Lenvatinib was associated with significant improvements in progression-free survival among patients with radioiodine-refractory thyroid cancer when compared with placebo, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the randomized, multicenter study, 261 patients received lenvatinib (at a daily dose of 24 mg per day in 28-day cycles) and 131 patients received a placebo. The median progression-free survival was 18.3 months in the lenvatinib group and 3.6 months in the placebo group, the investigators wrote, although adverse effects occurred in more than 40% of patients in the lenvatinib group.
Lenvatinib is an oral inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors 1, 2, and 3, fibroblast growth factor receptors 1 through 4, platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha, RET, and KIT.
Read more at N. Engl. J. Med. 2015 ( doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1406470 ).
