FDA Approves the Use of Halaven for Treating Soft Tissue Sarcoma

The Food and Drug Administration has recently declared that a new drug is available for treating liposarcoma, a rare subtype of the soft tissue sarcoma. FDA approves the use of Halaven for treating soft tissue sarcoma, declaring that the results are encouraging and statistically significant.

On Thursday, FDA officially declared that Eisai’s newest cancer drug called Halaven or eribulin mesylate has received the seal of approval. Halaven will now be used to treat the most severe cases of liposarcoma, an exotic type of soft tissue sarcoma.

According to the FDA, approximately 1000 people all over the world are diagnosed each year with liposarcoma. Moreover, it would seem that this type of cancer has a high death rate. But, according to the FDA, this new drug is capable of extending the patient’s life by 15 months, compared to the old drug, dacarbazine, which had a median overall survival of 8.4 months.

According to Halaven, this new drug can be employed in cases where the tumor is either inoperable, or it has metastasized. Moreover, according to the drug manufacturer, Halaven can even be used on the patients who already underwent chemotherapy.

Doctor Richard Pazdur, who is the director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology products, declared that according to the latest numbers, Halaven proved to be quite efficient in treating the symptoms associated with liposarcoma.

The FDA approves the use of Halaven in treating soft tissue sarcoma, after reviewing the latest results from the clinical trial. Halaven is not a new concept. In fact, the drug was first approved in 2010 for treating severe cases of breast cancer. Back then, the researchers saw that the drug also has the potential to treat liposarcoma.

However, due to the rarity of the disease, the drug was reprioritized, making room for other drugs. Although the drug proved that it can significantly extend the medial overall survival rate, it seems it falls behind when it comes to the progression rate.

For this reason, FDA approved another liposarcoma drug called Yondelis, which, according to the results, is capable of extending the progression rate.

Despite the fact that the drug proved to be very efficient in treating liposarcoma, Halaven is quite pricey. According to the FDA, the average price of a single vial of Halaven containing one milligram of serum is 1037 dollars.

A patient will require approximately 3 vials of Halaven, administered over a 21-day period, in order to see results.

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