| Literature DB >> 14760365 |
Abstract
The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a promising target for cancer therapy and a number of EGFR-targeted agents have been developed. Those most advanced in development are the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors gefitinib ('Iressa', ZD1839) and erlotinib ('Tarceva', OSI-774), and the monoclonal antibody cetuximab ('Erbitux', IMC-C225). This review provides a clinical overview of these agents, highlighting their antitumour activities in different tumour types. Epidermal growth factor receptor-targeted agents are generally well tolerated and are not typically associated with the severe adverse events often seen with cytotoxic chemotherapy. Gefitinib is the agent with the most extensive clinical experience, particularly in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Recently, gefitinib became the first-approved EGFR-targeted agent, for use in patients with previously treated advanced NSCLC in Japan, the USA and other countries. Further studies are required to explore the full potential of these novel agents either as monotherapy or combination therapy.Entities:
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Year: 2004 PMID: 14760365 PMCID: PMC2409596 DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6601550
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Br J Cancer ISSN: 0007-0920 Impact factor: 7.640
Figure 1EGFR signalling and anti-EGFR approaches (reproduced with permission from: Baselga (2002); ©AlphaMed Press 1083–7159).
EGFR-targeted therapies in clinical development
| Gefitinib, ZD1839 | III/marketed | |
| Erlotinib, OSI-74 | III | |
| Canertinib, CI-1033 | II | |
| EKB-569 | II | |
| Lapatinib, GW572016 | II | |
| Human–murine chimeric monoclonal antibodies | ||
| Cetuximab, IMC-C225 | III/pre-registration | |
| Fully humanised monoclonal antibodies | ||
| ABX-EGF | II | |
| EMD-72000 | II | |
| Thera CIM-h-R3 | II | |
| HuMax-EGFR | I/II |
Clinical development of gefitinib, erlotinib and cetuximab
| Gefitinib | EGFR-TKI | Monotherapy up to 1000 mg day−1 | ⩾700 mg day−1 | Optimum biological dose: tumour response/stable disease, target activity and pharmacokinetics | 250 and 500 mg day−1 | NSCLC, SCCHN, colorectal, breast | III/marketed (NSCLC) |
| Erlotinib | EGFR-TKI | Three monotherapy regimens (100–1600 mg) administered: once weekly every 3 out of 4 weeks; 3 consecutive days for 3 weeks; daily for 3 weeks | 150 mg day−1 | MTD | 150 mg day−1 | NSCLC, SCCHN, pancreatic | III (NSCLC, pancreatic) |
| Cetuximab | Monoclonal antibody | Administered intravenously as single infusion (5–100 mg m−2); weekly for 4 weeks (5–100 mg m−2); weekly for 4 weeks combined with cisplatin (400 mg/m2) | Saturates systemic clearance, 200–400 mg m−2 | Optimum biological dose: pharmacokinetics, EGFR saturation | Loading dose 400 mg m−2 in week 1 followed by weekly maintenance dose of 250 mg m−2 | SCCHN, colorectal, NSCLC | III/preregistration, (SCCHN, colorectal) |
MTD=maximum tolerated dose; NSCLC=non-small-cell lung cancer; SCCHN=squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Figure 2Gefitinib antitumour activity in advanced NSCLC: IDEAL 1 and 2.