Date: 2016-04-17
Type of information: Presentation of results at a congress
phase: preclinical
Announcement: presentation of results at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting
Company: Eisai (Japan)
Product: Halaven® (eribulin)
Action
mechanism: mitotic inhibitor/tubulin binder. Eribulin is a non-taxane, microtubule dynamics inhibitor indicated for the treatment of patients with breast cancer who have previously received at least two chemotherapeutic regimens for metastatic disease and whose prior therapy should have included an anthracycline and a taxane. Eribulin belongs to a class of antineoplastic agents, the halichondrins, which are natural products, isolated from the marine sponge Halichondria okadai. It is believed to work by inhibiting the growth phase of microtubule dynamics without affecting the shortening phase and sequesters tubulin into non-productive aggregates.
Disease: soft tissue sarcoma
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Country:
Trial details:
Latest
news: * On April 17, 2016, Eisai announced that results from a pre-clinical study of Halaven® (eribulin) in human soft tissue sarcoma (STS) cell lines presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2016, New Orleans, USA showed antiproliferative activity in xenografts of Ewing's sarcoma, leiomyosarcoma, liposarcoma and fibrosarcoma and improved tumour blood supply in a leiomyosarcoma model. This may decrease the risk of tumour metastatic potential in certain soft tissue sarcomas.
The study explored morphological changes in three STS cell lines, gene expression analysis in two cell lines, and blood perfusion in one cell line. Data for blood perfusion show that eribulin may lead to remodelling of the tumour vasculature, resulting in an oxygenated environment. Cancer cells thrive in an hypoxic environment and therefore improving tumour perfusion may lead to a decrease in tumour metastatic potency. The data presented at the AACR Annual Meeting are consistent with the proposed mode of action of eribulin and offer further insights into the role of eribulin in reducing the metastatic potential in STS.
