Clinical data | |
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Trade names | Koselugo |
Other names | AZD6244, ARRY-142886 |
AHFS/Drugs.com | Monograph |
MedlinePlus | a620030 |
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Pregnancy category | |
Routes of administration | By mouth |
Drug class | Protein kinase inhibitor |
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Pharmacokinetic data | |
Metabolism | Liver (probably CYP3A4 and CYP2C19) [10] |
Metabolites | N‐desmethyl‐selumetinib (active metabolite) [11] |
Elimination half-life | 5.3–7.2 hrs [11] |
Excretion | Bile duct [11] |
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ChEBI | |
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PDB ligand | |
CompTox Dashboard (EPA) | |
ECHA InfoCard | 100.169.311 |
Chemical and physical data | |
Formula | C17H15BrClFN4O3 |
Molar mass | 457.68 g·mol−1 |
3D model (JSmol) | |
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Selumetinib (INN), [12] sold under the brand name Koselugo, is a medication for the treatment of children, two years of age and older, with neurofibromatosis type I (NF-1), a genetic disorder of the nervous system causing tumors to grow on nerves. [13] It is taken by mouth. [7]
Common side effects include headache, abdominal pain and other problems of the gastrointestinal tract, fatigue, muscle pain, as well as dry skin and other skin problems. [7] [13]
Selumetinib was approved for medical use in the United States in April 2020, [14] and in the European Union in June 2021. [8] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers it to be a first-in-class medication. [15]
Selumetinib is used for the treatment of neurofibromas in those with neurofibromatosis type I (NF-1). [16] This is a rare, progressive condition caused by a mutation or flaw in the gene coding for the protein neurofibromin 1. [13] NF-1 is usually diagnosed in early childhood and appears in an estimated one out of every 3,000 infants. [13] It is characterized by changes in skin coloring (pigmentation), neurologic and skeletal impairments and risk for development of benign and malignant tumors throughout life. [13]
It is approved specifically for children who have symptomatic, inoperable plexiform neurofibromas (PN), which are tumors involving the nerve sheaths (coating around nerve fibers) and can grow anywhere in the body, including the face, extremities, areas around the spine and deep in the body where they may affect organs. Between 30% and 50% of children born with NF-1 develop one or more PNs. [13]
Based on findings from animal studies, selumetinib may cause harm to a newborn baby when administered to a pregnant woman. [13] The FDA advises health care professionals to tell women of reproductive age, and men with female partners of reproductive potential, to use effective contraception during treatment with selumetinib, and for one week after the last dose. [13]
Common side effects are headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, musculoskeletal pain (pain in the body affecting bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons and nerves), fever, dry skin, acneiform rash (acne) and other rashes, stomatitis (inflammation of the mouth and lips), paronychia (infection in the skin that surrounds a toenail or fingernail) and pruritus (itching). [13]
Selumetinib can also cause serious side effects including heart failure (manifested as ejection fraction decrease, or when the muscle of the left ventricle of the heart is not pumping as well as normal) and eye toxicity (acute and chronic damage to the eye) including retinal vein occlusion, retinal pigment epithelial detachment and impaired vision. [13] Selumetinib can also cause increased creatinine phosphokinase (CPK). [13] CPK is an enzyme found in the heart, brain and skeletal muscles. [13] When muscle tissue is damaged, CPK leaks into a person's blood, which can be a sign of rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of skeletal muscle due to direct or indirect muscle injury). [13] Further, selumetinib capsules contain vitamin E, and users are at an increased risk of bleeding if their daily intake of vitamin E exceeds the recommended or safe limits. [13]
As selumetinib is thought to be metabolized by the liver enzymes CYP3A4 and CYP2C19, [10] use of moderate to strong CYP3A4 inhibitors (such as grapefruit juice) and of the CYP2C19 inhibitor fluconazole is discouraged for people taking selumetinib. [17]
Selumetinib is a kinase inhibitor, more specifically a selective inhibitor of the enzyme mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MAPK kinase or MEK) subtypes 1 and 2. These enzymes are part of the MAPK/ERK pathway, which regulates cell proliferation (i.e., growth and division) and is overly active in many types of cancer. [17]
