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The Oncologist, Vol. 12, No. 11, 1351-1360, November 2007; doi:10.1634/theoncologist.12-11-1351
© 2007 AlphaMed Press

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Sarcoma Research Series

The Pharmacologic Basis of Ifosfamide Use in Adult Patients with Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcomas

Metin Tascilar, Walter J. Loos, Caroline Seynaeve, Jaap Verweij, Stefan Sleijfer

Department of Medical Oncology, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Key Words. Soft tissue sarcoma • Ifosfamide • Pharmacology • Chemotherapy • Pharmacokinetics • Adults

Correspondence: Stefan Sleijfer, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Medical Oncology, Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Groene Hilledijk 301, 3075EA Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Telephone: 31-0-10-4391733; Fax: 31-0-10-4391003; e-mail: s.sleijfer{at}erasmusmc.nl

Received August 14, 2007; accepted for publication September 24, 2007.

Disclosure: No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors, planners, reviewers, or staff managers of this article.


   Learning Objectives
Top
 Learning Objectives
Abstract
 Introduction
 Ifosfamide Metabolism
 Clinical Pharmacology
 Side Effects of Ifosfamide
 Ifosfamide in Soft Tissue...
 Future Perspectives and...
 References
 
After completing this course, the reader will be able to:

  1. Describe the current role of ifosfamide in the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas in adult patients.
  2. Discuss factors that may affect ifosfamide metabolism and its therapeutic index.
  3. Explain the advantages of ifosfamide over doxorubicin in the context of new treatment combinations.
  4. Discuss strategies to improve survival outcome in patients with soft tissue sarcoma.

Access and take the CME test online and receive 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM at CME.TheOncologist.com


   ABSTRACT
Top
 Learning Objectives
 Abstract
Introduction
 Ifosfamide Metabolism
 Clinical Pharmacology
 Side Effects of Ifosfamide
 Ifosfamide in Soft Tissue...
 Future Perspectives and...
 References
 
The treatment outcome of patients with locally advanced and metastatic soft tissue sarcomas is poor. Doxorubicin is regarded as standard treatment, but its use is featured by the occurrence of cardiotoxicity. This hinders the administration of this drug at high doses or in combination with, in theory, attractive newly developed targeted drugs, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway inhibitors. The combination of doxorubicin and VEGF pathway inhibitors has been shown to yield an unacceptable high rate of cardiomyopathy. Ifosfamide is the only drug that consistently shows response rates comparable to those of doxorubicin. The lack of cardiotoxicity renders this drug a much more attractive alternative than doxorubicin to be explored at high doses or as part of new drug combinations. This review addresses the clinical pharmacology, metabolism, and present role of ifosfamide in the treatment of locally advanced and/or metastatic soft tissue sarcomas, excluding gastrointestinal stromal tumors, the Ewing-like sarcomas, and other small blue round cell tumors. Furthermore, this review focuses on the anticipated growing role of ifosfamide in the development of new treatment strategies.


   INTRODUCTION
Top
 Learning Objectives
 Abstract
 Introduction
Ifosfamide Metabolism
 Clinical Pharmacology
 Side Effects of Ifosfamide
 Ifosfamide in Soft Tissue...
 Future Perspectives and...
 References
 
Soft tissue sarcomas are rare tumors of mesenchymal origin, accounting for approximately 1% of all malignancies [1]. Over 40 different subtypes of soft tissue sarcoma have been described. Despite the great diversity in pathogenesis, histopathological features, and biologic behavior, most soft tissue sarcomas are considered as one group for the purpose of treatment, with the exception of gastrointestinal stromal tumors, the Ewing-like sarcomas of soft tissues and other small blue round cell tumors, dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas, and some other very rare subtypes.

Although local control can be obtained by surgery and radiotherapy, a substantial percentage of patients will eventually recur at distant sites. Until now, chemotherapy administered as adjuvant treatment has been demonstrated to increase the time to local and distant metastasis recurrence, but failed to improve overall survival [2]. For patients presenting with metastatic disease or locally advanced disease inaccessible to adequate local treatment, chemotherapy should be considered as palliative therapy.

