Cabozantinib for progressive metastatic medullary thyroid cancer: a review

Abstract

Joshua R Colombo, Richard O Wein Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA Abstract: Medullary thyroid cancer is uncommon and patients typically present with advanced disease. Treatment options for patients with progressive, metastatic medullary thyroid cancer had been limited until recently. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors have garnered increasing interest in this subset of patients. The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved cabozantinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, after promising results were shown in a large Phase III clinical trial. This review summarizes the clinical pharmacology, clinical trials, and safety data for cabozantinib and concludes with a discussion of possible future directions for the treatment of medullary thyroid cancer. Keywords: cabozantinib, tyrosine kinase inhibitor, medullary thyroid cancer