Abstract C098: Preclinical evaluation of eribulin in a veterinary clinical trial of metastatic spontaneous hemangiosarcoma in pet dogs

Abstract
Eribulin is a microtubule dynamics inhibitor that is currently in clinical use for treatment of certain patients with advanced breast cancer or liposarcoma. FDA approval for both indications was based on extension of overall survival. Based on eribulin’s known vascular remodeling effects, its activity against at least one sarcoma type, and literature reports of taxane activity in angiosarcoma, we hypothesized that eribulin may show activity against angiosarcoma. Due to a paucity of preclinical cell-based, xenograft, and PDX models for human angiosarcoma, we sought other alternatives for preclinical testing in this disease. While rare in humans, angiosarcoma is common in some breeds of domestic dogs, where it is known in veterinary parlance as hemangiosarcoma (HSA). Accordingly, we undertook a small veterinary clinical trial to evaluate eribulin against spontaneous HSA in pet dogs. Canine HSA most frequently occurs in the spleen, so splenectomy is a common first-line treatment; however, non-splenic sites also occur and these are often unresectable. In keeping with eribulin’s clinical use in the metastatic setting, we selected metastatic canine HSA, which we defined as dogs with histologically confirmed HSA with either non-resectable or post-splenectomy residual disease confirmed by imaging (PET/CT, CT). Of 19 pets initially screened, 12 dogs were imaged; 6 of these had imageable disease and thus began eribulin treatment. Eribulin was administered using the human clinical schedule (d1,8Q21), with the first cycle at 0.3 mg/m2 followed by intra-patient dose escalation to 0.6 mg/m2 after determination of tolerability. Of the 6 dogs entering treatment, 5 completed cycle 1, 3 completed cycle 2, and 2 completed the full per-protocol 3 cycles of treatment. These 2 dogs survived 121 and 179 days after initial diagnosis, contrasting with the 0.9 month (~27 days) median survival time reported by Wendelburg et al. (JAVMA, 2015) for 52 post-splenectomy canine HSA patients with residual metastases. Although limited in scope, our results with spontaneous metastatic canine HSA in pet dogs provides a preclinical foundation for further exploration of eribulin in malignancies of vascular origin in both the veterinary and human settings. Citation Format: Christina Kelly Lopes, Gerald Post, Lindsay Lambert, Benjamin Lewis, Thaddeus David Allen, Angel Patel, Bruce A Littlefield. Preclinical evaluation of eribulin in a veterinary clinical trial of metastatic spontaneous hemangiosarcoma in pet dogs [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2019 Oct 26-30; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2019;18(12 Suppl):Abstract nr C098. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-19-C098