The anthracycline doxorubicin is widely considered standard treatment in metastatic disease because it consistently induces response rates of approximately 16%–27%, with median overall survival times in the range of 7.7–12.0 months [3–6]. A dose–response relationship for doxorubicin has been described, and it is therefore commonly recommended that doxorubicin be administered at doses between 70 mg/m2 and 80 mg/m2 in 3-week intervals [7, 8]. The use of doxorubicin is mainly limited by myelosuppression and cardiomyopathy. As the latter toxicity occurs significantly more frequently at cumulative doses exceeding 450 mg/m2, application of this drug at very high doses is undesirable despite the dose–response relationship.

Besides doxorubicin, ifosfamide is the only drug that also consistently shows activity against advanced soft tissue sarcoma with similar outcomes [7, 9–14]. At first glance, treatment with ifosfamide is less convenient to patients because it should be given over several days while doxorubicin can be given in one day. However, as ifosfamide is not featured by the occurrence of cardiotoxicity, several important advantages exist for this agent. For example, ifosfamide, in contrast to doxorubicin, can be given at high doses. Additionally, in the continuous search for more powerful antitumor therapies, new and promising targeted drugs, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and monoclonal antibodies, are being combined with conventional chemotherapy [15]. In this respect, the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-mediated pathway is an attractive target. Activation of the VEGF receptor (VEGFR) confers resistance against several chemotherapeutic agents through induction of survivin, an antiapoptotic factor [16]. The involvement of VEGF in resistance against chemotherapy is also underlined by the observation that conventional cytotoxic agents induce increased VEGF production by tumor cells in vitro [17], and that high tumor VEGF level is a predictive factor for poor outcome of systemic treatment in humans [18]. Furthermore, inhibition of the VEGFR-2 pathway resulted in greater responsiveness to doxorubicin in preclinical models [19]. An additional mechanism that may underlie the synergistic interaction between inhibitors of the VEGF-mediated pathway and conventional chemotherapy is an effect on interstitial fluid pressure. Inhibitors of VEGFR decrease the interstitial fluid pressure of tumors, thereby increasing (conventional) chemotherapeutic drug uptake into the tumors. As a consequence, synergistic interaction occurs in animal models as well as in humans [20, 21]. Of note, this phenomenon of an increasing transcapillary pressure gradient in tumors is not specific for TKIs involving VEGFR, because it also has been described for imatinib, which inhibits a number of tyrosine kinase receptors including platelet-derived growth factor receptor, c-Kit, and Bcr-Abl [22, 23].

Altogether, these findings justify the exploration of various combinations of VEGF-mediated pathway inhibitors and conventional chemotherapy. However, in patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma, it was recently revealed that the combination of a VEGF inhibitor with doxorubicin is not feasible because of an unacceptably high incidence of doxorubicin-mediated cardiotoxicity [15]. This strongly suggests that doxorubicin is not suitable for combination with agents inhibiting VEGF-mediated activities or other drugs interfering with cardiac function. In this respect, ifosfamide may be a much more attractive combination treatment partner to explore in soft tissue sarcomas.

Because of these features, ifosfamide is an important drug in the treatment of soft tissue sarcomas, and it can be anticipated that its role is likely to increase in the coming years. This review addresses the use of ifosfamide in patients with locally advanced and/or metastatic soft tissue sarcomas.


   IFOSFAMIDE METABOLISM
Top
 Learning Objectives
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Ifosfamide Metabolism
Clinical Pharmacology
 Side Effects of Ifosfamide
 Ifosfamide in Soft Tissue...
 Future Perspectives and...
 References
 
Ifosfamide [3-(2-chloroethyl)-2-[(2-chloroethyl)-amino]tetrahydro-2H-1,3,2-oxazaphosphorin-2-oxide], first synthesized in the 1960s, is a member of the oxazaphosphorine family of alkylating agents [24, 25]. It was introduced as a chemical modification of cyclophosphamide with a different position of its two chloroethyl groups on the central ring, providing a structure with greater water solubility and antitumor activity and a better toxicity profile [26].

Like cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide is a prodrug that is metabolized into a variety of active and potentially toxic metabolites (Fig. 1). However, despite the structural similarities, cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide have important differences in their metabolism, toxicity, and therapeutic spectrum. Approximately 45% of the therapeutic dose of ifosfamide is typically metabolized via N-dechloroethylation to chloroacetaldehyde (CAA), whereas only 10% of cyclophosphamide is converted to CAA [27]. As CAA is thought to induce neurotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, this is likely to account for the more prevalent occurrence of these particular untoward events among patients treated with ifosfamide.


