Dr. Ganjoo on Therapies for Patients With Uterine Leiomyosarcomas

Kristen N. Ganjoo, MD, associate professor of medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford Medicine, discusses therapies for patients with uterine leiomyosarcomas.

The combination of adriamycin (doxorubicin) and olaratumab (Lartruvo) is the standard frontline therapy for patients with uterine leiomyosarcomas. A lot of physicians still believe that patients should be treated with gemcitabine and docetaxel because that was the combination that was tested in clinical trials. However, when adriamycin was compared with gemcitabine and docetaxel, it showed fewer side effects, says Ganjoo. For that reason, the combination of adriamycin and olaratumab is Ganjoo’s go-to therapy.

Additionally, she notes that it is important to factor in patient comorbidities, as not everyone can receive adriamycin and olaratumab due to congestive heart failure or other side effects that may be exacerbated by the therapy. Later lines of therapy typically include trabectedin (Yondelis), pazopanib (Votrient), or dacarbazine. Most patients with uterine leiomyosarcomas will receive all of these therapies at some point in their course of treatment, Ganjoo concludes.