E-Newsletter - July 2022
Spotlight on Alliance Trials


JULY IS NATIONAL SARCOMA AND BONE CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

July is National Sarcoma and Bone Cancer Awareness Month. Sarcoma is a rare type of cancer that occurs in different locations of the body. Sarcoma refers to a range of cancers that begin in connective tissue, usually in soft tissues and bones. There are more than 70 types of sarcoma, although the main two forms are soft tissue sarcoma and bone sarcoma (or osteosarcoma). Soft tissue sarcoma forms in the tissues that connect, support, and surround other body structures, including muscle, fat, blood vessels, nerves, tendons, and the lining of your joints. Treatment for sarcoma varies depending on type, location, and various other factors.

Take a look at the following active trial in the Alliance portfolio that focuses on angiosarcoma, which is a rare cancer that develops in the inner lining of blood vessels and lymph vessels.

Alliance A091902: A multicenter phase II trial of paclitaxel with and without nivolumab in taxane naive, and nivolumab and cabozantinib in taxane pretreated subjects with angiosarcoma
 

Juneko Grilley-Olson, MD, of the Duke Cancer Institute, is leading Alliance A091902, a trial that studies how well paclitaxel with and without nivolumab works in treating patients with soft tissue sarcoma who have not received taxane drugs (those that block cell growth by stopping cell division), and how well nivolumab and cabozantinib work in treating taxane pretreated patients with angiosarcoma, a specific type ofsoft tissue sarcoma.

Nivolumab works through the body's immune system to help the immune system act against tumor cells. Chemotherapy drugs, such as paclitaxel, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Cabozantinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for cell growth. This trial, which opened on September 4, 2020, is being done to see if the combination of nivolumab and paclitaxel or cabozantinib can shrink angiosarcoma and possibly prevent it from coming back. Although immune-based therapies have only had modest success in soft tissue sarcomas in general, angiosarcomas may have improved responsiveness to immune-based approaches.

The trial’s co-primary objectives are to determine the progression-free survival for paclitaxel with and without nivolumab in patients with taxane-naïve angiosarcoma and to determine the overall response rate of nivolumab in combination with cabozantinib in patients with taxane pre-treated angiosarcoma.

For complete information on the trial design, treatment plan, and patient eligibility, refer to the study protocol, which can be found on the Alliance website or the CTSU website, or review trial information at CT.gov (http://bit.ly/Alliance-A091902).

 

 

For other articles in this issue of the Alliance E-news Newsletter, see below: