Off-label use of sunitinib in patients with advanced, epithelial thyroid cancer: a retrospective analysis.

Off-label use of sunitinib in patients with advanced, epithelial thyroid cancer: a retrospective analysis. Recent Pat Endocr Metab Immune Drug Discov. 2012 May;6(2):171-6 Authors: Pasqualetti G, Ricci S, Boni G, Tognini S, Polini A, Mariani G, Ferdeghini M, Monzani F Abstract Tyrosine kinase receptors play an important role in tumor angiogenesis and, their implication in epithelial thyroid tumor growth has been highlighted. Sunitinib is a novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor, approved in 2006 by Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of advanced renal cell and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Preliminary promising results have been also obtained in patients with RAI-resistant thyroid neoplasia. In the current study, our experience on 9 patients with advanced thyroid epithelial cancer is analyzed and discussed in relation to the new patents in this field. According to RECIST criteria, partial response was obtained in 5/9 (55.5%) patients at 3 months and in 6/9 (66.6%) at 6 months. Median treatment follow-up was 13.0 months and median overall survival and progression-free survival were 20 [95% confidence interval (CI) 9.3 - 30.6] and 21 months (95% CI 6.9 - 35.1), respectively. One case of severe thoracic hemorrhage was observed, the most common adverse events being represented by fatigue, (44.4% ), skin rash (33.3% ), headache (33.3% ), and one case each of hypertension, macrocytosis and acute pneumonia. These results confirm sunit...
Source: Recent Patents on Endocrine, Metabolic and Immune Drug Discovery - Category: Endocrinology Tags: Recent Pat Endocr Metab Immune Drug Discov Source Type: research