Does Adding Sorafenib to Topotecan Improve Survival in Platinum-Resistant Ovarian Cancer?
Posted: Monday, September 17, 2018
Compared with placebo plus topotecan, sorafenib plus topotecan offered women with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer both an overall and progression-free survival benefit, based on the findings of the German phase II TRIAS trial. Radoslav Chekerov, MD, of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and colleagues published the study results in support of “antiangiogenesis as the treatment backbone in combination with chemotherapy” in The Lancet Oncology.
Between January 2010 and September 2013, 172 patients participated in the multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial at 20 sites in Germany. A total of 83 patients received topotecan plus oral sorafenib, and 89 patients received topotecan plus placebo. Patients who did not experience disease progression received daily maintenance with sorafenib or placebo for up to 1 year.
The researchers found that sorafenib in addition to topotecan improved progression-free survival over topotecan plus placebo (median 6.7 months vs. 4.4 months; P = .0018). Median overall survival also was improved with the addition of sorafenib (17.1 months vs. 10.1 months; P = .017).
As for toxicity, leukopenia, neutropenia, and thrombocytopenia were the most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events reported with the combination therapy. There was an increased frequency of grade 3 hand-foot skin reaction as well as grade 2 alopecia with the addition of sorafenib.