Selumetinib was discovered by Array BioPharma and was licensed to AstraZeneca.[ citation needed ] It has been investigated for the treatment of various types of cancer, such as non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and thyroid cancer. [18] [19]
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the application for selumetinib priority review, breakthrough therapy, and orphan drug designations. [13] It was granted a rare pediatric disease designation for the treatment of pediatric NF-1 along with a rare pediatric disease priority review voucher. [13] In April 2020, selumetinib was approved by the FDA for the treatment of children with NF-1. [20] [21] [14] It is the first drug approved in the US to treat this rare disease. [13]
The approval was based on a clinical trial [22] of children who had NF-1 and inoperable plexiform neurofibromas (defined as a PN that could not be completely removed without risk for substantial morbidity to the child), conducted by the National Cancer Institute. [13] [21] The efficacy results were from 50 of the children who received the recommended dose and had routine evaluations of changes in tumor size and tumor-related morbidities during the trial. [13] The children received selumetinib 25 mg/m2 orally twice a day until disease progression or until they experienced unacceptable adverse reactions. [13] [21] The clinical trial measured the overall response rate (ORR), defined as the percentage of subjects with a complete response and those who experienced more than a 20% reduction in PN volume on MRI that was confirmed on a subsequent MRI within 3 to 6 months. [13] The ORR was 66% and all subjects had a partial response, meaning that no subjects had complete disappearance of the tumor. [13] Of these subjects, 82% had a response lasting 12 months or longer. [13] The trial was conducted at four sites in the United States. [21]
Other clinical outcomes for subjects during selumetinib treatment included changes in PN-related disfigurement, symptoms and functional impairments. [13] Although the sample sizes of subjects assessed for each PN-related morbidity (such as disfigurement, pain, strength and mobility problems, airway compression, visual impairment and bladder or bowel dysfunction) were small, there appeared to be a trend of improvement in PN-related symptoms or functional deficits during treatment. [13]
Selumetinib has also been shown to inhibit growth of GNAQ mutated uveal melanoma cell lines. [23] Furthermore, preliminary results suggest that selumetinib treatment of uveal melanoma patients can result in tumor shrinkage as the consequence of sustained inhibition of ERK phosphorylation. [24]
A Phase II clinical trial about selumetinib in NSCLC was completed in September 2011; [25] one about cancers with BRAF mutations is ongoing as of June 2012 [update] . [26]
In July 2015, selumetinib failed a Phase III trial testing whether the drug significantly prolonged the survival of patients in a study on melanoma originating in the eye. In the 152-patient trial, a combination of selumetinib and dacarbazine failed to improve progression-free survival compared with just the old drug alone. [27] [28]
As of March 2016 [update] , there were other phase III trials registered for thyroid cancer, [29] and KRAS positive NSCLC. [30] The combination of selumetinib to chemotherapy improved median progression-free survival in a trial of 510 patients with advanced KRAS-mutant NSCLC just for one month, which was statistically not significant. [31]
In November 2018, investigators working with nasal polyp tissue in vitro demonstrated a synergistic effect of down regulating expression of p-MEK1 and p-ERK1 when it was administered with erythromycin. [32]
Gefitinib, sold under the brand name Iressa, is a medication used for certain breast, lung and other cancers. Gefitinib is an EGFR inhibitor, like erlotinib, which interrupts signaling through the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in target cells. Therefore, it is only effective in cancers with mutated and overactive EGFR, but resistances to gefitinib can arise through other mutations. It is marketed by AstraZeneca and Teva.
Neurofibromatosis type I (NF-1), or von Recklinghausen syndrome, is a complex multi-system human disorder caused by the mutation of Neurofibromin 1, a gene on chromosome 17 that is responsible for production of a protein (neurofibromin) which is needed for normal function in many human cell types. NF-1 causes tumors along the nervous system which can grow anywhere on the body. NF-1 is one of the most common genetic disorders and is not limited to any person's race or sex. NF-1 is an autosomal dominant disorder, which means that mutation or deletion of one copy of the NF-1 gene is sufficient for the development of NF-1, although presentation varies widely and is often different even between relatives affected by NF-1.
