Dr. Riedel on Targeted Therapy for Uterine Sarcomas

Richard F. Riedel, MD, associate professor of medicine, Duke Cancer Institute, discusses targeted therapy options for patients with uterine sarcomas.

Pazopanib (Votrient) was FDA approved in 2012 for a broad range of soft tissue sarcomas—uterine sarcomas included. This was based off the phase III PALETTE study. While the response rates for pazopanib are low, the real benefit is seen in disease control, notes Riedel. More recently, trabectedin (Yondelis) was approved in October 2015 for leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma. Liposarcomas are not often seen in the uterus, but leiomyosarcomas are common. That study approval was based on results from the phase III ET743-SAR-3007 trial which demonstrated an improvement in progression-free survival compared with dacarbazine, an active comparator.

Riedel concludes that researchers have made advances with those agents; most recently olaratumab (Lartruvo) was approved in 2016 to be used in combination with doxorubicin. That was based on a phase II study in which the combination showed an improvement in overall survival compared with doxorubicin alone.