ReviewInternational journal of women's health2014
Profile of vintafolide (EC145) and its use in the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
Review in International journal of women's health, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Delivering living medicines with biomaterials.Nature reviews. Materials · 2025Article
- Folate Receptor Alpha-A Secret Weapon in Ovarian Cancer Treatment?International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Identification of a PET Radiotracer for Imaging of the Folate Receptor-α: A Potential Tool to Select Patients for Targeted Tumor Therapy.Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine · 2021Article
- Tumor microenvironment: a prospective target of natural alkaloids for cancer treatment.Cancer cell international · 2021Review
- Folate Receptor α-TargetedMolecular pharmaceutics · 2019Article
- Is Targeting the Folate Receptor in Ovarian Cancer Coming of Age?The oncologist · 2019Article
- Anti-Folate Receptor Alpha-Directed Antibody Therapies Restrict the Growth of Triple-negative Breast Cancer.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2018Article
- Leveraging PET to image folate receptor α therapy of an antibody-drug conjugate.EJNMMI research · 2018Article
- In Vitro and In Vivo evaluation of a novel folate-targeted theranostic nanoemulsion of docetaxel for imaging and improved anticancer activity against ovarian cancers.Cancer biology & therapy · 2018Article
- Current Strategies and Applications for Precision Drug Design.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveOur aim was to review the profile of vintafolide (EC145) and its rationale for use in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. First we investigated the folate receptors (FRs), folate's pathway into cells, and its expression in normal and cancerous cells, before detailing the mechanism of action of vintafolide, its clinical applications, and the results of different study phases. MATERIALS AND
methodsA literature search was conducted through PubMed/Medline, Google, ClinicalTrials.gov and websites of pharmaceutical companies. Only articles in English were selected. All articles investigating folate receptor expression in ovarian cancer were selected first, than articles reviewing platinum resistance. Papers about vintafolide were collected, while those talking about synthesis and biochemistry concerns were excluded. The different Phase I and II studies were read, and an update on the website of pharmaceuticals companies were added.
resultsFR is a bundle-membrane receptor that is expressed normally in some normal tissues on the apical surface of cells, but highly expressed in ovarian cancer cells (>80%). It collects folate through endocytosis. Chemotherapy does not modify its expression in ovarian cancer cells, and its expression appears to be mostly associated with a poor prognosis and platinum resistance. Vintafolide is a folate-desacetylvinblastine monohydrazide conjugate, allowing a liberation of the drug into the cytoplasm of cancerous cells via the FR-α (FRα) and endocytosis, with high specificity. Phase I studies showed a 2.5 mg bolus dose to be nontoxic, with moderately adverse events. Phase II clinical trials for the first time demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in disease-free survival in patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, and in those with a very poor prognosis who had already received three to four lines of systemic chemotherapy. The greater benefits were observed in patients with highly expressed FRα.
conclusionVintafolide is a promising targeted agent for recurrent platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, first, thanks to its mechanism of action and the characteristics of FRα in ovarian cancer, and, second, because of the favorable results observed in the first clinical trials on platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. Phase III clinical trials are currently ongoing and are expected to confirm these results.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.