Figure 1
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  		Figure 1. Pathways of metabolism of ifosfamide.

 
Ifosfamide metabolism is best described as a fragile balance between an activation pathway and a presumed deactivation pathway [28, 29]. Bioactivation is mediated through the oxidative chain of the cytochrome P450 (CYP450) system. Conversion of ifosfamide into 4-hydroxy-ifosfamide is mainly catalyzed by the isoform CYP3A4, which is the result of hydroxylation at the carbon-4 position of the oxazaphosphorine ring. Competing with 4-hydroxy-ifosfamide formation is the catabolic ifosfamide dechloroethylation pathway, which leads to production of the probably inactive 2- and 3-dechloroethyl-ifosfamide and of the neurotoxic metabolite CAA, although some preclinical work attributes antitumor activity to CAA [30].

Since 4-hydroxy-ifosfamide is an unstable product, it exists in equilibrium with its tautomeric form aldophosphamide. The latter decomposes spontaneously to isophosphoramide mustard and acrolein. It is assumed that isophosphoramide mustard is the active metabolite because of its DNA alkylating ability. The mechanism of alkylation facilitates interstrand crosslinking that is more difficult to repair and hence promotes a greater cytotoxic effect, pushing cells into apoptosis [31]. The urotoxin acrolein, causing hemorrhagic cystitis, is also an agent capable of forming DNA adducts [32].

The metabolism of ifosfamide can be affected by a number of factors, including autoinduction, drug combinations, and/or polymorphisms of genes encoding enzymes that metabolize and transport ifosfamide [31].

Autoinduction is the process whereby repeated administration of ifosfamide results in an increase in total clearance and shorter elimination half-life because of greater activity of metabolizing enzymes, such as CYP3A4 and CYP2B6 [33]. Autoinduction of ifosfamide has been described to occur within 12–24 hours after the start of treatment. Importantly, metabolic rates return to initial levels within 3 weeks [34]. Autoinduction of ifosfamide metabolism seems to be influenced by dose and dosing schedule. With long infusion durations (24–72 hours) the metabolic rate was 52% lower than with short infusion durations (1–4 hours) [35]. Because this difference is comparable to the interindividual variability of ifosfamide, the clinical importance of autoinduction is not yet established.

Another factor that theoretically may influence ifosfamide metabolism is the chronic administration of CYP modulators, as demonstrated by greater ifosfamide clearance in a patient pretreated with carbamazepine [36], an inducer of CYP3A4. In contrast, earlier attempts failed to show modulation of this CYP-mediated metabolism of ifosfamide in patients using rifamipicin as a CYP3A4/CYP2B6 inducer and ketoconazole, a potent inhibitor of CYP3A4 [37]. Accordingly, Singer et al. [38] could not demonstrate a significant effect of dexamethasone, a CYP3A4 inducer, on ifosfamide metabolism. However, because ifosfamide activation and deactivation are catalyzed by distinct subsets of liver P450 enzymes, it appears to be possible to modulate the therapeutic indices of ifosfamide using P450 form-selective modulators in preclinical models [39]. Collectively, altered metabolism yielding other effects as expected in terms of efficacy and toxicity can occur upon coadministration of CYP3A4 inducers or inhibitors. Obviously, this underlines the importance of taking into account any concomitant medication affecting enzymes involved in the metabolism of ifosfamide. The same holds true for drugs that are substrates for drug transporters, including breast cancer resistance protein, multidrug resistance associated protein (MRP)-1, MRP-2, and MRP-4 [31]. These transporters have been described to be involved in the active uptake and efflux of oxazaphosphorines. Theoretically, compounds that act as substrates for these pumps and that are given concomitantly with ifosfamide can affect the metabolism of the latter. Whether such interactions are indeed clinically relevant remains to be established.

