Expert review of anticancer therapy
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Expert Rev Anticancer Ther · Mar 2015
ReviewRadium-223 dichloride: a new paradigm in the treatment of prostate cancer.
Radionuclides have been widely used for cancer treatment. Recently, new research about radium-223 dichloride has been conducted in prostate cancer, which reveals that it is the first radiopharmaceutical to demonstrate an improvement in overall survival and time to first symptomatic skeletal event in patients with castration resistant prostate cancer with symptomatic bone metastases. This fact has created a new paradigm in the treatment of prostate cancer landscape, where only chemotherapy and hormone therapy had a role, while β-emitters had been confined exclusively to the role of pain relief with no impact on survival. The aim of this review is to outline current treatment approaches for advanced prostate cancer with a focus on the role of radium-223 dichloride, reviewing patients' profile that make them suitable to therapy and chances for further studies.
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Expert Rev Anticancer Ther · Mar 2015
ReviewNew frontiers in oncology: biosimilar monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of breast cancer.
Trastuzumab is a highly successful monoclonal antibody (mAb) that has been used primarily for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer. Because of its success and its impending patent expiry in Europe in 2014, a number of copy versions of trastuzumab have been developed and are currently undergoing a comparability exercise for marketing authorization. Although biosimilar products have been approved in Europe since 2006, including two biosimilar mAbs of infliximab approved in 2013, the use of mAbs such as trastuzumab in the cancer setting has raised a number of new concerns. The requirements for the approval of biosimilar mAbs published by the EMA will be discussed and examined in the context of trastuzumab biosimilars to highlight potential controversies.
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Expert Rev Anticancer Ther · Feb 2015
ReviewRole of miRNA in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common malignancy worldwide. Evidence suggests that miRNAs play an important role in progression, recurrence, metastasis and postoperative survival of HNSCC. Studies have investigated the utility of miRNAs as diagnostic/prognostic tools and as potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers that may improve the management and outcomes of HNSCC. ⋯ This review gives an overview that miRNAs deregulation play major role in the development of HNSCC. They offer the potential to be used as biomarkers or novel therapeutic targets. Future research is required to test their use in both of these fields.
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Expert Rev Anticancer Ther · Feb 2015
EditorialPredicting treatment response in castration-resistant prostate cancer: could androgen receptor variant-7 hold the key?
There is an emerging interest in understanding mechanisms of response and resistance to next-generation hormonal therapies: abiraterone and enzalutamide. While many explanations for resistance to these agents have been postulated, the importance of androgen receptor splice variants is gaining momentum. ⋯ Of these, AR variant-7 may be the most important, and has been implicated in primary resistance to abiraterone and enzalutamide in men with advanced prostate cancer. In this editorial, the clinical relevance of AR splice variant-7 (AR-V7) will be reviewed within the context of AR-directed therapies, and next steps for the analytical and clinical validation of this potential biomarker will be proposed.
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Expert Rev Anticancer Ther · Jan 2015
ReviewPanobinostat: a novel pan-deacetylase inhibitor for the treatment of relapsed or relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.
Outcomes for patients with multiple myeloma (MM) have improved significantly over the past decade. Despite these advances, MM remains incurable and an unmet medical need remains for patients who are relapsed and/or refractory. Panobinostat is a potent, oral pan-deacetylase inhibitor that elicits anti-myeloma activity through epigenetic modulation of gene expression and disruption of protein metabolism. ⋯ In a Phase III clinical trial evaluating bortezomib and dexamethasone in combination with panobinostat or placebo in patients with relapsed or relapsed and refractory MM (PANORAMA 1), panobinostat led to a significant increase in median progression-free survival. Panobinostat is currently under regulatory review with a recent accelerated approval granted for the treatment of relapsed disease, in which both bortezomib and immunomodulatory drugs have failed. Here, we summarize the preclinical, pharmacokinetic and clinical data for panobinostat in MM.