Dr. Wirth on the Use of Lenvatinib in Hypertensive Patients With Thyroid Cancer

Lori J. Wirth, MD, associate professor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School, medical director, Center for Head and Neck Cancers, Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses the use of lenvatinib (Lenvima) in hypertensive patients with thyroid cancer.

The SELECT trial examined the use of lenvatinib compared with placebo in patients with iodine-refractory, differentiated thyroid cancer that had progressed prior to study entry. The topline results that were presented at a prior ASCO Meeting showed that there was a significant improvement in progression-free survival with lenvatinib as well as an overall response rate of 65%, states Wirth.

Therefore, researchers looked at hypertension as a potential pharmacodynamic marker to predict who might show the most benefit from the drug. Hypertension has been shown to be a pharmacodynamic marker in other VEGFR multikinase inhibitors in other tumor types, says Wirth.

Data from the SELECT trial showed that treatment-emergent hypertension correlated with greater benefit in the patients on lenvatinib compared with those who did not develop hypertension, says Wirth. There was also an overall survival benefit in patients who received lenvatinib and subsequently developed treatment-emergent hypertension compared with those who did not.