as a variety of non-cancerous cells and molecules, collectively known as the tumor microenvironment. By studying these tumor microenvironments and understanding how our immune system interacts with virus-related and non-virus-related cancers, investigators may discover new approaches to developing more effective anti-cancer treatments. This study aims to characterize the tumor microenvironments specifically associated with viruses. This is a non-interventional, ambispective multicentre study with 5 complementary workpackages (WP); WP1 clinic, WP2 anatomopathology, WP3 molecular analysis, WP4 proteomic analyses using image-based mass cytometry on tissue sections coupled to the HYPERION imaging system, and WP5 Bioinformatics and Biostatistics analyses. Medical record data will be collected and used for this research. The biological resources required for the study will be one or two additional blood samples of minimal volume or already available in the various tumour banks participating in the study. Blood samples and archived biopsies will be transported to CIMI by private carrier. Clinical data will be collected exclusively from the patient's computerised medical record and entered into an electronic case report form (e-CRF) by the Clinical Study coordinator in each recruiting department, identified by the investigating physicians. In the analysis, investigators will initially compare the virus-associated and non-virus-associated groups by cancer type, but investigators will also be able to set up a global test by stratifying on cancer type. Investigators will use direct comparisons in the counts from the RNASeq analysis, but also compositional analyses. The remaining statistical evaluations will primarily focus on description and exploration, and will be showcased accordingly. These will involve conventional methods such as computing percentages, means, correlations, along with survival analysis techniques like Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression.

Key facts

Study ID: NCT06471296
Run by: Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
People needed: 254
Starts: 2026-05-05
Expected to finish: 2029-11-05
Last updated by the study team: 2026-05-27

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 100. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

Patients followed in one of the following AP-HP clinical departments: Medical oncology - Pitié-Salpêtrière, Clinical haematology - Pitié-Salpêtrière, Hepato-Gastroenterology - Pitié-Salpêtrière, Maxillo-facial surgery - Pitié-Salpêtrière, Radiation oncology - Pitié-Salpêtrière, Pneumology - Tenon, Medical oncology - Tenon, Radiation oncology - Tenon, Medical oncology - Saint-Antoine, Clinical haematology - Saint-Antoine, Pneumology - Bichat, ENT and cervico-facial surgery - Bichat, Pneumology - Cochin, Medical Oncology - HEGP, Medical Oncology - Saint Louis, Pneumology - Ambroise Paré, Medical Oncology - Avicennes
Histologically confirmed diagnosis of :
HPV-related squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx (positive HPV PCR).
Non-HPV-related squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx (negative HPV PCR).
HIV-associated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (positive HIV serology).
HPV-related NSCLC (malignant transformation of recurrent respiratory papillomatosis with positive HPV PCR).
NSCLC neither HPV-related (negative HPV PCR) nor HIV-associated (negative HIV serology).
Large-cell B lymphoma (diffuse large-cell NOS B lymphoma, high-grade B lymphoma, primary B lymphoma of the central nervous system):
Post-transplant lymphoma (PTL) linked or not to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)(EBER positive or negative on tumour tissue).
Associated with HIV (positive HIV serology) and EBV-related or not (positive or negative EBER on tumour tissue).
Associated with neither HIV nor EBV (negative HIV serology, negative EBER on negative tumour tissue).
HPV-related squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (positive HPV PCR) and associated with HIV (positive HIV serology).
HPV-related squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (positive HPV PCR) not associated with HIV (negative HIV serology).
Patients in the virus-associated cancers VS non-virus-associated cancers groups will be matched on important clinical features within the groups:
Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: tumour stage (I/II or III/IV according to 8th TNM (85)), smoking status (smoker or non-smoker) and systemic anti-tumour treatment planned or received (cytotoxic chemotherapy or Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI)(anti PD1) or cytotoxic chemotherapy and ICI(anti PD1)).
NSCLC: histology (squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma), tumour stage (I/II or III/IV according to 8th TNM (85)), smoking status (smoker or non-smoker) and systemic anti-tumour treatment planned or received (ICI (anti PD1) or cytotoxic chemotherapy and ICI (anti PD1)).
NHL: patients will be matched 2:2 (LPT EBV+ vs EBV- and HIV+ EBV+ vs EBV-) on location (systemic vs brain), performans status (PS 0-1 vs 2-4) for brain lymphomas, and age-adjusted IPI score (LDH, performans status, stage: 0-1 vs 2-3) for systemic lymphomas.
Squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal: tumour stage (I/II or III/IV according to 8th TNM (85)), and anti-tumour treatment planned or received (cytotoxic chemotherapy or cytotoxic chemotherapy and radiotherapy).
For the analysis of the characteristics of the MET at diagnosis: tumour material (biopsy or surgical specimen) available dating from before the introduction of anti-cancer treatments. This tumour material must come from the tumour's organ of origin for patients in the oropharynx, NSCLC and anal canal cohorts.
For the analysis of mechanisms of resistance to systemic anti-tumour treatments: tumour material (biopsy or surgical specimen) available from before the introduction of anti-cancer treatments and tumour material (biopsy or surgical specimen) taken after tumour progression under treatment and before the introduction of a new systemic anti-tumour treatment. This tumour material must come from the tumour's organ of origin for patients in the oropharynx, NSCLC and anal canal cohorts.
Cancer that has undergone or is due to undergo excision surgery or biopsy.
Informed consent to participate signed before any specific study procedure is carried out.
Affiliation with the French social security system.

You may not qualify if…

Cancers other than those included in the study.
For NHL: plasmablastic lymphoma, polymorphic lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma, lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma, marginal zone lymphoma, unknown tumour EBV status, unknown HIV status.
For lung cancers: NSCLC with histology other than adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma, small cell lung cancer, EGFR mutation, ALK rearrangement.
Absence of tumour material dating from before the start of systemic anti-tumour treatments.
For oropharynx, NSCLC and anal canal: tumour material not from the tumour's organ of origin.
Tumour material of interest exhausted: insufficient for the analyses planned in the study.
For the anal canal, oropharynx and NSCLC cohorts: immunosuppressive treatment (corticosteroids <10mg prednisone equivalent per day authorised).
Adults under guardianship or curatorship.
Refusal to take part in the study

Where it is running

Service d'ORL - Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie et chirurgie cervico faciale, Hôpital Bichat - Claude-Bernard — Paris, France (enrolling)

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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