Eisai Co. Ltd. recently announced the results of its additional phase III clinical study analysis of Halaven, an anticancer agent that the company found and developed in house.
The agent is designed for patients who have recurrent, locally advanced or metastatic soft tissue sarcoma. Results were presented at the 14th Japanese Society of Medical Oncology (JSMO) annual meeting, which took place in Kobe.
The goal of the study was to determine the safety and effectiveness of eribulin when compared to dacarbazine. The study involved 452 patients who were at least 18 years old. All had experienced disease progression despite receiving standard therapies, like anthracycline and a minimum of another additional regimen.
Results showed that the duration of response among patients was approximately 12.5 months. The response duration median for dacarbazine was approximately 4.2 months.
In additional, patients who had liposarcoma were divided into three categories: myxoid/round liposarcoma, dedifferentiated liposarcoma and pleomorphic liposarcoma. Further analyses were completed with each of these groups, showing that eribulin is able to extend patients’ overall survival rates more than dacarbazine.
Throughout the study, the most common side effects to the treatment included neutropenia, fatigue, alopecia, nausea, peripheral neuropathy, constipation, pyrexia and abdominal pain.
