Brands, Medical Use, Clinical Data
Drug Category
Dosage Forms
Brands / Synonyms
Nexavar; Sorafenib tosylate
Indications
For the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.
Pharmacology
Sorafenib is a multikinase inhibitor targeting several serine/threonine and receptor tyrosine kinases. It is commonly available as a tosylate salt. Sorafenib is a multikinase inhibitor that decreases tumor cell proliferation in vitro. Sorafenib inhibits tumor growth of the murine renal cell carcinoma, RENCA, and several other human tumor xenografts in athymic mice. A reduction in tumor angiogenesis occurs in some tumor xenograft models.
Mechanism of Action
Sorafenib interacts with multiple intracellular (CRAF, BRAF and mutant BRAF) and cell surface kinases (KIT, FLT-3, VEGFR-2, VEGFR-3, and PDGFR-ß). Several of these kinases are thought to be involved in angiogenesis, thus sorafenib reduces blood flow to the tumor.
Absorption
The mean relative bioavailability is 38-49% for the tablet form, when compared to an oral solution. With a high-fat meal, bioavailability is reduced by 29% compared to administration in the fasted state.
Toxicity
The highest dose of sorafenib studied clinically is 800 mg twice daily. The adverse reactions observed at this dose were primarily diarrhea and dermatologic events. No information is available on symptoms of acute overdose in animals because of the saturation of absorption in oral acute toxicity studies conducted in animals.
Biotrnasformation / Drug Metabolism
Sorafenib is metabolized primarily in the liver, undergoing oxidative metabolism, mediated by CYP3A4, as well as glucuronidation mediated by UGT1A9. Sorafenib accounts for approximately 70-85% of the circulating analytes in plasma at steady- state. Eight metabolites of sorafenib have been identified, of which five have been detected in plasma. The main circulating metabolite of sorafenib in plasma, the pyridine N-oxide, shows in vitro potency similar to that of sorafenib. This metabolite comprises approximately 9-16% of circulating analytes at steady-state.
Contraindications
NEXAVAR is contraindicated in patients with known severe hypersensitivity to sorafenib or any other component of NEXAVAR.
Drug Interactions
Caution is recommended when administering NEXAVAR with compounds that are metabolized/eliminated predominantly by the UGT1A1 pathway (e.g. irinotecan). Concomitant treatment with NEXAVAR resulted in a 21% increase in the AUC of doxorubicin. Caution is recommended when administering doxorubicin with NEXAVAR. Sorafenib inhibits CYP2B6 and CYP2C8 in vitro with Ki values of 6 and 1-2 μM, respectively. Systemic exposure to substrates of CYP2B6 and CYP2C8 is expected to increase when co-administered with NEXAVAR. Caution is recommended when administering substrates of CYP2B6 and CYP2C8 with NEXAVAR.
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