pazopanib and Anemia

As precision medicine has become a focus in oncology in recent years, many targeted and biologic agents are being used along with or in place of traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy. As these drugs have been developed and some have received FDA approval, we have gained substantial data about the adverse event profiles. However, the management and approach to the toxicities incurred and subsequent complications are often not well understood, especially for physicians who have a varied clinical practice. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the frequency and types of adverse events and appropriate management steps when prescribing modern targeted therapies for gynecologic cancers in the classes of anti-angiogenic agents, poly-ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, and immunotherapy drugs.

Topics: Anemia; Angiogenesis Inhibitors; Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological; Autoimmune Diseases; Bevacizumab; Diarrhea; Epistaxis; Fatigue; Female; Genital Neoplasms, Female; Headache; Hemorrhage; Humans; Hypertension; Indazoles; Intestinal Perforation; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Nausea; Neutropenia; Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerase Inhibitors; Precision Medicine; Proteinuria; Pyrimidines; Risk Assessment; Sulfonamides; Vomiting; Water-Electrolyte Imbalance

Metastatic soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) management remains an unmet medical need. We assessed the activity and safety of regorafenib in patients with metastatic non-adipocytic STS who were previously treated with both chemotherapy and pazopanib.. This double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter comparative randomized phase II trial included patients with histologically proven advanced and inoperable STS. Patients receiving placebo were offered optional cross-over for centrally confirmed disease progression. Primary end-point was centrally reviewed Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours-based progression-free survival (PFS), analysed on the intent-to-treat data set. In total, 24 events were required for 90% power, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.33 (median PFS, 3.6 versus 1.2 months), and 1-sided α = 0.1 (ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01900743).. From December 2015 to October 2017, 37 patients were randomized; 18 to regorafenib and 19 to placebo. Thirteen patients assigned to placebo switched to regorafenib after progression. Median follow-up was 27.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 24.4-not reached). We observed a significant PFS benefit of regorafenib compared with placebo (adjusted HR = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.15-0.74; p = 0.0007 median PFS = 2.1 versus 1.1 months, respectively), and a large and nearly significant overall survival (OS) benefit despite the cross-over (adjusted HR = 0.49; 95% CI: 0.23-1.06; p = 0.007; median OS = 17.8 versus 8.2 months). Before cross-over, the most common grade III or higher adverse events were lymphopenia (5 versus 1, respectively), diarrhoea (4 versus 0), dyspnoea (3 versus 1), skin toxicity (3 versus 0), arterial hypertension (2 versus 0), and increased transaminases (2 versus 0).. The present study demonstrated a meaningful clinical anti-tumour activity with regorafenib in heavily pre-treated patients with non-adipocytic STS.

Topics: Adult; Aged; Anemia; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols; Chest Pain; Cross-Over Studies; Diarrhea; Disease Progression; Double-Blind Method; Female; Humans; Indazoles; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Leukopenia; Male; Middle Aged; Phenylurea Compounds; Pyridines; Pyrimidines; Sarcoma; Soft Tissue Neoplasms; Sulfonamides; Treatment Outcome

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a rare angiogenic disorder causing chronic gastrointestinal bleeding, epistaxis, and severe anemia. Pazopanib is an oral multi-kinase angiogenesis inhibitor with promise to treat bleeding in HHT. We analyzed outcomes of HHT patients with the most severe bleeding causing RBC transfusion dependence treated on a predefined institutional pazopanib treatment pathway (with data collected retrospectively). The primary endpoint was achievement of transfusion independence. Secondary endpoints included hemoglobin, epistaxis severity score, RBC transfusion and iron infusion requirements, number of local hemostatic procedures, ferritin and transferrin saturation, compared using paired and repeated measures mean tests. Thirteen transfusion-dependent HHT patients received pazopanib [median (range) dose 150 (25-300) mg daily)] for a median of 22 months. All patients achieved transfusion independence. Compared with pretreatment, pazopanib increased mean hemoglobin by 4.8 (95% CI, 3.6-5.9) g/dL (7.8 vs. 12.7 g/dL, P < 0.0001) and decreased mean epistaxis severity score by 4.77 (3.11-6.44) points (7.20 vs. 2.43 points, P < 0.0001) after 12 months of treatment. Compared with 3 months of pretreatment, RBC transfusions decreased by 93% (median of 16.0 vs. 0.0 units, P < 0.0001) and elemental iron infusion decreased by 92% (median of 4500 vs. 0 mg, P = 0.005) during the first 3 months of treatment; improvements were maintained over time. Pazopanib was well-tolerated: hypertension, lymphocytopenia, and fatigue were the most common TEAEs. In conclusion, pazopanib was safe and effective to manage severe bleeding in HHT, liberating all patients from transfusion dependence and normalizing hematologic parameters at doses lower than used to treat malignancies. These findings require confirmation in a randomized trial.

