Lowell L. Hart, MD, FACP, scientific director of clinical research, Florida Cancer Specialists, and associate professor of medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, discusses the effect of CDK4/6 inhibitor, trilaciclib on myelosuppression in patients with previously treated extensive-stage small cell lung cancer receiving topotecan. Hart presented the phase II results from the blinded, multicenter study during the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.<br />
Lowell L. Hart, MD, FACP, scientific director of clinical research, Florida Cancer Specialists, and associate professor of medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, discusses the effect of CDK4/6 inhibitor, trilaciclib (G1T28) on myelosuppression in patients with previously treated extensive-stage small cell lung cancer receiving topotecan. Hart presented the phase II results from the blinded, multicenter study during the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.
CDK4/6 inhibition prevents sensitive cells from going through the cell cycle, says Hart. Patients with small cell lung cancer lose the ability to utilize retinoblastoma, a protein that suppresses tumors. Since bone marrow cells are sensitive, the idea behind the study was to pause bone marrow cell growth with CDK4/6 inhibition to make the cells dormant until chemotherapy was administered.
For years, the standard of care for patients with small cell lung cancer was topotecan-based chemotherapy. However, because of extreme cell growth in these patients, oncologists struggled to find the right dosage that could keep blood counts normal. These patients then developed myelosuppression.