Eribulin in Metastatic Breast Cancer: Actual Clinical Practice

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, both in the Russian Federation and in the United States. Eribulin is a new microtubule inhibitor, used in the USA, Europe and other countries around the world to treat patients with advanced or metastatic breast cancer, resistant to other lines of therapy. Eribulin mesylate is a structurally simplified, synthetic analogue of halichondrin B, a substance derived from a marine sponge Halichondria okadai . The mechanism of action: eribulin inhibits the microtubule dynamics, binds to the plus ends of microtubules and inhibits microtubule growth in interphase cells, without affecting the shortening phase and tubulin sequesters into nonproductive aggregates, leading to G2/M cell-cycle block and eventual apoptotic cell death after prolonged mitotic blockage. A wide variety of patients with a number of comorbidities and lower functional status are treated in actual clinical practice. The reported data suggest that eribulin has demonstrated comparable results to the EMBRACE study for a wider and more diverse cohort of patients. Further studies of eribulin in actual clinical practice will certainly provide new opportunities for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.