Single-Agent Therapies After Standard Combination Regimens

Cancer J. 2016 May-Jun;22(3):205-10. doi: 10.1097/PPO.0000000000000198.

Abstract

Increasingly prolonged survival in metastatic colorectal cancer has paralleled the approval of new agents alone and in combination. Most recently, several new agents have sought approval in the heavily pretreated setting, after treatment with standard chemotherapies, alone and in combination, and with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor receptor and anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (for patients with RAS wild-type tumors). These agents have included the multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), regorafenib, and the novel antimetabolite combination, TAS-102. Both of these showed improvement in progression-free survival and overall survival compared with placebo controls and were approved in the United States and the rest of the world. Benefits of treatment and toxicities are discussed. Nintedanib, another multitargeted TKI, is already approved by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency for non-small cell lung cancer and has been studied in a similar phase III trial. Results are pending. The risks and benefits of each agent are discussed.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / administration & dosage
  • Antineoplastic Agents / adverse effects
  • Antineoplastic Agents / therapeutic use*
  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / adverse effects
  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / therapeutic use
  • Clinical Trials as Topic
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / drug therapy*
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / mortality
  • Colorectal Neoplasms / pathology
  • Drug Combinations
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
  • Humans
  • Molecular Targeted Therapy
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / administration & dosage
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / adverse effects
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors / therapeutic use
  • Pyrrolidines
  • Retreatment
  • Thymine
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Trifluridine / pharmacology
  • Trifluridine / therapeutic use
  • Uracil / analogs & derivatives
  • Uracil / pharmacology
  • Uracil / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Drug Combinations
  • Protein Kinase Inhibitors
  • Pyrrolidines
  • trifluridine tipiracil drug combination
  • Uracil
  • Thymine
  • Trifluridine