Dr. Goy on Crizotinib for Pediatric Patients With ALCL

Andre Goy, MD, MS, chief, Lymphoma Division, chairman, John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, discusses a small phase I trial that used crizotinib (Xalkori) to treat ALK-positive pediatric patients with anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), neuroblastoma, and inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors (IMTs).

Goy is excited by this study, which highlights the many new compounds in the oncology pipeline that are targeted therapies or small molecule inhibitors. This trial looked specifically at children harboring ALK mutations, and provided the targeted agent crizotinib, which targets the mutation and is approved for adult patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

ALK mutations are very prevalent in ALCL, which was examined in this study. Preliminary data showed that response rates were high for these patients, including complete responses in 88%. Additionally, the trial showed that crizotinib was able to delay tumor growth or eliminate all signs of cancer in select children that had IMTs and neuroblastoma and carried the ALK mutation.

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