Long-lasting clinical benefit of sunitinib malate in the treatment of a case of heavily pre-treated metastatic liposarcoma.

BACKGROUND

Soft tissue sarcomas are a heterogeneous group of malignant neoplasms including several distinct entities with different cell differentiation and clinical prognosis, but which are often treated as a single disease.

METHODS

We report the case of a male patient, heavily treated for a metastatic well-differentiated liposarcoma occurring in the left lateral neck. He received radiotherapy and different lines of standard chemotherapy with local progression and lung metastasis. In November 2009, on the basis of a phase II study demonstrating the efficacy of sunitinib in patients with liposarcoma, the patient was treated with sunitinib at 37.5 mg daily in 4-week cycles on a compassionate use basis. Until November 2012 he received a total of 23 cycles of sunitinib treatment achieving a stable disease in all sites. Therapy with sunitinib is still ongoing without side effects.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings confirm that sunitinib may be a useful therapeutic tool in the treatment of some cases of pre-treated liposarcoma.