The number of cancer medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration has risen steadily in recent years. This article provides a concise overview of drugs and indications added to the cancer armamentarium in 2014 and to date in 2015.

Introduction Cancer drug prices are high on the policy agenda worldwide. Previous research found no association between cancer benefits and at time of regulatory approval. Drugs approved in US with uncertain may have spill-over effects other settings. Our objective was to compare evidence supporting approvals Brazil, examine availability added therapeutic benefit. Methods We matched all novel d...

Background The NHS Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) was established in 2010 to reduce delays and improve access to cancer drugs, including those that had been previously appraised but not approved by NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence). After 1.3 billion GBP expenditure, a UK parliamentary review in 2016 rationalized the CDF back into NICE. Methods This paper analyses the potentia...

On August 5, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA injection, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Kenilworth, NJ) for treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) with disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy. Approval was based on the objective response rate (ORR) an...

P latelet GP IIb/IIIa receptor antagonist therapy with abciximab (ReoPro), the Fab fragment of a mouse/ human chimeric version of the murine 7E3 antibody, is currently used to prevent ischemic complications of percutaneous coronary interventions in select cases, and the efficacy and safety of abciximab for other related indications are under study. A number of low-molecular-weight GP IIb/IIIa a...

Stents are metallic scaffolds that are deployed within a diseased segment of coronary artery to establish and then maintain a widely patent lumen. Just 6 years after the 1994 approval of the balloon-expandable Palmaz-Schatz slotted tube stent in the United States, stents are utilized in upwards of 80% of interventions and have revolutionized catheter-based treatment. Given the rapid evolution i...

Liposomes as pharmaceutical drug carriers were developed to increase antitumour efficacy and decrease drug toxicity. Doxorubicin HCl liposomal injection was the first liposomal encapsulated anticancer drug to receive clinical approval. To date, virtually all traditional anticancer drugs have been encapsulated in liposomes. The majority of clinical studies only support the concept of a decreased...

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a crucial role in the growth and metastatic spread of cancer. Bevacizumab (Avastin) is the first commercially available VEGF inhibitor, earning U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in February 2004. In combination with fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy, this agent significantly prolongs overall and progression-free survival of pat...

With the very recent market approval of pitolisant (Wakix®), the interest in clinical applications of novel multifunctional histamine H3 receptor antagonists has clearly increased. Since histamine H3 receptor antagonists in clinical development have been tested for a variety of different indications, the combination of pharmacological properties in one molecule for improved pharmacological effe...