Sorafenib was effective treatment for patients with thyroid cancer

Sorafenib demonstrated antitumor activity in patients with metastatic, iodine-refractory thyroid carcinoma with a median PFS rate of 79 weeks, according to the results of a recent phase-2 trial.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania assigned patients (n=30) to 400 mg of oral sorafenib (Nexavar, Bayer Healthcare) twice daily for a minimum of 16 weeks.

According to the researchers, sorafenib had an overall clinical benefit rate of 77% and an overall acceptable safety profile. Twenty-three percent (95% CI, 0.10-0.42) of patients had a partial response lasting 18 to 84 weeks, and 53% (95% CI, 0.34-0.72) had stable disease lasting 14 to 89 weeks, according to the researchers.

Ninety-five percent of patients with available serial thyroglobulin levels showed a rapid response in thyroglobulin levels with a mean decrease of 70%, according to the researchers.

“It is particularly gratifying that years of research in tumor biology and drug development have coalesced,” David G. Pfister, MD, and James A. Fagin, MD, wrote in an accompanying editorial.

Pfister is chief of head and neck oncology service, and Fagin is chief of endocrinology service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

“Translation of these research advances into therapeutic benefits for patients with refractory thyroid cancer and a related paradigm shift in the treatment of these tumors appear not far off,” they wrote.

“These results represent a significant advance over chemotherapy in both response rate and PFS and support further investigation of this agent in these patients,” the researchers wrote.

J Clin Oncol. 2008;26:4714-4719.