EORTC Lung Cancer Group studying potential new indication for pazopanib for patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Approximately half of all non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, and the treatment option for these patients is palliative chemotherapy. It has been shown that palliative chemotherapy can lead to improvements in survival and quality-of-life measures, but due to cumulative toxicity, guidelines limit the duration of treatment with currently available agents. The continuation of treatment at the end of a definite number of chemotherapy cycles (maintenance treatment) is an approach that has been widely studied in order to improve outcome in NSCLC.

The randomized phase III EORTC 08092 MAPPING trial will investigate the therapeutic benefit of pazopanib as maintenance treatment in 587 patients with advanced stage NSCLC. Pazopanib targets endothelial growth factor receptors involved in angiogenesis and has the potential of being effective in combatting NSCLC.

Pazopanib was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma as well as for patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma who have received prior chemotherapy, and has been shown to prolong progression free survival in patients with advanced soft-tissue sarcoma.

Dr. Mary O’Brien of the Royal Marsden Hospital, Chair of the EORTC Lung Cancer Group, and Coordinator of this study says, “We need well tolerated active, preferably oral, forms of maintenance therapy – this agent could fit the bill.”

This trial is currently open in France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Greece, Slovenia, Egypt, and Germany. Two sites in Poland and one site in Cyprus will soon join the trial, and there are plans to open four additional sites in the United Kingdom, one in Belgium, and one in Slovenia. This trial is supported by an educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline.

For more information concerning this trial please contact: www.eortc.org/contact

John Bean
EORTC, Medical Science Writer