Gefitinib News and Research

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Gefitinib is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that has not gotten better after treatment with other chemotherapy. It is available only as part of a special program called the Iressa Access Program. Gefitinib is also being studied in the treatment of other types of cancer.

Gefitinib is an anilinoquinazoline with antineoplastic activity. Gefitinib inhibits the catalytic activity of numerous tyrosine kinases including the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which may result in inhibition of tyrosine kinase-dependent tumor growth. Specifically, this agent competes with the binding of ATP to the tyrosine kinase domain of EGFR, thereby inhibiting receptor autophosphorylation and resulting in inhibition of signal transduction. Gefitinib may also induce cell cycle arrest and inhibit angiogenesis.

New era of lung cancer therapy close to dawning

A new era of lung cancer therapy is close to dawning, using drugs that can prevent tumour cells from evading the immune system, experts have said at the 4th European Lung Cancer Congress.

27 Mar 2014

Unusual EGFR mutation should influence advanced NSCLC treatment choice

Non-small-cell lung cancer patients with very unusual epidermal growth factor receptor mutations may be more likely to be benefit from first-line chemotherapy than a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, research suggests.

25 Feb 2014

Lung cancer patients with Del19 mutation benefit most from afatinib

Afatinib has been approved in Germany since September 2013 for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with activating EGF receptor mutations who have not been treated with an EGF receptor tyrosine-kinase inhibitor (EGFR TKI).

20 Feb 2014

Afatinib ‘first line’ for advanced mutation-positive lung cancer

Afatinib should be given as a first-line treatment for Asian patients with advanced, epidermal growth factor receptor mutation-positive, non-small-cell lung cancer, researchers recommend.

17 Feb 2014

Top-line results from two Phase 3 studies of dacomitinib for patients with advanced NSCLC published

Pfizer Inc. today announced top-line results from two randomized Phase 3 studies of the irreversible pan-HER kinase inhibitor dacomitinib in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

28 Jan 2014

Johns Hopkins researchers use lung cancer drug to shrink chordoma in mice

Johns Hopkins researchers say that a drug approved to treat lung cancer substantially shrank tumors in mice that were caused by a rare form of bone cancer called chordoma.

12 Dec 2013

Novel multi-kinase inhibitor shows early promise in NSCLC

Researchers have reported promising early data on an investigational drug that targets two tyrosine kinase receptors that drive invasive growth and drug resistance in non-small-cell lung cancer.

9 Dec 2013

New method to monitor activity of gene promoters during response to drug

When developing new drugs, monitoring cellular responses to candidate compounds is essential for assessing their efficacy and safety. Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies report a new method to monitor and quantify the activity of gene promoters during the response to a drug, using the advanced gene expression analysis method CAGE followed by single-molecule sequencing.

3 Oct 2013

Icotinib matches gefitinib in NSCLC second or third line

Icotinib has been found to be noninferior to gefitinib in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, according to reports from the phase III Chinese double-blind ICOGEN study.

26 Sep 2013

Molecular marker predicts longer survival among patients prescribed two cancer drugs

Johns Hopkins scientists have identified a molecular marker called "Mig 6" that appears to accurately predict longer survival -- up to two years -- among patients prescribed two of the most widely used drugs in a class of anticancer agents called EGFR inhibitors.

6 Sep 2013

Phase III trial shows afatinib offers clinical benefit to patients with EGFR mutation positive NSCLC

Afatinib has a novel mode of action and data has shown that it offers a clinical benefit to patients with a specific type of lung cancer, which we are further investigating in the extensive LUX-Lung clinical trial programme.

1 Aug 2013

EGFR mutation testing dropped once funding from pharmaceutical industry discontinued

Significant advances have taken place in the management of patients with advanced and metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer over the last 5 years. Traditionally, all advanced NSCLC patients were treated in a similar manner.

26 Jul 2013

Seven-year quest to understand how breast cancer cells resist treatment

A seven-year quest to understand how breast cancer cells resist treatment with the targeted therapy lapatinib has revealed a previously unknown molecular network that regulates cell death.

8 May 2013

Researchers find tumors with ALK rearrangements can harbor additional mutations

The identification of potentially targetable kinase mutations has been an exciting advancement in lung cancer treatment.

23 Apr 2013

Review describes current state of lung cancer care

A review in the December issue of the journal Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine by Paul Bunn Jr, MD, University of Colorado Cancer Center investigator and past president of ASCO, IASLC and AACI describes the current state of lung cancer care.

12 Dec 2012

Nonfunctional MED12 gene linked to chemotherapy resistance

Research published in Cell shows that people with tumors that have a nonfunctional version of the mediator 12 gene are resistant to drugs used to treat lung and colon cancer such as gefitinib.

26 Nov 2012

Addition of ficlatuzumab to gefitinib may be effective in select subsets of patients with NSCLC

AVEO Oncology today announced that detailed results from an exploratory, randomized Phase 2 study evaluating the combination of ficlatuzumab, the company's HGF inhibitory antibody, and gefitinib compared to gefitinib monotherapy in previously untreated Asian subjects with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were presented at the 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).

1 Oct 2012

New trial data shows improvements in treatment of esophageal and gastrointestinal cancers

New trial data showing improvements in the treatment of esophageal and gastrointestinal cancers were released today at the ESMO 2012 Congress of the European Society for Medical Oncology in Vienna.

29 Sep 2012

Anti-cancer EGFR inhibitors effective in reversing memory loss in animal models of Alzheimer's

A team of neuroscientists and chemists from the U.S. and China today publish research suggesting that a class of currently used anti-cancer drugs as well as several previously untested synthetic compounds show effectiveness in reversing memory loss in two animal models of Alzheimer's disease.

25 Sep 2012

Boehringer Ingelheim files MAA with EMA for afatinib approval

Today, Boehringer Ingelheim has announced the submission of a Marketing Authorisation Application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for approval of afatinib, the first irreversible ErbB Family Blocker, as a treatment for patients with EGFR (ErbB1) mutation positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Afatinib has demonstrated unprecedented efficacy versus chemotherapy in the Phase III LUX-Lung 3 registration trial, which provides pivotal support for this submission.

20 Sep 2012