Targeted therapy

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Targeted therapy or molecularly targeted therapy is one of the major modalities of medical treatment (

antibody-drug conjugates
combine biologic and cytotoxic mechanisms into one targeted therapy.

Another form of targeted therapy involves the use of nanoengineered enzymes to bind to a tumor cell such that the body's natural cell degradation process can digest the cell, effectively eliminating it from the body.

Targeted cancer therapies are expected to be more effective than older forms of treatments and less harmful to normal cells. Many targeted therapies are examples of

biological response modifiers
.

The most successful targeted therapies are chemical entities that target or preferentially target a protein or enzyme that carries a mutation or other genetic alteration that is specific to cancer cells and not found in normal host tissue. One of the most successful molecular targeted therapeutics is

chronic myelogenous leukemia
. Although employed in other indications, imatinib is most effective targeting BCR-Abl. Other examples of molecular targeted therapeutics targeting mutated oncogenes, include PLX27892 which targets mutant B-raf in melanoma.

There are targeted therapies for lung cancer, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, breast cancer, multiple myeloma, lymphoma, prostate cancer, melanoma and other cancers.[1][3][4]

Biomarkers are usually required to aid the selection of patients who will likely respond to a given targeted therapy.[5]

Co-targeted therapy involves the use of one or more therapeutics aimed at multiple targets, for example PI3K and MEK, in an attempt to generate a synergistic response[4] and prevent the development of drug resistance.[6][7]

The definitive experiments that showed that targeted therapy would reverse the malignant phenotype of tumor cells involved treating Her2/neu transformed cells with monoclonal antibodies in vitro and in vivo by Mark Greene's laboratory and reported from 1985.[8]

Some have challenged the use of the term, stating that drugs usually associated with the term are insufficiently selective.

scare quotes: "targeted therapy".[10]
Targeted therapies may also be described as "chemotherapy" or "non-cytotoxic chemotherapy", as "chemotherapy" strictly means only "treatment by chemicals". But in typical medical and general usage "chemotherapy" is now mostly used specifically for "traditional" cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Types

The main categories of targeted therapy are currently small molecules and monoclonal antibodies.

Small molecules

Mechanism of imatinib

Many are

tyrosine-kinase inhibitors
.

Small molecule drug conjugates

  • Vintafolide is a small molecule drug conjugate consisting of a small molecule targeting the folate receptor. It is currently in clinical trials for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer (PROCEED trial) and a Phase 2b study (TARGET trial) in non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).[21]

Serine/threonine kinase inhibitors (small molecules)

Monoclonal antibodies

Several are in development and a few have been licensed by the FDA and the European Commission. Examples of licensed monoclonal antibodies include:

Many

antibody-directed enzyme prodrug therapy
(ADEPT).

Progress and future

In the U.S., the National Cancer Institute's Molecular Targets Development Program (MTDP) aims to identify and evaluate molecular targets that may be candidates for drug development.

See also

References

  1. ^
    PMID 34661151
    .
  2. ^ "Definition of targeted therapy – NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms".
  3. ^ "Targeted Cancer Therapies". National Cancer Institute. 15 September 2021.
  4. ^
    PMID 24055012
    .
  5. .
  6. .
  7. .
  8. .
    Drebin JA, Link VC, Weinberg RA, Greene MI (December 1986).
    "Inhibition of tumor growth by a monoclonal antibody reactive with an oncogene-encoded tumor antigen". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 83 (23): 9129–9133.
    PMID 3466178
    .
    Drebin JA, Link VC, Stern DF, Weinberg RA, Greene MI (July 1985). "Down-modulation of an oncogene protein product and reversion of the transformed phenotype by monoclonal antibodies". Cell. 41 (3): 697–706.
    .
  9. .
  10. .
  11. .
  12. .
  13. .
  14. .
  15. .
  16. ^ "Apatinib". clinicaltrials.gov.
  17. ^ "Phase II study of AEZS-108 (AN-152), a targeted cytotoxic LHRH analog, in patients with LHRH receptor-positive platinum resistant ovarian cancer". 2010.
  18. .
  19. .
  20. ^ "VAL-083 Clinical Trials". ClinicalTrials.Gov. U.S. National Institutes of Health.
  21. ^ "Merck, Endocyte in Development Deal". dddmag.com. 25 April 2012.
  22. ^ "Keytruda". National Cancer Institute. 2011-02-02.
  23. ^ "Pembrolizumab Use in Cancer". National Cancer Institute. 2014-09-18.
  24. ^ "Therascreen KRAS RGQ PCR Kit – P110030“. Device Approvals and Clearances. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 2012-07-06.
  25. ^ European medicines Agency (June 2014). “Erbitux® Summary of Product Characteristics (PDF).“ 2015-11-19.
  26. ^ “Cetuximab (Erbitux). About the Center of Drug Evaluation and Research." U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 2015-11-16.
  27. ^ "Merck KGaA: European Commission Approves Erbitux for First-Line Use in Head and Neck Cancer" 2015-11-16
  28. New York Times
    . Retrieved 2009-08-13.

External links