Pazopanib does not bring remarkable improvement in patients with angiosarcoma

Pazopanib is a potent and selective multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor that has been reported to extend progression-free survival in cases of metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. However, the efficacy of pazopanib for cutaneous angiosarcoma has not been confirmed. We report eight cases of angiosarcoma treated with pazopanib, and review the efficacy and safety of pazopanib therapy. We retrospectively investigated the clinical information, including age, sex, body surface area, location, performance status, lung or pleural metastasis, preceding treatment, oral dose of pazopanib, response rate, progression-free survival and adverse effects. Five of the eight patients needed to stop the pazopanib treatment due to severe adverse effects, including thrombocytopenia, anemia, drug-associated pancreatitis, acute fulminant hepatitis and general fatigue. Progression-free survival ranged 0.5-3.5 months (mean ± standard deviation, 1.81 ± 1.03). Overall survival ranged 3-26 months (14.13 ± 9.47). Six of the eight cases showed progressive disease, and two of the eight cases showed stable disease. To assess overall survival in angiosarcoma treated with pazopanib, we compared the pazopanib-treated group (n = 8) with the non-pazopanib-treated control group (n = 10). There was no significant difference between two groups (P = 0.19, log-rank test). In conclusion, our case series suggests that pazopanib does not bring remarkable improvement in patients with angiosarcoma.