Topics: Anemia; Epistaxis; Humans; Indazoles; Pyrimidines; Retrospective Studies; Sulfonamides; Telangiectasia, Hereditary Hemorrhagic

Essentials Antiangiogenic drugs are indicated as therapies for hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia. We interrogated the response to four antiangiogenic drugs for anemia and intestinal bleeding. Sorafenib and a pazopanib analog significantly improved while erlotinib worsened anemia. Some oral antiangiogenic drugs were effective in reducing intestinal bleeding.. Background Epistaxis and gastrointestinal (GI) tract hemorrhages are common symptoms of aged hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) patients that result in anemia. Clinical as well as animal studies have suggested that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) neutralizing antibodies lessen hemorrhage associated with adult-onset arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). Objectives The goal of this study is to evaluate potential therapeutic effects of oral delivery of four antiangiogenic tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in the development of adult-onset AVMs in a murine model of HHT. Methods An adult activin receptor-like kinase 1 (Alk1)-inducible knockout (iKO) model was utilized to evaluate the effect of oral administration of sorafenib, sunitinib, erlotinib and a pazopanib analog (GW771806) on hemoglobin level, GI hemorrhages and formation of wound-induced skin AVMs. Results and Conclusions Sorafenib and GW771806 significantly improved, yet erlotinib worsened, anemia and GI-bleeding in the Alk1-iKO model. However, none of these TKIs appeared to be effective for inhibiting the development of wound-induced skin AVMs. Taken together, these results suggest that oral delivery of antiangiogenic TKIs is selectively more effective for GI bleeding than mucocutaneous AVMs, and it may provide an experimental basis for selective therapeutic options depending on the symptoms of HHT.

Topics: Activin Receptors, Type I; Activin Receptors, Type II; Administration, Oral; Administration, Topical; Anemia; Angiogenesis Inhibitors; Animals; Arteriovenous Malformations; Disease Models, Animal; Erlotinib Hydrochloride; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage; Hemoglobins; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Indazoles; Mice; Mice, Knockout; Niacinamide; Phenylurea Compounds; Protein Kinase Inhibitors; Pyrimidines; Skin; Sorafenib; Sulfonamides; Sulfones; Telangiectasia, Hereditary Hemorrhagic; Tyrosine; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; Wound Healing

Pazopanib is a potent and selective multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor that has been reported to extend progression-free survival in cases of metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. However, the efficacy of pazopanib for cutaneous angiosarcoma has not been confirmed. We report eight cases of angiosarcoma treated with pazopanib, and review the efficacy and safety of pazopanib therapy. We retrospectively investigated the clinical information, including age, sex, body surface area, location, performance status, lung or pleural metastasis, preceding treatment, oral dose of pazopanib, response rate, progression-free survival and adverse effects. Five of the eight patients needed to stop the pazopanib treatment due to severe adverse effects, including thrombocytopenia, anemia, drug-associated pancreatitis, acute fulminant hepatitis and general fatigue. Progression-free survival ranged 0.5-3.5 months (mean ± standard deviation, 1.81 ± 1.03). Overall survival ranged 3-26 months (14.13 ± 9.47). Six of the eight cases showed progressive disease, and two of the eight cases showed stable disease. To assess overall survival in angiosarcoma treated with pazopanib, we compared the pazopanib-treated group (n = 8) with the non-pazopanib-treated control group (n = 10). There was no significant difference between two groups (P = 0.19, log-rank test). In conclusion, our case series suggests that pazopanib does not bring remarkable improvement in patients with angiosarcoma.

Topics: Administration, Oral; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anemia; Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury; Disease-Free Survival; Fatigue; Female; Hemangiosarcoma; Humans; Indazoles; Male; Protein Kinase Inhibitors; Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; Pyrimidines; Retrospective Studies; Sulfonamides; Thrombocytopenia; Treatment Outcome