Drug Evaluation

Lenvatinib: a potential breakthrough in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma?

Georgios Oikonomopoulos^‡

Department of Medical Oncology, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RS, UK

^‡Authors contributed equally

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Preetha Aravind^‡

Department of Medical Oncology, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RS, UK

^‡Authors contributed equally

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Debashis Sarker

*Author for correspondence:

E-mail Address: debashis.sarker@kcl.ac.uk

Department of Medical Oncology, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RS, UK

Institute of Liver Studies, King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RS, UK

Division of Cancer Studies, King's College London, Guy's Hospital, Great Maze Pond, London, SE1 9RT, UK

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Published Online:20 Jan 2016https://doi.org/10.2217/fon.15.341

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Abstract

Treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has reached a plateau after the approval of sorafenib in 2007. Several molecularly targeted therapies have failed to show significant improvement in survival outcomes compared with sorafenib, due to flaws in the design of clinical trials or failure to understand and correct for the competing co-morbidity of liver dysfunction. Lenvatinib is a multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor with potent antiangiogenic effects, and has recently been approved for differentiated thyroid cancer. Lenvatinib has shown highly promising response data in Phase I/II clinical trials in HCC, although with some concerns regarding its toxicity profile. The pivotal Phase III REFLECT trial comparing lenvatinib to sorafenib has been completed, and the results of this trial will determine whether lenvatinib represents a breakthrough in the current crisis affecting HCC drug development.

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References

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Published online 20 January 2016

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The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

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