Erlotinib, sold under the brand name Tarceva among others, is a medication used to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and pancreatic cancer. Specifically it is used for NSCLC with mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) — either an exon 19 deletion (del19) or exon 21 (L858R) substitution mutation — which has spread to other parts of the body. It is taken by mouth.
Targeted therapy or molecularly targeted therapy is one of the major modalities of medical treatment (pharmacotherapy) for cancer, others being hormonal therapy and cytotoxic chemotherapy. As a form of molecular medicine, targeted therapy blocks the growth of cancer cells by interfering with specific targeted molecules needed for carcinogenesis and tumor growth, rather than by simply interfering with all rapidly dividing cells. Because most agents for targeted therapy are biopharmaceuticals, the term biologic therapy is sometimes synonymous with targeted therapy when used in the context of cancer therapy. However, the modalities can be combined; antibody-drug conjugates combine biologic and cytotoxic mechanisms into one targeted therapy.
Ramucirumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody (IgG1) developed for the treatment of solid tumors. This drug was developed by ImClone Systems Inc. It was isolated from a native phage display library from Dyax.
Treatment of lung cancer refers to the use of medical therapies, such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, percutaneous ablation, and palliative care, alone or in combination, in an attempt to cure or lessen the adverse impact of malignant neoplasms originating in lung tissue.
Crizotinib, sold under the brand name Xalkori among others, is an anti-cancer medication used for the treatment of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). It acts as an ALK and ROS1 inhibitor.
ALK inhibitors are anti-cancer drugs that act on tumours with variations of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) such as an EML4-ALK translocation. They fall under the category of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which work by inhibiting proteins involved in the abnormal growth of tumour cells. All the current approved ALK inhibitors function by binding to the ATP pocket of the abnormal ALK protein, blocking its access to energy and deactivating it. A majority of ALK-rearranged NSCLC harbour the EML4-ALK fusion, although as of 2020, over 92 fusion partners have been discovered in ALK+ NSCLC. For each fusion partner, there can be several fusion variants depending on the position the two genes were fused at, and this may have implications on the response of the tumour and prognosis of the patient.
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Nivolumab, sold under the brand name Opdivo, is a medication used to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes melanoma, lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, renal cell carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, head and neck cancer, urothelial carcinoma, colon cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, liver cancer, gastric cancer, and esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer. It is used by slow injection into a vein.
A MEK inhibitor is a chemical or drug that inhibits the mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase enzymes MEK1 and/or MEK2. They can be used to affect the MAPK/ERK pathway which is often overactive in some cancers.
Cobimetinib, sold under the brand name Cotellic, is an anti-cancer medication used in combination with vemurafenib (Zelboraf) alone or with both vemurafenib and atezolizumab (Tecentriq) to treat melanoma. Cobimetinib is a MEK inhibitor. Cotellic, Zelboraf, and Tecentriq are all marketed by Genentech.
Sonidegib (INN), sold under the brand name Odomzo, is a medication used to treat cancer.
Ceritinib is a prescription-only drug used for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It was developed by Novartis and received FDA approval for use in April 2014..Ceritinib is also sold under the brand name Spexib in few countries by Novartis.
Binimetinib, sold under the brand name Mektovi, is an anti-cancer medication used to treat various cancers. Binimetinib is a selective inhibitor of MEK, a central kinase in the tumor-promoting MAPK pathway. Inappropriate activation of the pathway has been shown to occur in many cancers. In June 2018 it was approved by the FDA in combination with encorafenib for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic BRAF V600E or V600K mutation-positive melanoma. In October 2023, it was approved by the FDA for treatment of NSCLC with a BRAF V600E mutation in combination with encorafenib. It was developed by Array Biopharma.
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