Votrient: first targeted oral therapy for advanced soft tissue sarcoma

1 October 2012

Votrient (pazopanib) has been approved as a treatment option for advanced soft tissue sarcoma (STS).

Votrient is also licensed for advanced renal cell carcinoma, as first line treatment or following cytokine therapy.

The tyrosine kinase inhibitor is indicated to treat selected subtypes of the disease in adults who have received prior chemotherapy for metastatic disease or who have progressed within 12 months of neo-adjuvant therapy.

Votrient is already licensed for the first-line treatment of adults with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and for RCC patients who have received prior cytokine therapy for advanced disease.

Increased survival

The efficacy and safety of pazopanib in STS were assessed in a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled, multicentre, phase III study (PALETTE) involving 369 patients with certain subtypes of advanced STS who had previously received chemotherapy.

Pazopanib 800mg once daily significantly increased median progression-free survival to 4.6 months, compared with 1.6 months for placebo (HR=0.31 [95% CI: 0.24–-0.40]; p<0.0001).

Adverse events identified in this advanced STS population that had not previously been seen in advanced RCC patients included venous thromboembolic events and pneumothorax.

View Votrient drug record

Further information: GSK

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