Next to drug–drug interactions, the marked interindividual differences in clinical response rate and toxicity observed in cancer patients can be partly explained by polymorphisms of genes encoding enzymes that metabolize and transport ifosfamide. Such polymorphisms can give rise to different expression and activity of the encoded proteins. As an example, a 20- to 250-fold variability in CYP2B6 expression has been reported [40, 41]. Accordingly, substantial differences among individual human liver samples with respect to total metabolism and the rates of microsomal ifosfamide N-dechloroethylation were observed to result from differences in the expression of CYP protein levels [42, 43]. Clearly, such genetic polymorphisms may contribute to the wide interpatient variability in exposure to cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide and their active metabolites, with important clinical consequences in cancer chemotherapy [44]. Further clinical studies are needed to explore the exact role of polymorphisms within these genes in ifosfamide therapy.


   CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY
Top
 Learning Objectives
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Ifosfamide Metabolism
 Clinical Pharmacology
Side Effects of Ifosfamide
 Ifosfamide in Soft Tissue...
 Future Perspectives and...
 References
 
As a consequence of the narrow therapeutic ratio of ifosfamide, its optimal schedule of administration is still questioned [36]. This unfavorable therapeutic ratio led to the exploration of a large number of alternate schedules including oral, s.c., or i.v. administration by continuous or short infusion [45–47]. Early clinical reports suggested that continuous infusion would be better tolerated [48, 49]; however, this approach was challenged later by others warning against loss of efficacy [50]. In an extensive study of the main active and toxic ifosfamide metabolites, it was shown that continuous infusion and short infusion schedules, using ifosfamide as monotherapy with an identical dose (9 g/m2) given over 3 days by either continuous infusion or daily 3-hour infusions, were equivalent in terms of pharmacokinetic endpoints such as area under the concentration–time curve [36].

As is described for doxorubicin, there is also some evidence to support a dose–response relationship in ifosfamide in soft tissue sarcomas: with higher doses of ifosfamide, higher response rates have been described, although benefits in terms of longer survival times remain unproven [9]. At doses of 12–18 g/m2 there is no firm dose–response relationship, and unacceptably high incidences of grade 3 and 4 toxicities are encountered [10]. This lack of a dose–response relationship at doses above 12 g/m2 is further supported by the finding that ifosfamide doses >14–16 g/m2 result in a relatively lower level of the active metabolite isophosphoramide mustard, suggesting a dose-dependent saturation or even inhibition of ifosfamide metabolism by increasing high-dose ifosfamide [51].


   SIDE EFFECTS OF IFOSFAMIDE
Top
 Learning Objectives
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Ifosfamide Metabolism
 Clinical Pharmacology
 Side Effects of Ifosfamide
Ifosfamide in Soft Tissue...
 Future Perspectives and...
 References
 
The main acute side effects of ifosfamide involve those commonly seen with other antineoplastic agents such as neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, nausea, vomiting, alopecia, and hypersensitivity reactions. Ifosfamide is also associated with more specific toxicities, including hemorrhagic cystitis, neurotoxicity (encephalopathy), and nephrotoxicity.

Regarding ifosfamide-specific toxicities, the use of ifosfamide was initially limited by the occurrence of hemorrhagic cystitis. After the introduction of mercaptoethane sulfonate sodium (mesna) in 1979, a thiol compound that detoxifies the acrolein metabolite of ifosfamide in the bladder only without affecting its antitumor effect, hemorrhagic cystitis was no longer considered dose-limiting [52].

The incidence of renal toxicity varies in the range of 5%–30%. Risk factors include drug dose, prior nephrectomy, prior renal irradiation, and presence of retroperitoneal masses [53]. Clinical studies of ifosfamide showed that single high doses can result in acute tubular necrosis and renal failure within a few days after administration [54]. This was one of the reasons that fractionated dose schedules were developed for this drug. A lower rate of both bladder and renal toxicity was seen with ifosfamide administration over five consecutive days [55]. There is no known means for preventing ifosfamide renal toxicity.

Ifosfamide-induced encephalopathy can be precipitated by risk factors such as low serum albumin, poor performance status, any degree of renal dysfunction, and age (children are more susceptible than adults) [56]. It is manifested by visual and auditory hallucinations, logorrhea, mental confusion, agitation, seizures, coma, and occasionally death. Severe electrolyte and acid-base disturbances by tubular dysfunction may maintain or worsen neurological symptoms. The etiology of this neurotoxicity remains largely unknown, but it is probably multifactorial. CAA, which is structurally related to acetaldehyde, the neurotoxic metabolite of ethanol, is thought to contribute to this toxicity [57]. The incidence of neurotoxic abnormalities varies in the range of 10%–15%, but for unknown reasons appears to be higher with oral administration than with i.v. administration [58]. Although controlled studies are lacking, i.v. methylene blue and high-dose thiamine are regarded as effective treatments that can result in dramatic reversal of the neurotoxic manifestations [59].


