Ewing's Sarcoma: Treatments that Have Shown Poor Response
A number of chemo agents have been involved in clinical trials for Ewing's sarcoma and sarcomas in general. This is a partial list of the agents which have been removed from Ewing's trials due to poor responses.
Gleevec/STI571/Imatinib Mesylate
- Blocks an abnormal protein, preventing growth
- Multi-center Phase 2 Gleevec trial; on or before 3/03, Ewing's sarcoma was removed from the trial due to lack of response (it was trialed with 5 patients, responses were 0/5)
- NIH description of the trial
- Open NCI pediatric Phase 2 trial on Gleevec, open for Ewing's sarcoma
- Gleevec side effects
- 2002 abstract of paper about Gleevec and Ewing's sarcoma cell lines; only tumors that have "constitutively activated STI571-sensitive tyrosine kinases" responsd to Gleevec
- 2002 reference on 2 Ewing's sarcoma patients who developed fluid in lungs on Gleevec
- 2002 abstract stating good cell line results with Gleevec
- 2001 article about Gleevec and GIST
PS-341/Bortezomib/Velcade
- Proteasome inhibitor; turns the NF-kB switch off, killing cells.
- Was in a trial for sarcomas at MSK by Maki in 2002, but stopped due to lack of response. (2003 ASCO abstract which discusses Phase 2 results: 7/11 progression, 2/11 stable, 1/11 mixed; all sarcomas, no Ewing's.) There seems to be a Phase 2 open now for Ewing's (description) with Maki as the PI.
- PS-341 for multiple myeloma
- 2003 abstract discussing toxicity.
- 2002 abstract stating that proteasome inhibition induces cell death, and it well tolerated.
- 2003 abstract discussing multiple myeloma success, and stating that perhaps proteasome inhibitors may help with refractory tumors.
Vaccines and Interleukin-2
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2002 abstract stating that vaccines with interleukin-2 didn't work for Ewing's sarcoma.