Early clinical development of targeted anticancer agents

Abstract

Van Brummelen studied the safety and preliminary signs of efficacy of several novel targeted anticancer agents in phase I trials. In her thesis, she reports the results of trials with the immunotherapies pembrolizumab and cergutuzumab-amunaleukin, and with combinations of inhibitors of the MEK and HER proteins which are involved in tumor cell growth and proliferation, specifically in patients with a KRAS mutation. In addition, she provides tools to improve early drug clinical development in oncology in the future, such as optimization of phase I trial design by using a model-based approach, the use of BRAF as a biomarker for response to anti-EGFR treatment in patients with colorectal cancer, and strategies to address anti-drug antibody formation in future clinical trials.