Cure Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma International (iCureASPS)

Dear ASPS Community Friends
There is an interesting new Phase 1 combination Pazopanib/ARQ-197 Clinical Trial that is now open for Sarcoma patients at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. The background and rationale on which the Trial is based is as follows:

Pazopanib is an anticancer drug that blocks the growth of new blood vessels in tumors. It has been approved to treat renal cell cancer. ARQ 197 is an experimental drug that blocks a protein called c-MET, which cancer cells need to grow. Studies suggest that some drugs that block blood vessel growth can increase the production of c-MET in tumors, which helps cancer cells keep growing. Blocking both blood vessel growth and c-MET with pazopanib and ARQ 197 may help kill cancer cells faster. This study will use these drugs to treat solid tumors that have not responded to earlier treatments.

Further information about the Trial can be accessed at the following link:
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT0 ... 197&rank=1

I will be closely following this Trial and updating with any relevant information and data that I find. I would like to strongly encourage anyone who is participating in this new Trial to please update the Board on your Trial experience and results. We all can learn and benefit from each other's shared treatment experiences which provides all of us with invaluable information for fighting this very challenging disease.
With special caring thoughts and continued Hope,
Bonni

Dear all,

Do we know if anyone of the ASPS community has started this trial?

If I remember well what I read about Pazopanib and ARQ-197, both drugs have not led to significant responses in ASPS patients, although there is not as much data available as e.g. for Cediranib or Sutent. But perhaps this combination could be more promising?

Any update would be most appreciated!

Best,
Johannes

Dear Johannes,
I don't know if anyone on this Board is participating in the combination Pazopanib/ARQ-197 Trial at NIH, but I have learned through other sites that I closely follow that a couple of former CureASPS Board members are currently taking Pazopanib, at least one of them in combination with Crizotinib (Xalkori) which is a different C-met inhibitor than ARQ-197. Unfortunately, they no longer communicate on this Board with shared information about their/their child's treatment experiences. However, I am in personal e-mail contact with the husband of an ASPS patient who has been taking Pazopanib for the past several months, and he said that she thankfully seems to be having a very positive and successful response to the Pazopanib thus far with stable disease and significant shrinkage of her lung mets as well as her very large primary tumor in her thigh. I have encouraged him to post her treatment experience information and results on this Board, so Hopefully he will do so sometime soon. Shared anecdotal treatment information is critically important to EVERYONE fighting this extremely rare and challenging disease, and it remains one of our most powerful resources and weapons against ASPS. I continue to strongly encourage EVERYONE on this Board and in the ASPS Community to actively participate on this Board and to share their treatment information either openly, or anonymously if preferred, as we ALL can learn and benefit from it. We ALL need as much information as possible, and we ALL need to work together with each other to fight, and Hopefully someday win, this very difficult battle which we share.
With special caring thoughts and continued Hope,
Bonni