Lenvima for undifferentiated thyroid cancer – pro
Thyroid cancer is classified into 3 types—differentiated (includes papillary, follicular, and Hürthle tumors); medullary tumors; and anaplastic (aggressive undifferentiated tumors). The anaplastic type is least common, with no truly effective tratments, but the studies of Lenvima initially focused on the more common types. However, there is significant medical literature supporting this drug also for anaplastic thyroid cancer. In a recent phase II study bu Tahara et al, lenvatinib demonstrated manageable toxicities with dose adjustments and clinical activity in patients with ATC. In the anaplastic group, the OS is around one year; and the PFS was around 7.4 months, which is historically very good. A poster with positive findnings was also presented at the 86th Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association in 2016.
Makoto Tahara et al,Lenvatinib for Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer, Front Oncol. 2017; 7: 25.
S. Takahashi, M. Tahara, N. Kiyota, et al.Phase II study of lenvatinib (LEN), a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in patients (PTS) with all histologic subtypes of advanced thyroid cancer (differentiated, medullary and anaplastic) [abstract] Ann Oncol, 25 (Suppl. 4) (2014)
abstr 995PD
Changxin Jing et al, Lenvatinib enhances the antitumor effects of paclitaxel in anaplastic thyroid cancer. Am J Cancer Res. 2017; 7(4): 903–912.