Sitravatinib May be the ‘Missing TKI’ for Dedifferentiated Liposarcoma

During Sarcoma Awareness Month 2023, Brian Van Tine, MD, PhD, spoke with CancerNetwork^® about the potential of sitravatinib as a treatment for dedifferentiated and well-differentiated liposarcoma; he noted that the agent may become a suitable option in the treatment armamentarium for this patient population.

Van Tine, a professor of medicine in the Division of Oncology, Section of Medical Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine’s Siteman Cancer Center, stated that sitravatinib appears to demonstrate comparable activity with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor pazopanib (Votreint). Based on the observed activity and tolerability of sitravatinib, he said that the agent may be the TKI that this population has been missing.

Van Tine also described the potential next steps for researching and developing this agent, which may include initiating a clinical trial among patients with dedifferentiated liposarcoma.

Transcript:

When we did all the studies of pazopanib [Votrient], which is a different oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor [TKI], it went across all of the sarcomas except liposarcoma, which was left without an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor that had great activity. What was nice about sitravatinib is that it seems to have activity that is now equivalent to pazopanib in other sarcomas, but in dedifferentiated and well-differentiated liposarcoma.

We found what I would consider the missing TKI for dedifferentiated liposarcoma. And while the development of sitravatinib is still underway and it's not quite FDA-approved yet for another indication, we're hoping that we can still push this TKI through the liposarcoma space because it was clearly active and well tolerated. It's a missing drug in our armamentarium for that one specific disease.

We either need to do a dedicated trial in dedifferentiated liposarcoma or wait for one of the other trials sitravatinib is being used in to read out and then we can use it as a guideline compendium. There needs to be a partnership, especially with the company that owns this agent, so that hopefully we can continue to develop it in this area.

Reference

Ingham M, Lee S, Van Tine BA, et al. A single-arm phase II trial of sitravatinib in advanced well-differentiated/dedifferentiated liposarcoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2023;29(6):1031-1039. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-3351