   IFOSFAMIDE IN SOFT TISSUE SARCOMAS
Top
 Learning Objectives
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Ifosfamide Metabolism
 Clinical Pharmacology
 Side Effects of Ifosfamide
 Ifosfamide in Soft Tissue...
Future Perspectives and...
 References
 
Ifosfamide Monotherapy
Because of the ongoing dispute and the lack of consensus on the best regimen, numerous different ifosfamide regimens have been explored in patients with soft tissue sarcomas (Table 1). In one of the earliest studies performed in patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma in 1983, ifosfamide monotherapy at 5–8 g/m2 by a 24-hour infusion every 3 weeks produced a response rate of 38% [11]. In subsequent studies, ifosfamide consistently yielded response rates of approximately 20%–25% in metastatic disease, with a median overall survival duration of 1 year, results that seem to be comparable to those obtained with doxorubicin [12].


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  		Table 1. Examples of clinical trials with various ifosfamide dosing schedules and toxicities

 
To establish whether high doses yield better outcomes, sequential studies performed at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center showed higher response rates with greater doses of ifosfamide, 10% and 21%, respectively, for the 6- and 10-g/m2 doses [9]. Given this suggested dose–response relationship, higher doses of ifosfamide, in the range of 12–18 g/m2, were explored in several phase II studies, demonstrating a broad range of response rates of 11%–90% [50, 60–64]. Of important note, there are major differences in these studies regarding dosing and schedule of administration of ifosfamide (continuous infusion versus bolus), prior treatment of patients, and proportions of various types of sarcoma in the included patient group, rendering comparison of these studies almost impossible. Currently, it is generally thought that a dose of ifosfamide >10.5 g/m2 cannot be considered standard. This is mainly based on a large phase II trial of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcoma Group (STBSG) in which 124 advanced soft tissue sarcoma patients were treated with 12 g/m2 of ifosfamide as a 3-day continuous infusion every 3 weeks [10]. This treatment was accompanied by grade 3 or 4 hematological and nonhematological toxicity to an extent that was deemed unacceptable, while there was no clear enhancement in antitumor activity. The disadvantageous therapeutic index of ifosfamide at higher doses was underscored in several other studies [64, 65].

In order to further define the most optimal regimen, in 2002, a study by the same EORTC group demonstrated that, in the first-line treatment of advanced soft-tissue sarcomas, ifosfamide given at 5 g/m2 over 24 hours every 3 weeks yielded disappointing response rates compared with 3 g/m2 per day given over 4 hours for three consecutive days (total dose, 9 g/m2), with response rates of 10% versus 25%, respectively [12].

There are only two studies that directly compared ifosfamide with other drugs in soft tissue sarcoma. In a randomized phase II study of the EORTC STBSG performed in the early 1980s, ifosfamide at a dose of 5 g/m2 given over 24 hours every 3 weeks was compared with cyclophosphamide at a dose of 1,500 mg/m2 in nonpretreated patients [13]. In this study ifosfamide showed a response rate of 25% versus 10% for cyclophosphamide with less myelosuppression in the ifosfamide treated patients. Recently, the first study to directly compare doxorubicin with ifosfamide in a phase III trial was published, comparing two schedules of ifosfamide (9 g/m2 over 3 days by continuous infusion or 3 g/m2 per day in 3 hours over 3 days) with standard-dose doxorubicin (75 mg/m2 every 21 days) in advanced or metastatic soft tissue sarcoma [14]. Although grade 4 leukopenia, neutropenia, febrile neutropenia, and encephalopathy were more frequent in both ifosfamide arms, no differences in progression-free survival, response rates, and overall survival were seen among the three treatment arms. On the advice of the data monitoring committee the study was stopped early for futility reasons; a lack of superiority of either of the two ifosfamide arms to doxorubicin was observed.

