Oncology reports
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Inhibitors of alphav integrins have been developed as anti-angiogenic agents for cancer therapy and, among them, cyclic RGD-containing pentapeptides, such as cilengitide, are the most commonly used integrin antagonists. In this study, cilengitide was tested in combination with the methylating agent temozolomide (TMZ), a well-tolerated anticancer drug with favourable pharmacokinetic properties currently used for the therapy of metastatic melanoma. ⋯ The results indicated that cilengitide and TMZ exerted synergistic antiproliferative effects against melanoma and endothelial cells in vitro and induced a statistically significant reduction of in vivo melanoma growth with respect to treatment with the methylating agent only. In conclusion, this study proposes the use of cilengitide in combination with TMZ for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, thereby opening novel perspectives for the use of integrin inhibitors to enhance the efficacy of chemotherapy.