Toronto, Canada—Findings from a phase 2 study prepared for presentation at the 2020 SGO Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer showed that adding pazopanib to gemcitabine enhanced antitumor activity in patients with ovarian cancer.

“Angiogenesis inhibition is a valuable strategy for ovarian cancer,” explained Linda R. Duska, MD, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, and colleagues, who conducted an open-label trial examining the benefits of adding pazopanib to gemcitabine therapy in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer.

A total of 148 patients (median age, 63 years) with platinum-resistant or sensitive disease who had received ≤3 lines of chemotherapy were enrolled in the study between 2012 and 2017. These patients were randomized to receive weekly gemcitabine 1000 mg/m² on days 1 and 8 of a 21-day cycle with or without pazopanib 800 mg 4 times daily based on their platinum sensitivity and whether they had received 1, 2, or 3 prior lines of therapy.

The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS), and surveillance lasted for 13 months. The median PFS was shown to be 5.3 (95% CI, 4.2-5.8) with the combination versus 2.9 months (95% CI 2.1–4.1) with gemcitabine alone, with PFS effect most pronounced in patients with platinum-resistant disease (5.32 vs 2.33 months Tarone-Ware; P <.001).

Dr Duska and co-investigators reported no differences in overall survival. Furthermore, patients given the combination therapy had adverse events including grade ≤3 hypertension (15%), neutropenia (35%), and thrombocytopenia (12%).

“The addition of pazopanib to gemcitabine enhanced anti-tumor activity; those with platinum-resistant disease derived the most benefit from combination therapy, even in the setting of receiving prior bevacizumab,” Dr Duska and colleagues concluded.—Hina Porcelli

Duska LR, Petroni G, Brown J, et al. A randomized phase II evaluation of weekly gemcitabine plus pazopanib versus weekly gemcitabine alone in the treatment of persistent or recurrent epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal carcinoma. Presented at: the 2020 SGO Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer; March 28-31, 2020; Toronta, Canada. Abstract 25.