The place of pemetrexed in the management of non-small-cell lung cancer patients

Abstract

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Chemotherapy is included in the management of the majority of NSCLC patients either in addition to a local treatment (surgery/radiotherapy) or alone. In this setting, pemetrexed has become one of the most important partners of current chemotherapy regimens for nonsquamous NSCLC patients. Indeed, pemetrexed demonstrated a comparable efficacy to other previously available drugs in NSCLC, with however a better safety profile and an easier schedule of administration. In addition, pemetrexed demonstrated a greater efficacy in nonsquamous NSCLC that lead to an exploration of the underlying potential biological background. It is now suggested that the tumor thymidylate synthase level may act as a predictor of pemetrexed efficacy, therefore potentially providing clinicians in the future with a predictor of efficacy, which it is usually lacking with standard chemotherapies.

Keywords::

• histology
• lung cancer
• pemetrexed
• survival
• thymidylate synthase
• tolerance

Financial & competing interests disclosure

P Tomasini, L Greillier, N Khobta and F Barlesi have received research funding from Lilly Oncology. L Greillier and F Barlesi have received honoraria from Lilly Oncology. The authors have no other 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 apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.