Background Trabectedin is a DNA minor groove binder of marine origin. It is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with advanced soft tissue sarcoma after failure of anthracyclines and ifosfamide, or for patients unsuited to receive these agents. In Italy it has been approved since 2009 and it has been included in the Register Monitoring Cancer Drugs.

Purpose To asses the safety and efficacy of treatment for a 28-year-old male patient, with inoperable metastatic sarcoma, not responsive to ifosfamide or anthracyclines

Materials and Methods The oncologist draws up a treatment protocol that is checked by the hospital pharmacist prior to preparation in the Clean Room. The patient was treated with 3 mg of trabectedin in elastomeric pump of 5 ml/h for 24 hours. This treatment was performed every 21 days.

Results From August 2010 to February 2012 the patient was given trabectedin at the standard dose of 1.5 mg/m². The first TAC in October 2010 showed stable disease. In March 2011, after 10 cycles, he was still progression-free. The disease started to progress only after 22 cycles. At the beginning of the treatment the patient had abdominal pain, at the end of it, he has neutropenia and increased levels of transaminases. The time to progression (TTP) was 20 months, while in a randomised study TTP was 13.9 months.

Conclusions Trabectedin treatment in soft tissue sarcoma was well tolerated with a good safety profile, demonstrating also a low grade of side effects and a greater time to progression in comparison with the published studies.

No conflict of interest.