Collectively, based on above-mentioned studies, ifosfamide is likely to exhibit antitumor activity that is equivalent to that of doxorubicin. Doses of approximately 9–11 g/m2 per cycle given at 3-week intervals are recommended for single-agent ifosfamide with no clear preference for continuous infusion or infusion in 3–4 hours. There are no data to suggest that higher doses yield greater antitumor activity, which is likely a result of saturated conversion of ifosfamide into active metabolites at doses >12 g/m2.

Ifosfamide in Combination Therapy
Several trials have been performed exploring the feasibility of ifosfamide-containing combinations and whether or not such combinations are more effective than single-drug regimens. In 1990, the EORTC group embarked on a phase II trial of doxorubicin (50 mg/m2) plus ifosfamide (5 g/m2) administered as a 24-hour continuous infusion every 3 weeks. In that study, toxicity was shown to be acceptable, with a response rate of 35% in 175 assessable patients [66]. Several other studies combining doxorubicin with ifosfamide, all performed in a nonrandomized setting, demonstrated apparently high response rates of 50%–60%. Patel et al. [67] achieved a response rate of 66% with doxorubicin (75 mg/m2) in combination with ifosfamide (10 g/m2). The main toxicity was myelosuppression, and despite the use of G-CSF, febrile neutropenia was encountered in 31% of all cycles [67]. Leyvraz et al. [68] published a study of doxorubicin (90 mg/m2) plus ifosfamide (10 g/m2) in combination with G-CSF, which resulted in a response rate of 55%. Of note, this combination induced severe bone marrow toxicity, given World Health Organization grade 4 leukopenia in 58%, grade 3–4 thrombopenia in 42%, and anemia in 31% of cycles. In a phase II study by Reichardt et al. [69], a similar response rate of 55% was reported using the combination epirubicin (90 mg/m2) and ifosfamide (12.5 g/m2) with G-CSF support.

Prompted by the apparent high response rates obtained with ifosfamide-containing regimens, a prospective, randomized trial was performed that compared single-agent doxorubicin (75 mg/m2) with a combination of doxorubicin (50 mg/m2) and ifosfamide (5 g/m2) and also with the four-drug combination CYVADIC (cyclophosphamide, 500 mg/m2; vincristine, 1.5 mg/m2; doxorubicin, 50 mg/m2; and dacarbazine, 750 mg/m2) [70]. In this large multicenter trial with 663 eligible patients, no statistically significant difference was detected among the three treatment arms in terms of response rate, remission duration, and overall survival time. Also, another study randomly comparing the combination of doxorubicin and dacarbazine (60 mg/m2 and 1,000 mg/m2, respectively) over 4 days, every 3 weeks, with the triplet of doxorubicin and dacarbazine (both administered in the same dosage) and ifosfamide (7.5 g/m2 over 3 days) did not reveal a benefit for the ifosfamide-containing combination [71].

Because, thereafter, concerns were raised on whether or not the lack of superiority for the combinations was a result of less than optimal doses in these combinations, the EORTC initiated a randomized phase III study assigning patients to either doxorubicin (75 mg/m2) or doxorubicin (75 mg/m2) combined with ifosfamide (10 g/m2 per cycle). That study is still in progress.

Although evidence of superior efficacy of doxorubicin- plus ifosfamide-based combinations over doxorubicin alone is currently lacking, whereas greater toxicity using the combination is evident, high doses of ifosfamide in combination with doxorubicin in the treatment of younger patients with aggressive tumors is frequently applied, especially if the chemotherapy is administered in a neoadjuvant or preoperative setting [6, 71–73].


   FUTURE PERSPECTIVES AND CONCLUSIONS
Top
 Learning Objectives
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Ifosfamide Metabolism
 Clinical Pharmacology
 Side Effects of Ifosfamide
 Ifosfamide in Soft Tissue...
 Future Perspectives and...
References
 
It is clear that ifosfamide exhibits activity in advanced and metastatic soft tissue sarcomas to a similar extent as doxorubicin. Nevertheless, the overall survival of this patient group remains poor. One way to improve survival outcomes is through paying more attention to factors that may influence susceptibility to specific antitumor treatments. Unfortunately, such factors enabling the identification of patients who are likely to respond to ifosfamide have not been revealed yet. This is in contrast to doxorubicin-based therapies for which such factors have been elucidated. A large study showed that, in a multivariate analysis, the absence of liver metastasis, young age, and a high histopathological grade were associated with a favorable response [74]. In the same study, good performance status, young age, no liver involvement, a low histopathological grade, and a long time between the primary diagnosis and start of treatment were independently associated with a longer overall survival time. A similar analysis to identify factors predicting outcome to ifosfamide is clearly warranted.

