Afatinib

Pharmaceuticals -> Antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents -> Antineoplastic agents

Pharmaceuticals -> Listed in ZINC15

Breast Feeding; Lactation; Antineoplastic Agents; Enzyme Inhibitors; Protein Kinase Inhibitors; Signal Transduction Inhibitors; Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors

FDA approved drugs -> Active ingredient

EMA approved medicines: Human medicine

Targeted therapies

Warning

H302 (50%): Harmful if swallowed [Warning Acute toxicity, oral]

P260, P261, P264, P264+P265, P270, P271, P280, P301+P317, P302+P352, P304+P340, P305+P351+P338, P319, P321, P330, P332+P317, P337+P317, P362+P364, P403+P233, P405, and P501 (click each P-code to see the statement)

Aggregated GHS information provided per 2 reports by companies from 2 notifications to the ECHA C&L Inventory. Each notification may be associated with multiple companies.

Elevations in serum aminotransferase levels are common during afatinibtherapy and occurred in 20% to 50% of patients in the pre-registration pivottrials, but rose above 5 times the upper limit of the normal range in only2% to 3%. Hepatic failure was said to have occurred in 0.2% of patients andto have resulted in several fatalities. Hepatotoxicity appears to be a classeffect among protein kinase inhibitors of EGFR, although significant liverinjury appears to be more frequent and more severe with gefitinib than withafatinib and erlotinib. Despite over a decade of use, specific details ofthe liver injury associated with afatinib such as latency, serum enzymepattern, clinical features and course, have not been published. Other EGFRinhibitors, such as erlotinib and gefitinib typically cause liver injuryarising within days or weeks of starting therapy and present abruptly withhepatocellular enzyme elevations and a moderate-to-severe course.Immunoallergic and autoimmune features are not common. The rate ofclinically significant liver injury and hepatic failure is increased inpatients with preexisting cirrhosis or hepatic impairment due to liver tumorburden.

L01XE13

L - Antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents

QL - Antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents

Aberrant ErbB signaling triggered by receptor mutations, and/or amplification, and/or receptor ligand overexpression contributes to the malignant phenotype. Mutation in EGFR defines a distinct molecular subtype of lung cancer. In non-clinical disease models with ErbB pathway deregulation, afatinib as a single agent effectively blocks ErbB receptor signaling resulting in tumor growth inhibition or tumor regression. NSCLC tumors with common activating EGFR mutations (Del 19, L858R) and several less common EGFR mutations in exon 18 (G719X) and exon 21 (L861Q) are particularly sensitive to afatinib treatment in non-clinical and clinical settings. Limited non-clinical and/or clinical activity was observed in NSCLC tumors with insertion mutations in exon 20. The acquisition of a secondary T790M mutation is a major mechanism of acquired resistance to afatinib and gene dosage of the T790M-containing allele correlates with the degree of resistance in vitro. The T790M mutation is found in approximately 50% of patients' tumors upon disease progression on afatinib, for which T790M targeted EGFR TKIs may be considered as a next line treatment option. Other potential mechanisms of resistance to afatinib have been suggested preclinically and MET gene amplification has been observed clinically. At the same time, the effect of multiple doses of afatinib (50 mg once daily) on cardiac electrophysiology and the QTc interval was evaluated in an open-label, single-arm study in patients with relapsed or refractory solid tumors. Ultimately, no large changes in the mean QTc interval (i.e., >20 ms) were detected in the study.

Afatinib is a potent and selective, irreversible ErbB family blocker. Afatinib covalently binds to and irreversibly blocks signaling from all homo and heterodimers formed by the ErbB family members EGFR (ErbB1), HER2 (ErbB2), ErbB3 and ErbB4. In particular, afatinib covalently binds to the kinase domains of EGFR (ErbB1), HER2 (ErbB2), and HER4 (ErbB4) and irreversibly inhibits tyrosine kinase autophosphorylation, resulting in downregulation of ErbB signaling. Certain mutations in EGFR, including non-resistant mutations in its kinase domain, can result in increased autophosphorylation of the receptor, leading to receptor activation, sometimes in the absence of ligand binding, and can support cell proliferation in NSCLC. Non-resistant mutations are defined as those occurring in exons constituting the kinase domain of EGFR that lead to increased receptor activation and where efficacy is predicted by 1) clinically meaningful tumor shrinkage with the recommended dose of afatinib and/or 2) inhibition of cellular proliferation or EGFR tyrosine kinase phosphorylation at concentrations of afatinib sustainable at the recommended dosage according to validated methods. The most commonly found of these mutations are exon 21 L858R substitutions and exon 19 deletions. Moreover, afatinib demonstrated inhibition of autophosphorylation and/or in vitro proliferation of cell lines expressing wild-type EGFR and in those expressing selected EGFR exon 19 deletion mutations, exon 21 L858R mutations, or other less common non-resistant mutations, at afatinib concentrations achieved in patients. In addition, afatinib inhibited in vitro proliferation of cell lines overexpressing HER2.