Paclitaxel Plus Pazopanib in Recurrent Ovarian Cancer
Posted: Thursday, March 22, 2018
In patients with persistent or recurrent ovarian cancer, the addition of pazopanib to a regimen of paclitaxel was not superior to paclitaxel alone, according to a phase II trial published in JAMA Oncology. In addition, Debra L. Richardson, MD, of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and colleagues discovered that patients receiving the combination of the oral multitarget kinase inhibitor pazopanib and paclitaxel discontinued treatment more frequently for adverse events.
The randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study enrolled 106 women with persistent or recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal carcinoma who had received at least 1 prior platinum-based chemotherapy regimen. Patients received paclitaxel at 80 mg/m2 intravenously on days 1, 8, and 15 every 28 days and were randomized 1:1 to receive pazopanib at 800 mg orally daily (n = 54) or placebo (n = 52).
Progression-free survival was 7.5 months for the pazopanib arm versus 6.2 months for the placebo arm, which was not statistically significant. More patients (66%) in the placebo arm stopped treatment due to disease progression than in the pazopanib arm (31.5%), but more patients in the pazopanib arm stopped therapy due to adverse events (37% vs 10%), most commonly neutropenia and neuropathy. The pazopanib arm had two grade 3 bowel perforations, and severe hypertension was more common in this group as well.
