halichondrin-b and Carcinoma

In the new era of 'precision' cancer medicine, new drug development has shifted from cytotoxic chemotherapy to molecularly targeted agents. Eribulin mesylate, a microtubule-destabilizing agent, is the only 'classical' cytotoxic agent approved for the treatment of breast cancer in the last 7 years. This synthetic analogue of halichondrin B, isolated from the marine sponge 'Halicondria Okaida', was responsible for prolonging overall survival of heavily pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients in a large Phase III trial. Eribulin is now under clinical development in earlier settings such as the neo-adjuvant and adjuvant settings. Furthermore, its unique mechanism of action and the absence of cross-resistance with taxanes have led to the design of clinical trials in multiple indications: bladder cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer… The main adverse events are neutropenia, fatigue and peripheral neuropathy.

Topics: Alopecia; Antineoplastic Agents; Breast Neoplasms; Carcinoma; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; Clinical Trials as Topic; Drug Approval; Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; Drugs, Investigational; Ethers, Cyclic; Fatigue; Female; Furans; Humans; Ketones; Macrolides; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Multicenter Studies as Topic; Neoadjuvant Therapy; Neutropenia; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases; Tubulin Modulators; United States; United States Food and Drug Administration