Does the Use of Peripheral Immune-Related Markers Indicate Whether to Administer Pazopanib, Trabectedin, or Eribulin to Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcoma Patients?

Efficacies of anlotinib monotherapy versus gemcitabine-based chemotherapy for patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma after the failure of anthracycline-based chemotherapy

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to compare the antitumor efficacy of anlotinib with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy as subsequent treatment regimens in patients with advanced non-specific soft tissue sarcoma (STS) after the failure of anthracycline-based chemotherapy.

METHODS

Patients diagnosed with advanced STS who were treated with either anlotinib or gemcitabine-based chemotherapy between May 2009 and May 2023 in our center were eligible. All patients experienced disease progression or recurrence after the anthracycline-based chemotherapy. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary endpoints were disease control rate (DCR), overall survival (OS) and safety.

RESULTS

We included 49 patients receiving anlotinib and 45 patients receiving gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. The median follow-up time was 76.9 weeks (range 2.9-678.9 weeks). The DCR (65.3% vs. 57.8%; p = 0.610), PFS (24.0 weeks vs. 18.6 weeks; p = 0.669) and OS (79.4 weeks vs. 87.0 weeks; p = 0.471) of anlotinib and gemcitabine-based chemotherapy indicated similar clinical efficacy. Moreover, exploratory subgroup analyses showed that patients with STS originating from limbs and trunk were inclined to benefit from anlotinib treatment (median PFS: 31.3 weeks vs. 12.4 weeks; p = 0.045). ECOG PS was an independent predictor of the PFS [Hazard Ratio (HR) 0.31; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.11-0.85; p = 0.023] and OS (HR 0.26, 95%CI 0.10-0.70; p = 0.008) in the anlotinib group. While neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was an independent prognostic factor of the PFS (HR 0.33, 95%CI 0.11-0.98; p = 0.045) in the gemcitabine-based chemotherapy group. The incidence of grade 3 or higher related AEs in anlotinib and gemcitabine-based chemotherapy was 20.4% (n = 10) and 20.0% (n = 9), respectively.

CONCLUSION

Our research suggested that anlotinib and gemcitabine-based chemotherapy showed similar clinical efficacy and safety in the subsequent treatment of advanced STS after the failure of anthracycline-based chemotherapy.

Therapeutic efficacy of a four-year treatment with eribulin in a patient with uterine leiomyosarcoma: A case report

Uterine leiomyosarcoma (LMS) is a gynecological malignancy with an extremely poor prognosis. Multiple new therapeutic agents, including pazopanib, trabectedin, and eribulin, have been clinically applied to treat uterine LMS, and their therapeutic effects are expected. We encountered one patient with advanced recurrent uterine LMS who achieved a partial response to a four-year treatment with eribulin. A 31-year-old woman was diagnosed with stage 2B LMS. After the first recurrence, Gemcitabine, Docetaxel (GD) therapy was administered, and complete response (CR) was achieved. However, 2 years and 10 months later, recurrence occurred at the vaginal cuff, and GD therapy and doxorubicin hydrochloride were administered, resulting in CR. Five months later, she experienced another recurrence at the same location and was treated with eribulin. To date, 53 courses of eribulin have been administered and are currently ongoing. Maintaining low neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and low platelet-to lymphocyte ratio in this manner is considered to be one of the reasons why eribulin continues to be effective. We encountered a rare case in which eribulin was administered for the longest period of time, and produced an observable effect in uterine LMS.

Systemic Inflammatory Indices in Second-Line Soft Tissue Sarcoma Patients: Focus on Lymphocyte/Monocyte Ratio and Trabectedin

A second-line standard of treatment has not yet been identified in patients with soft tissue sarcomas (STS), so identifying predictive markers could be a valuable tool. Recent studies have shown that the intratumoral and inflammatory systems significantly influence tumor aggressiveness. We aimed to investigate prognostic values of pre-therapy neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), systemic inflammatory index (SII), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) of STS patients receiving second-line treatment. In this single-center retrospective analysis, ninety-nine patients with STS were enrolled. All patients received second-line treatment after progressing to anthracycline. PFS and OS curves were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method of RNA sequencing, and CIBERSORT analysis was performed on six surgical specimens of liposarcoma patients. A high NLR, PLR, and SII were significantly associated with worse PFS (p = 0.019; p = 0.004; p = 0.006). Low LMR was significantly associated with worse OS (p = 0.006). Patients treated with Trabectedin showed a better PFS when the LMR was low, while patients treated with other regimens showed a worse PFS when the LMR was low (p = 0.0154). The intratumoral immune infiltrates analysis seems to show a correlation between intratumoral macrophages and LMR. PS ECOG. The metastatic onset and tumor burden showed prognostic significance for PFS (p = 0.004; p = 0.041; p = 0.0086). According to the histologies, PFS was: 5.7 mo in liposarcoma patients vs. 3.8 mo in leiomyosarcoma patients vs. 3.1 months in patients with other histologies (p = 0.053). Our results confirm the prognostic role of systemic inflammatory markers in patients with STS. Moreover, we demonstrated that LMR is a specific predictor of Trabectedin efficacy and could be useful in daily clinical practice. We also highlighted a possible correlation between LMR levels and the percentage of intratumoral macrophages.