Expert opinion on investigational drugs
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Melatonin is a major chronobiological regulator involved in circadian phasing, sleep, and numerous other functions including cyto-/neuroprotection, immune modulation, and energy metabolism. The suitability of melatonin as a drug is limited because of its short half-life. Therefore, various indolic and non-indolic melatonergic agonists have been developed. Frequent health problems such as sleep disturbances, neuropsychiatric disorders related to circadian dysphasing, and metabolic diseases associated with insulin resistance are targeted by melatonergic agonists. ⋯ Melatonergic agonists are suitable for phase-shifting circadian rhythms, and may be used for treating disorders related to circadian dysfunction including sleep difficulties. Facilitation of sleep onset is a general property, whereas promotion of sleep maintenance is demonstrable but not always fully sufficient. Details are especially available for tasimelteon. Support of insulin sensitivity may become a new area of application for compounds such as NEU-P11. Some drugs acting additionally as serotonergic antagonists display antidepressant properties.
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Expert Opin Investig Drugs · Jun 2010
ReviewBIBF 1120 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.
For patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), chemotherapy offers modest benefits and outcomes are poor. Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels from the pre-existing vasculature, is a fundamental process for tumor growth and development. Tumor vasculature is therefore emerging as an important target for cancer therapy. ⋯ Based on these data, the BIBF 1120 Phase III clinical development program is currently underway and will be discussed in further detail.
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Expert Opin Investig Drugs · May 2010
ReviewNovel inhibitors in development for hepatocellular carcinoma.
The multikinase inhibitor sorafenib was the first agent to demonstrate a survival benefit for patients with locally advanced or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although sorafenib represents a landmark in the treatment of HCC and proved molecularly targeted therapy to be effective in this disease, it represents just the first step towards an improvement in systemic therapy. Since then, novel inhibitors have been evaluated in early clinical trials, showing potential activity. ⋯ Sorafenib is the standard of care in patients with advanced HCC. However, promising novel inhibitors are under investigation. Combined molecularly targeted therapies according to an individual genomic and proteomic profiling will probably lead to more personalised medicine in advanced HCC.
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Expert Opin Investig Drugs · May 2010
ReviewBeyond sorafenib: novel targeted therapies for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.
The successful approval of sorafenib has greatly stimulated the development of other molecular targeted agents in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). ⋯ Sorafenib is the first and only approved agent in advanced HCC. Several Phase III studies are ongoing with other drugs in advanced HCC. Many early clinical trials are conducted to assess other molecularly targeted agents that inhibit different pathways of hepatocarcinogenesis.
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Hepatocellular cancer (HCC) is the fifth most common malignancy worldwide and third leading cause of cancer death. HCC is highly resistant to conventional systemic therapies, and prognosis for advanced HCC patients remains poor. However, identification of signaling pathways responsible for HCC growth and progression such as RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK or PI3K/AKT/mTOR has determined crucial molecular targets and led to development of novel promising targeted therapies. ⋯ Despite significant progress, advanced HCC remains an incurable disease, and the overall efficacy of recently approved targeted therapy (sorafenib) remains moderate. It is to be hoped that several ongoing clinical trials evaluating novel targeted approaches for treatment of HCC will lead to further improvement in the management of advanced disease.