Pasireotide as Maintenance Treatment in Synovial Sarcoma and Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor

PAMSARC is a non-commercial interventional Phase 2 clinical trial of academic research institutions, with its primary goal being to improve medical treatment of fusion driven Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) and Synovial sarcoma (SySa) in young adults and adolsecents with male predominance. Current management of DSRCT and SySa includes chemotherapy, radiation and aggressive cytoreductive surgery. Despite advances in multimodal therapy, outcomes remain poor with frequent disease recurrence and very limited options for patients with advanced disease. Selected somatostatin receptor (SSTR) family members, i.e., SSTR2, SSTR3 and SSTR5, are frequently overexpressed in DSRCT and SySa, providing the rationale for treatment with somatostatin analogues (SSA). Pasireotide is a SSA with high affinity for SSTR1, -2, -3, and -5 and is approved for the treatment of Cushing's disease and acromegaly and has also shown activity in other cancers. In patients with advanced stage DSRCT and SySa, conventional chemotherapeutic approaches frequently lead to disease response, however, the duration of progression-free time after chemotherapy is short. The targeted approach with pasireotide after initial intensive multimodal treatment may have the potential to significantly improve outcome.