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Nexavar well tolerated in metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma
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Patients with progressive metastatic medullary carcinoma benefited from treatment with Nexavar, according to study findings.
Researchers noted that treatment with Nexavar (sorafenib, Bayer) should be considered if treatment with Caprelsa (vandetanib, AstraZeneca) or Cometriq (cabozantinib, Exelixis) is not available or has failed.
Luciana Audi de Castroneves, MD, of the department of endocrinology at the University of Sao Paulo, and colleagues evaluated 12 adults (median age, 48 years) with metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma to determine the effectiveness of treatment with sorafenib.
Sorafenib was started at 400 mg twice daily, median duration of treatment was 11 months and median follow-up was 15.5 months.
Ten patients had stable disease, and the other two experienced progressive disease and new lesions. Seventy-five percent of patients revealed a durable clinical response. Median progression-free survival was 9 months; three patients with severe disease died within 3 months of treatment initiation. Median progression-free survival increased to 12 months after excluding the three patients who died.
Forty percent of patients experienced clinical improvements of specific symptoms related to metastatic medullary thyroid cancer.
Nine patients experienced adverse events; the most common were skin toxicity, weight loss and fatigue.
“Treatment with sorafenib in progressive metastatic [medullary thyroid carcinoma] is well tolerated and resulted in disease control and durable clinical benefit in 75% of patients,” the researchers wrote. “The approved drugs for progressive [medullary thyroid carcinoma] are vandetanib and cabozantinib. Sorafenib treatment could be considered when these [tyrosine kinase inhibitors] are not available.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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