HealthDay News — The US Food and Drug Administration has just approved a new drug, Lartruvo (olaratumab), to treat adults with certain soft tissue sarcomas.
Lartruvo, a platelet-derived growth factor receptor-alpha blocking antibody, has been sanctioned for use with doxorubicin in cases that cannot be treated with radiation or surgery, the FDA said Wednesday in a news release.
The drug was evaluated in clinical trials involving 133 patients with soft tissue carcinomas. Average survival among patients who took Lartruvo and doxorubicin was 8.2 months, compared with 4.4 months among patients who took doxorubicin alone.
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Potential side effects identified during the studies included harm to a developing fetus, hypotension, fever, chills, nausea, fatigue, neutropenia and musculoskeletal pain.
Lartruvo’s maker, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company, is conducting a larger study to further evaluate the drug’s effectiveness among numerous types of soft tissue sarcoma, the agency said.
Reference
FDA Grants Accelerated Approval to New Treatment for Advanced Soft Tissue Sarcoma [press release]. Silver Spring, MD: US Food and Drug Administration; October 19, 2016.
