Weekly cisplatin alone or with imatinib shows promise in advanced chordoma

Treatment with weekly cisplatin alone or in combination with imatinib showed antitumor activity in patients with chordoma, according to a study. After treatment, 65% of patients who previously had progressive disease were progression-free at 6 months and 30% at 12 months despite a lack of dimensional responses.

In this retrospective study, 33 patients advanced, brachyury-positive chordoma treated with weekly cisplatin alone as frontline (n = 8), with weekly cisplatin alone as a further line (n = 25), or prior imatinib (n = 25), were included. Imatinib was withheld at the same time as weekly cisplatin alone. All patients had evidence of disease progression before starting weekly cisplatin alone

Responses were evaluable for 32 patients (weekly cisplatin alone, n = 22; weekly cisplatin with imatinib, n = 10). Of the 32 patients, 27 had stable disease and 5 had progressive disease.

There was a median follow-up of 54 months. Median overall survival was 30.3 months, median progression-free survival (PFS) was 80 months, the 6-month PFS rate was 65.2%, and the 12-month PFS rate was 30.3%

Stable disease was observed in 18 patients treated with weekly cisplatin alone (n = 22; 81.8%); progression was noted in 4 patients. The median PFS was 8 months.

Stable disease was observed in 9 patients treated with weekly cisplatin in combination with imatinib (n = 10; 90%); progression was noted in 1 patient. The median PFS was 9.3 months.

Reference
Baldi GG, Lo Vullo S, Grignani G, et al. Weekly cisplatin with or without imatinib in advanced chordoma: A retrospective case-series analysis from the Italian Rare Cancers Network. Cancer. 2022;doi: 10.1002/cncr.34083. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35026050.