New Oncology Drugs Research Articles

Paving Roads for New Drugs in Oncology

Low productivity and the escalating costs of drug development have been well documented over the past years. A fraction of new pre-clinical compounds successfully pass experimental test batteries, and less than 10% of these compounds that enter clinical trials ultimately make it to the market. These challenges in the "critical path" of drug development will be discussed for drugs in the field of oncology, regarding the i) the impact of FDA and EMEA guidelines, and ii) microdosing studies/phase 0 trials before a drug enters phase I to III, to inform drug development, compressing drug development timelines and decision-making for continuation into clinical trials. Moreover, this review should embark on i) how to find new key molecules involved in life-and-death decision of a cell, how ii) old drugs will have a revival for new indications, because of novel information for their mode of action, and iii) how the revolutionary advances - high-throughput technologies, gene therapy and the deciphering of the human genome - do have their potential to develop personalized therapy. Therapy has progressed from an age of administering herbal remedies and organ extracts to an era of meticulously planned drug discovery, when pharmaceutical industry was born in a Western understanding. The relevant patents are discussed.

Global drug development in cancer: A cross-sectional study of clinical trial registries

2520 Background: Clinical trials are increasingly funded by industry. High costs of drug development may lead to attempts to develop new drugs in more ‘profitable’ (i.e., more prevalent) as compared to ‘less profitable’ (i.e., more deadly) cancers. Here we determine the focus of current global drug development. Methods: We determined characteristics of phase II and III clinical trials evaluating new drugs in oncology, which were registered with WHO International Clinical Trial Registries between 01/2008 and 06/2008. Estimates of incidence, mortality, and prevalence in the more- and less-developed world (MDW, LDW) were obtained from GLOBOCAN 2002. Simple correlation analysis was performed between the number of clinical trials and incidence, mortality and prevalence per cancer site after log transformation of variables. Results: We identified 399 newly registered trials. Of 374 trials with information about recruitment, 322 (86.1%) and 39 (10.4%) recruited patients only from the MDW and LDW, respectively, while 13 (3.5%) had worldwide recruitment. 229 (58%) of trials were sponsored by industry and 324 trials were phase II (81%). Most trials (and most phase III trials) evaluated treatments for globally prevalent cancers: breast, lung, prostate, and colorectal cancer (Table). Prevalence of a particular cancer type in both the MDW and LDW correlated significantly with the number of clinical trials (Pearson r = 0.63 and 0.55; p = 0.01 and 0.03, respectively). In contrast, mortality in the MDW (Pearson r = 0.73; p= 0.002), but not in the LDW (Pearson r = 0.38; p= 0.17), correlated significantly with the number of clinical trials. Conclusions: Global drug development in cancer predominates in globally prevalent cancers, which are a more important cause of mortality in the MDW than in the LDW. Cancer sites that are major killers globally, and especially in the LDW (e.g., stomach, liver, and esophageal cancer) should receive priority for clinical research. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Admission of new oncological drugs to the Slovenian health care system and their accessibility to the patients

