A phase II study of tivozanib in patients with metastatic and nonresectable soft-tissue sarcomas

Soft tissue sarcomas (STSs) overexpress vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGF) and VEGF-receptors (VEGFR) activation have been associated with tumor aggressiveness. Tivozanib is a potent small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor against VEGFR1-3, with activity against PDGFRα/β and cKIT. The primary endpoint of this study was progression free survival (PFS) rate at 16 weeks. Secondary end points were overall survival (OS), response rate, safety and correlative studies.

A Simon two-stage phase II trial was performed using tivozanib given orally at 1.5 mg daily, 3 week on 1 week off on a 28 day cycle until disease progression or intolerable toxicity.

Fifty-eight patients were enrolled and treated with tivozanib. Leiomyosarcoma was the most common STS histological type in our cohort (47%) and 27 patients (46%) had received at least 3 lines of therapy prior to study entry. Up to 24 patients (41%) had prior VEGF targeted therapies. Partial response and stable disease were observed in 2 (3.6%) and 30 (54.5%) patients. The 16 week PFS rate was 36.4% [95% confidence interval (CI) 23.7-49.1] and a median PFS of 3.5 months (95% CI 1.8-3). Median OS observed was 12.2 months (95% CI 8.1-16.8). The most frequent all grade toxicities were fatigue (48.3%), hypertension (43.1%), nausea (31%) and diarrhea (27.6%). The most common grade three toxicity was hypertension (22.4%). Correlative studies demonstrate no correlation between the expression of VEGFR 1, 2 or 3, PDGFRα/β or FGF, and activity of tivozanib.

Tivozanib was well tolerated and showed antitumor activity with a promising median PFS and PFS rate at 4 months in a heavily pretreated population of metastatic STSs. Our results support further studies to assess the clinical efficacy of tivozanib in STS.

NCT01782313.