This trial showed that
eribulin worked better than
dacarbazine for people with soft tissue sarcoma that had come back after treatment.
Results
They were put into one of two groups at random, and:
- half had eribulin
- half had dacarbazine
The research team looked at how long it was before the sarcoma started to grow, and found it was the same in both groups (2.6 months).
But when they looked at how long people lived for, they found there was a difference between the two groups:
- 13.5 months for those who had eribulin
- 11.5 months for those who had dacarbazine
Side effects
More than 9 out of 10 people (90%) had at least 1 side effect from treatment. But some of these were mild or didn’t last very long.
Nearly 7 out of 10 people (67%) who had eribulin and nearly 6 out of 10 people (56%) who had dacarbazine had more severe side effects.
The most common side effect was a drop in blood cells. More people who had eribulin had a drop in white blood cells. And more people who had dacarbazine had a drop in red blood cells and clotting cells (platelets). Other side effects included feeling sick and tiredness.
Conclusion
The research team concluded that eribulin helped people with advanced liposarcoma or leiomyosarcoma live longer. They suggest that eribulin could be a useful treatment option for people with soft tissue sarcoma that has come back after treatment.
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (
peer reviewed 
) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.