MEK Inhibitor Under Study for Treatment of Brain Metastases From Melanoma
Posted: Monday, February 4, 2019
Hani Babiker, MD, of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, and colleagues have opened a clinical trial for patients with brain metastases from BRAF- or MEK-mutated melanoma (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03332589). The patients will be treated with an investigational MEK inhibitor called E6201, which appears to be effective at crossing the blood-brain barrier.
E6201 was already tested in a phase I trial involving 55 patients with various tumor types, including 22 patients with BRAF-mutated melanoma. A total of 9 patients had brain metastases, and 2 of them achieved clinical responses lasting more than 4 years; 1 of these patients continued taking the drug for more than 8 years with a continued near-complete response.
“We’re going to look at safety, tumor regression, survival, and progression-free survival,” commented Dr. Babiker in an institutional press release. “The next step might be comparing it to another drug or combining it with another drug in a larger study.”
