Most Utilized Frontline Treatment in Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcoma Across 4 European Countries

Real-life data regarding the treatment of non-gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) advanced, stage IV soft tissue sarcoma (STS) across 4 European countries (France, Germany, Spain, and Italy) were reported at the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS) 2018 Annual Meeting in Rome, Italy. The researchers reviewed 4492 patient cases collected from January 2015 to March 2018 that revealed that anthracyclines were the class of cytotoxic drugs used most often in the first-line setting, given to 70% of patients, followed by the use of doxorubicin as a monotherapy (~36%) or in combination with ifosfamide (~21%).

Taxanes were the second-most used drugs in the first-line setting in STS, with docetaxel found to be the preferred option, used in approximately 15% of patients. Trabectedin was most highly used as a second-line treatment (~30%), followed by gemcitabine (mainly in combination with other drugs); trabectedin was also used with high frequency in third and subsequent lines. In later lines of therapy, pazopanib was the most popular choice, prescribed in around 34% of cases in this setting.

“Anthracyclines are still the backbone of the first-line treatment, and other cytotoxic drugs like gemcitabine and taxanes are mainly used as rescue therapy alone or in combination in the pretreated setting,” the researchers wrote. “Real-life data are very important in describing the impact of the clinical research into the routine clinical practice, to provide a measure of the application of a treatment strategy to the daily clinical practice, and to provide a historical reference to evaluate changes over time.”

Read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor‘s coverage of the CTOS 2018 meeting by visiting the conference page.

Reference

1. Mari E, Martinez de Pinillos A, Nasuti P, Guglielmetti F, Anger C; IQVIA. Patterns of care of advanced soft tissue sarcoma (STS) non-GIST in 4 European Countries (EU4). Presented at: CTOS 2018 Annual Meeting; Rome, Italy: November 14-17. Poster 329.