Background: The aim of the present study is to analyze the admission of anticancer drugs to the Slovenian healthcare system, and to evaluate patients’ accessibility to these medications. Methods: Admission and accessibility to anticancer drugs was evaluated by analysing: differences in registration time among USA, selected member states of EU, and Slovenia; time from the registration to the first use in Slovenia; differences between the first use in Slovenia and the first use in selected member states of EU and by analysing the market of oncology drugs. The study included drugs of the ATC groups such as Antitumor medications (cytostatics) (ATC = L01) and Endocrine treatment (ATC = L02) that were used in Slovenia for the first time between 1999 to 2005. Registration data for Slovenia and EU was obtained from the registration documention of selected drugs at the Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices of the Republic of Slovenia, and the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA). Registration data for USA was obtained from the registration documention of selected drugs at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The information upon the first use of drugs in Slovenia was acquired from the PharMIS system, and the information upon the first use of drugs in selected member states of EU was obtained from the study on patients’ access to oncology drugs by Nils Wilking and Bengt Jonsson, performed from 2005. Data for the market analysis of oncology drugs was obtained from the PharMIS system. Results: In previous years a delay in registration time between Slovenia and compared states was present for some oncology drugs. Along with the acceptance of Slovenia as a new member state of EU, on 1st May 2004, registration process in Slovenia became a part of the registration system of the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA). Majority of drugs had a time difference between the registration and the first use shorter than 10 months. Exceptions are drugs which were first used, mostly in a limited amount, before the acquisition of trade permit in Slovenia or through centralized procedure at EMEA such as oxaliplatin, irinotecan, capecitabine, imatinib mesylate. Average difference between the first use in Slovenia and selected member states of EU for the chosen oncology drugs decreased with years. In recent period oncology drugs were more quickly accessed by patients than in the past. The drug market continuously increased from 1999 to 2005, with an average increase of 30 M EUR per year. The largest increase was demonstrated for the antitumor medications and imunomodulators (ATC = L). In 1999 their market amounted to 10 M EUR or 3.9 % of the whole drug market, in 2005 it amounted to 38 M EUR or 8.6 % of the whole drug market. The market of the targeted drugs has been progressively increasing from year 2000 onwards, and amounted to 6 M EUR in 2005, which represents 39 % of the market share of Antitumor medications (cytostatics) (ATC = L01) group or 1.4 % of the market share for all of the drugs. The reason for this progressive increase is attributed to the increased use of mainly three drugs: imatinib mesylate trastuzumab, and rituximab. Conclusions: The discrepancies in admission and access to newer oncology drugs between Slovenia and other member states of EU are becoming smaller. The market of oncology drugs is increasing significantly faster compared to the whole drug market, mainly due to the new targeted drugs.

Modulation of oral bioavailability of anticancer drugs: from mouse to man

Oral bioavailability of many anticancer drugs is poor and highly variable. This is a major impediment to the development of new generation drugs in oncology, particularly those requiring a chronic treatment schedule, a.o. the farnesyltransferase inhibitors. Limited bioavailability is mainly due to: (1) cytochrome P450 (CYP) activity in gut wall and liver, and (2) drug transporters, such as P-gp in gut wall and liver. Shared substrate drugs are affected by the combined activity of these systems. Available preclinical in vitro and in vivo models are in many cases only poorly predictive for oral drug uptake in patients because of a.o. interspecies differences in CYP drug metabolism and intestinal drug-transporting systems. Clearly, novel systems that allow reliable translation of preclinical results to the clinic are strongly needed. Our previous work, also using P-gp knockout (KO) mice, already showed that P-gp has a major effect on the oral bioavailability of several drugs and that blockers of P-gp can drastically improve oral bioavailability of paclitaxel and other drugs in mice and humans (Schinkel et al., Cell 77 (1994) 491; Sparreboom et al., Proc. Natl. Acad, Sci. USA 94 (1997) 2031; Meerum Terwogt et al. Lancet 352 (1998) 285). This work revealed, however, that apart from P-gp other drug-transporting systems and CYP effects also determine overall oral drug uptake. The taxanes paclitaxel and docetaxel are considered excellent substrate drugs to test the concept that by inhibition of P-gp in the gut wall and CYP activity in gut wall and/or liver low oral bioavailability can be increased substantially. In current studies we focus on the development of chronic oral treatment schedules with these drugs and on other drug transport systems that may play a significant role in regulation of oral bioavailability of other classes of (anti-cancer) drugs. The current review paper describes the background and summarizes our recent results of modulation of oral bioavailability of poorly available drugs, focused on drug transport systems and CYP in gut wall and liver.

New drugs in gynecologic oncology.

New agents with activity in recurrent epithelial ovarian cancer include the taxoids (paclitaxel and docetaxel), camptothecins (topotecan and irinotecan), gemcitabine, and oxaliplatin. In front-line therapy, the Gynecologic Oncology Group has shown that paclitaxel prolongs survival. In recurrent squamous carcinoma of the cervix, irinotecan has an objective response rate of 15%-24%. Both paclitaxel and docetaxel also show modest activity. Of these new agents, only paclitaxel has been evaluated in carcinoma of the endometrium, reporting a response rate of 35%.