Itraconazole in Non Small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States

The American Cancer Society estimates lung cancer incidence in the United States for 2018 to be about 234,030 and about 154,050 deaths.

In 2012, GLOBOCAN estimated that 1.8 million people were diagnosed with lung cancer, accounting for about 13% of total cancer diagnoses.

Lung cancer death rates declined 45% from 1990 to 2015 among men and 19% from 2002 to 2015 among women. From 2005 to 2014, the rate of new lung cancer cases dropped by 2.5% per year in men and 1.2% per year in women, These differences reflect historical patterns in tobacco use, where women began smoking in large numbers many years later than men, and were slower to quit .

World Health Organization (WHO) divides lung cancer into 2 major classes based on its biology, therapy, and prognosis: non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC).

The NSCLC subtype accounts for 87% of lung cancer cases with its most common types to be adenocarcinomas where it is approximately 40% of lung cancers.

Different factors like age, Performance state, co-morbidities, histology, molecular pathology and last but not least; the patient's preferences should be taken into account along the treatment strategy after a multidisciplinary tumor board discussion, to allow adequate and careful evaluation of the available data to reach the most appropriate management plan and treatment modality for each patient individually (Ung et al., 2016).

Platinum doublets Chemotherapy should be considered in all stage IV and inoperable stage III NSCLC patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) negative disease, without major comorbidities and Performance state 0-2.

Circulating levels of angiogenic factors have been correlated with aggressive tumor growth, prediction of metastasis and prognosis in a wide range of solid tumors, including non-small cell lung cancer.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Itraconazole as an anti-angiogenic agent including both Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and inhibited phosphorylation of the primary angiogenic receptors for these factors in 2007 and also known as an inhibitor of Hedgehog signalling, AKT (protein kinase B)/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling adding its induction of autophagic cell death function based on cellular and laboratory studies, and allowed its use in phase II trials in prostate, lung and skin cancer.

Itraconazole was proved to be among one of the most potent and selective inhibitors of endothelial cell proliferation.

Itraconazole also interferes directly with mitochondrial Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production, leading to the activation of the adenosine monophosphate (AMP) -activated protein kinase pathway and subsequent inhibition of mTOR pathway (Head et al., 2015).

Testing Itraconazole on experimental settings was associated also with tumor hypoxia, as proved by induction of tumor-specific expression of Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1α), as well as decreased tumor micro-vessel load.

Taken together, these data support that Itraconazole may become a promising novel anti-angiogenic agent and In contrast to bevacizumab, Itraconazole is an inexpensive oral agent, currently available in a generic formulation and has been safely administered to thousands of patients as an antifungal drug with an excellent tolerance.