There are evident indications that the distinct sarcoma subtypes differ in their susceptibility to certain drugs and that treatment strategies should therefore be tailored according to subtype. This holds true for angiosarcomas of the scull and myxoid/round cell liposarcomas, in which paclitaxel and trabectedin, respectively, induce response rates that are higher than those seen using other compounds. The combination of gemcitabine and docetaxel exhibits antitumor activity against metastatic leiomyosarcomas and undifferentiated high-grade pleiomorphic sarcomas [75]. With respect to ifosfamide, synovial sarcoma in particular is thought to be highly sensitive to this drug, but this is merely based on small series of patients while randomized data are lacking [4, 6, 69, 76, 77]. Better characterization and understanding of the molecular biology and the pathogenesis of the different subtypes of sarcomas is needed in order to engineer and develop more specific treatments. This may also lead to identification of subtypes or gene-expression profiles of tumors likely to respond to ifosfamide.

In recent years, several new compounds with promising antitumor activity in early clinical trials have been identified. ET-743 (ecteinascidin-743, trabectedin, Yondelis®; PharmaMar, Madrid, Spain) is a new compound that exerts its antitumor activity through binding to the minor groove of DNA [78]. It has demonstrated activity as a first-line or second-line treatment for advanced sarcomas, following doxorubicin and ifosfamide [79, 80], in particular against myxoid/round cell liposarcomas. This drug was recently registered in Europe. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors mediate their activity by binding to the intracellular protein FKBP-12 (FK506 binding protein) and subsequently inhibiting the protein kinase of mTOR, finally leading to cell cycle arrest and apoptosis [81]. AP23573, an mTOR-inhibitor, yielded promising results in patients with advanced sarcomas in phase II studies and will be assessed in the context of randomized studies shortly [82]. Furthermore, the process of tumor angiogenesis is a potential target, because new blood vessel formation is one of the prerequisites for growth and dissemination of tumors in general, including soft tissue sarcomas. The use of drugs targeting angiogenesis, including monoclonal antibodies and TKIs, is therefore rapidly increasing in oncology. Very recently, sorafenib and pazopanib, TKIs targeting VEGFR, yielded strong hints of antitumor activity in particular tumor subtypes, prompting the initiation of randomized studies [83, 84].

Next to their application as single agents, there is a strong rationale to explore these compounds in combination regimens. Preferably, there are several conditions that have to be met when agents are combined in cancer treatment, with single-agent activity of both agents, different mechanisms of action, nonoverlapping toxicity profiles, and synergistic antitumor activity being the most important ones. Because several of these criteria have already been met, it is attractive to combine the above-mentioned novel drugs with either doxorubicin or ifosfamide. In particular for agents that may exaggerate doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy, as, for example, has been shown for inhibitors of the VEGF-mediated pathway, ifosfamide is the preferred agent [15]. However, it should be emphasized that whether these new drug combinations indeed improve antitumor activity can only be settled after results from well-designed, randomized studies are known. The same holds true for other combinations, including doxorubicin and ifosfamide, for which no robust data currently exist indicating that they outperform single-agent regimens in terms of longer overall survival times. Therefore, the results from the randomized EORTC study comparing this combination with single-agent doxorubicin, all given at doses considered optimal, are eagerly awaited.

It is clear that, in the era of targeted drug therapy and tumor type–specific treatments, the old drug ifosfamide still has an important role in the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma that is likely to increase in the near future.


   REFERENCES
Top
 Learning Objectives
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Ifosfamide Metabolism
 Clinical Pharmacology
 Side Effects of Ifosfamide
 Ifosfamide in Soft Tissue...
 Future Perspectives and...
 References
 

  1. Enzinger FM, Weiss SW. In: Enzinger FM, Weiss SW, eds. Soft tissue Tumors. General considerations. Third Edition. St. Louis: Mosby, 1995:1-16.
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