Dalantercept in Treating Patients With Recurrent or Persistent Endometrial Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To estimate the proportion of patients with persistent or recurrent endometrial cancer who survive progression-free for at least 6 months and the proportion of patients who have objective tumor response (complete or partial), treated with dalantercept (ACE-041). II. To determine the nature and degree of toxicity of dalantercept in this cohort of patients. SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To estimate progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients with persistent or recurrent endometrial cancer treated with dalantercept. TERTIARY OBJECTIVES: I. To measure the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), activin receptor-like kinase 1 (ALK1), endoglin (CD105), and other markers via immunohistochemistry (IHC) and determine if there is correlation between expression and clinical response to treatment. II. To determine the correlation between ALK1 gene expression, other markers, and clinical response to treatment. III. To determine the correlation between concentration of VEGF, bone morphogenetic protein 9 (BMP9), bone morphogenetic protein 10 (BMP10), and ALK1 in pre-cycle 1 plasma using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and clinical response to treatment. IV. To correlate somatic mutations in candidate genes with response to therapy. OUTLINE: Patients receive dalantercept subcutaneously (SC) on day 1. Courses repeat every 21 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up every 3 months for 2 years and then every 6 months for 3 years.