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Targeted therapies

Tivantinib—a cytotoxic drug in MET inhibitor's clothes?

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 10, pages 372–374 (2013)Cite this article

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Tivantinib is being tested in a variety of phase II and phase III clinical trials as a highly selective, non ATP-competitive MET tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Its mechanism of action has been under scrutiny by two independent studies, which reveal that tivantinib is a cytotoxic drug acting on microtubule dynamics independently of MET. This finding has important implications for the interpretation of clinical results, for the design of new trials and for the selection of patients receiving tivantinib treatment.

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Figure 1: The MET inhibitor herd.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Andrea Sartore-Bianchi for critical reading of the manuscript, the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC) for research funding (2010 Special Program in Molecular Clinical Oncology 5‰ #9,970 and 2012 I G #12798 to P. Michieli; MFAG #11349 to F. Di Nicolantonio), and the Fondazione Piemontese per la Ricerca sul Cancro (FPRC) ONLUS for continuous support (Intramural Grant PAMI 5‰ 2008 to P. Michieli; Grant Farmacogenomica 5‰ 2009 MIUR to F. Di Nicolantonio).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oncology, University of Torino, Candiolo, 10060, Torino, Italy

    Paolo Michieli & Federica Di Nicolantonio

  2. IRCC, Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment at Candiolo, Candiolo, 10060, Torino, Italy

    Paolo Michieli & Federica Di Nicolantonio

Authors
  1. Paolo Michieli
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  2. Federica Di Nicolantonio
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Correspondence to Paolo Michieli.

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Competing interests

P. Michieli declares he is a consultant of arGEN-X (Zwijnaarde, Belgium) and Metheresis (Lugano, Switzerland). F. Di Nicolantonio declares no competing interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

The biochemical, biological and pharmacological properties of tivantinib are distinct to other MET inhibitors. (DOCX 27 kb)

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Michieli, P., Di Nicolantonio, F. Tivantinib—a cytotoxic drug in MET inhibitor's clothes?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 10, 372–374 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2013.86

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