On Oct. 2, 2024, results from a French clinical trial have identified what experts say should now be the recommended initial treatment of advanced leiomyosarcoma. In the trial, the combination of trabectedin (Yondelis) and doxorubicin improved survival by a median of 9 months.

Although almost 60% of people in the trial initially treated with doxorubicin alone later received trabectedin, they still didn’t live as long as those who got both drugs together from the beginning of their treatment.

It took the French Sarcoma Group several years to enroll 150 people into their trial. Participants had been diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma that couldn’t be removed surgically or had spread (metastasized) and hadn’t yet received any treatment. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.