Irinotecan and vincristine for the treatment of refractory desmoplastic small round cell tumor in a developing country: a case report

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor: from state of the art to future clinical prospects

INTRODUCTION

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is an extremely rare and highly aggressive soft tissue sarcoma, presenting mainly in male adolescents and young adults with multiple nodules disseminated within the abdominopelvic cavity. Despite a multimodal approach including aggressive cytoreductive surgery, intensive multi-agent chemotherapy, and postoperative whole abdominopelvic radiotherapy, the prognosis for DSRCT remains dismal. Median progression-free survival ranges between 4 and 21 months, and overall survival between 17 and 60 months, with the 5-year overall survival rate in the range of 10-20%.

AREA COVERED

This review discusses the treatment strategies used for DSRCT over the years, the state of the art of current treatments, and future clinical prospects.

EXPERT OPINION

The unsatisfactory outcomes for patients with DSRCT warrant investigations into innovative treatment combinations. An international multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder collaboration, involving both pediatric and adult sarcoma communities, is needed to propel preclinical model generation and drug development, and innovative clinical trial designs to enable the timely testing of treatments involving novel agents guided by biology to boost the chances of survival for patients with this devastating disease.

Intra-Abdominal Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor: Current Treatment Options and Perspectives

Intra-abdominal desmoplastic small round cell tumor (IDSRCT) is a rare and highly malignant soft tissue neoplasm, which is characterized by rapid progression and poor prognosis. The mechanism underlying the development of this neoplasm remains elusive, but all cases are characterized by the chromosomal translocation t (11;22) (p13; q12), which results in a formation of EWSR1-WT1 gene fusion. The diagnosis of IDSRCT is often made with core-needle tissue biopsy specimens or laparoscopy or laparotomy. Immunohistochemical analyses have shown the co-expression of epithelial, neuronal, myogenic, and mesenchymal differentiation markers. FISH or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction detecting EWS-WT1 fusion can be performed to assist in molecular confirmation. There is no standard of care for patients with IDSRCT currently, and majority of newly diagnosed patients received the aggressive therapy, which includes >90% resection of surgical debulking, high-dose alkylator-based chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. More recently, targeted therapy has been increasingly administered to recurrent IDSRCT patients and has been associated with improved survival in clinical conditions. Immunotherapy as a possible therapeutic strategy is being explored in patients with IDSRCT. In this review, we summarize currently available knowledge regarding the epidemiology, potential mechanisms, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of IDSRCT to assist oncologists in comprehensively recognizing and accurately treating this malignancy.

An overview of current results with the vincristine-irinotecan-temozolomide combination with or without bevacizumab in pediatric, adolescence and adult solid tumors

Malignant tumors in young patients present a significant therapeutic challenge for physicians, partially due to their rarity and a relative lack of data, at least compared to adult tumors. As a result, there is an urgent need to explore new possible therapeutic regimens, either by introducing novel agents or by exploring combinations of existing agents. Vincristine, Temozolomide and Irinotecan are chemotherapeutic drugs which have emerged over the last six decades as monotherapy or as part of therapeutic regimens in various solid tumors. Combining these agents can yield strong synergistic effects, as suggested by preclinical data and results from clinical trials. Furthermore, adding novel molecules, such as anti-VEGF factor Bevacizumab to the aforementioned regimens, has shown efficacy in a limited number of trials, which are thoroughly analyzed throughout this review. Data presented throughout this paper suggest that VIT(b) regimen should be further explored in solid tumors in pediatric and adolescent patients.

Notable response of a young adult with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme to vincristine-irinotecan-temozolomide and bevacizumab

Glioblastoma multiforme is a malignant central nervous system (CNS) disease with dismal prognosis. Current treatment modalities only offer modest activity and usually of short duration, so there is an urgent need for the conduct of clinical trials exploring new treatment options and modalities. The vincristine-irinotecan-temozolomide and bevacizumab (VITb) regimen is an option of special interest, as it has produced encouraging results in young patients with various relapsed/refractory childhood and adolescence solid tumors, with an acceptable toxicity profile. With the current report, we present the case of a young male patient who was treated for GBM in second relapse at out institution, after previous surgical attempts and two radiotherapy sessions in conjunction with temozolomide and experienced a major and long-lasting response, weaned off steroids, to the VITb regimen followed by bevacizumab maintenance. The above case is discussed in the context of the existing literature regarding available evidence of synergy between the drugs used and the activity of certain components of the combination (i.e. combination of temozolomide-irinotecan ± vincristine, or bevacizumab-irinotecan in GBM) or the complete VITb regimen in other pediatric/adolescence solid tumors and the few cases reported with GBM.

The use of interval-compressed chemotherapy with the addition of vincristine, irinotecan, and temozolomide for pediatric patients with newly diagnosed desmoplastic small round cell tumor

BACKGROUND

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare aggressive sarcoma that affects children and young adults, and portends poor outcomes despite intensive multimodal treatment approaches. We report toxicity, response, and outcomes of patients with DSRCT treated with the addition of vincristine, irinotecan, and temozolomide (VIT) to interval-compressed chemotherapy as per Children's Oncology Group ARST08P1.

METHODS

All newly diagnosed pediatric patients with DSRCT treated at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital between 2014 and 2019 as per ARST08P1, Arm P2 with replacement of VAC cycles with VIT, were identified. Medical records were reviewed for clinical and disease characteristics, and treatment response and outcomes.

RESULTS

Six patients were treated as per the above regimen. Median age at diagnosis was 15.1 years (range 3.2-16.4) and five patients were male. Five patients had abdominal primary tumors, of which one had exclusively intraabdominal and four had extraabdominal metastases. Two initial cycles of VIT were well tolerated with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation as the most common adverse events. Overall response rate defined as partial or complete response after two initial cycles of VIT was 50%. For local control, all patients had surgical resection followed by radiotherapy, and two patients received hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy at the time of surgery. Of the four patients who have completed therapy to date, three remain disease-free with median follow-up time of 46.7 months.

CONCLUSIONS

The addition of VIT to interval-compressed chemotherapy is tolerable and active in DSRCT, with activity warranting additional investigation.