Efficacy and safety of eribulin mesylate in advanced soft tissue sarcomas

Despite recent advances in the field, treatment options for metastatic soft tissue sarcoma patients are limited. Eribulin, an antimitotic derived from the natural marine sponge product halichondrin B, is currently approved for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. Following the promising activity of eribulin in sarcoma in a Phase II trial, the drug was recently compared to dacarbazine in pretreated advanced leiomyosarcoma (LMS) and liposarcoma (LPS) patients in a Phase III trial. Eribulin was associated with a significant 2-month improvement in median overall survival compared to dacarbazine (13.5 vs. 11.5 months, heart rate: 0.768) despite no documented significant difference in progression-free survival. In a subgroup analysis, the survival advantage associated with eribulin was evident in the LPS subgroup but not in the LMS subgroup. Following these encouraging results, the Food and Drug Administration has approved eribulin for the treatment of advanced LPS for patients who received prior anthracycline chemotherapy. In this short review, we will evaluate the evidence for eribulin in soft tissue sarcoma, highlight its mechanisms of action, and summarize the results of the major preclinical and clinical studies with a particular focus on the results of the Phase III trial.