Phase III data shows improvement in overall survival with Halaven (eribulin) vs dacarbazine in liposarcoma- Eisai

Halaven (eribulin), from Eisai, is an active agent against liposarcoma according to tumour subtype analyses of a Phase III trial that examine efficacy and safety of eribulin compared with dacarbazine. There is a significant improvement in overall survival compared with dacarbazine (15.6 versus 8.4 months) and progression free survival (2.9 versus 1.7 months) for patients with liposarcomas in these pre-planned analyses. These Tumour subtype-specific analyses examine the safety and tolerability of eribulin versus dacarbazine in 143 patients with liposarcoma, representing 32% of the total study population (n=452). An overall survival benefit is observed with eribulin versus dacarbazine regardless of liposarcoma histology (dedifferentiated is 18.0 vs 8.1 months myxoid/round cell is 13.5 vs 9.6 months? pleomorphic is 22.2 vs 6.7 months).

Eribulin has a toxicity profile consistent with prior experience, with no unexpected or new safety findings. Treatment with eribulin is well tolerated and the most common all grade adverse events were alopecia, fatigue, neutropenia, and nausea. Adverse events of at least grade 3 occur in 63% of patients in the eribulin arm and 51% of patients in the dacarbazine arm. Data were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.