As I’ve described in various posts about targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), one of the main signals that is important in many lung cancers, there are agents like gefitinib (iressa) and erlotinib (tarceva) that target the internal switch that triggers activity inside the cell, and there are agents like cetuximab […]
2 CommentsWe’ve been following the development of a drug called Zactima (also known as ZD6474, or vandetanib) for over a year as it continues to be studied in lung cancer, and the work continues. As first discussed in my initial post on this agent, this agent actually inhibits BOTH VEGF and EGFR […]
10 CommentsAs I described in part I of this subject (last post here), lactoferrin is an immunostimulatory protein that is found in highest concentrations in breast milk (hence the name), and the recombinant form talactoferrin alfa (TLF) was combined with chemo in a randomized phase II study of front line advanced NSCLC in which […]
10 CommentsAlthough much of our focus has been on targeted therapies, there are still new conventional chemotherapies that are being introduced and may have a meaningful impact on lung cancer. One that has been tested in late clinical trials, including a phase III randomized study, is vinflunine, which is a novel version […]
2 CommentsMuch of the focus on novel agents has been on strategies like inhibition of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) that can stimulate tumor growth, or anti-angiogenesis, blocking the tumor blood supply. But there are other, novel therapies that are also being tested in lung cancer as well. One of these is […]
0 CommentsWhile there have been studies of the COX-2 inhibitor celebrex in combination with chemo for treating NSCLC, the palpable buzz about celebrex in treating lung cancer has been from a trial by my friend Karen Reckamp, formerly at UCLA, now recently moved to City of Hope Cancer Center in nearby Duarte, CA. […]
2 CommentsSunitinib (SU11248), with the marketing name Sutent, is another multikinase inhibitor, an oral agent that blocks several potentially important anticancer targets in the cell with one drug. This drug is FDA-approved in treating advanced kidney cancer and also a cancer called GastroIntestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST) after progression or intolerance of Gleevec […]
2 CommentsSorafenib, or Nexavar, is an oral “multi-kinase inhibitor”. Kinases are specialized proteins that coordinate communitcation networks inside the cell and can modulate cancer cell growth as well as angiogenesis, the tumor blood supply. While many of the molecularly targeted agents I have discussed previously have demonstrated activity in lung cancer and […]
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