Trial reportAnnals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology2015
A randomized phase II study of the telomerase inhibitor imetelstat as maintenance therapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.
Trial report in Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 116 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
116 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 177 citations in OpenAlex.
- Incidence and risk of hypertension with bevacizumab in non-small-cell lung cancer patients: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Drug design, development and therapy · 2015Pooled it
- Exploring the landscape of targetable alterations in patients with glioblastoma.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2026Review
- How telomere attrition protects against cancer.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Design, synthesis, anticancer activity and molecular modeling of new pyrazoline derivatives as telomerase inhibitors.RSC advances · 2026Article
- Review
- Myelodysplastic syndromes: Updates on Genomic Landscape, Molecular Subtypes, & Targeted Therapies.Current hematologic malignancy reports · 2025Review
- Telomere Maintenance and DNA Repair: A Bidirectional Relationship in Cancer Biology and Therapy.Cancers · 2025Review
- Reduction of NFX1-123 and HPV 16 E6 and E7 Decreased Telomerase and CENP-F in Cervical Cancer Cell Lines.Cancers · 2025Article
- TERT Immunohistochemistry in Thin Melanomas Compared to Melanocytic Nevi.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Identification of telomere maintenance-driven molecular subtypes in hepatocellular carcinoma: implications for prognosis and targeted therapy via KPNA2.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Beyond Telomeres: Unveiling the Extratelomeric Functions of TERT in B-Cell Malignancies.Cancers · 2025Review
- Telomeropathies in Interstitial Lung Disease and Lung Transplant Recipients.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Telomeres, telomerase, and cancer: mechanisms, biomarkers, and therapeutics.Experimental hematology & oncology · 2025Review
- Broad-spectrum antitumor analysis of the telomerase activity inhibitor TPCH derived from the human constitutively expressed protein LPTS/PinX1.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- The role of telomere and telomerase in cancer and novel therapeutic target: narrative review.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Beginning at the ends: telomere and telomere-based cancer therapeutics.Molecular genetics and genomics : MGG · 2024Review
- Genomic landscape of malignant phyllodes tumors reveals multiple targetable opportunities.The oncologist · 2024Article
- Iron-(Fe3+)-Dependent Reactivation of Telomerase Drives Colorectal Cancers.Cancer discovery · 2024Article
- Telomere Length and Telomerase Activity as Potential Biomarkers for Gastrointestinal Cancer.Cancers · 2024Review
- Understanding, diagnosing, and treating pancreatic cancer from the perspective of telomeres and telomerase.Cancer gene therapy · 2024Review
56 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 11 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundContinuation or 'switch' maintenance therapy is commonly used in patients with advancd non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here, we evaluated the efficacy of the telomerase inhibitor, imetelstat, as switch maintenance therapy in patients with advanced NSCLC. PATIENTS AND
methodsThe primary end point of this open-label, randomized phase II study was progression-free survival (PFS). Patients with non-progressive, advanced NSCLC after platinum-based doublet (first-line) chemotherapy (with or without bevacizumab), any histology, with Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status 0-1 were eligible. Randomization was 2 : 1 in favor of imetelstat, administered at 9.4 mg/kg on days 1 and 8 of a 21-day cycle, or observation. Telomere length (TL) biomarker exploratory analysis was carried out in tumor tissue by quantitative PCR (qPCR) and telomerase fluorescence in situ hybridization.
resultsOf 116 patients enrolled, 114 were evaluable. Grade 3/4 neutropenia and thrombocytopenia were more frequent with imetelstat. Median PFS was 2.8 and 2.6 months for imetelstat-treated versus control [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.844; 95% CI 0.54-1.31; P = 0.446]. Median survival time favored imetelstat (14.3 versus 11.5 months), although not significantly (HR = 0.68; 95% CI 0.41-1.12; P = 0.129). Exploratory analysis demonstrated a trend toward longer median PFS (HR = 0.43; 95% CI 0.14-1.3; P = 0.124) and overall survival (OS; HR = 0.41; 95% CI 0.11-1.46; P = 0.155) in imetelstat-treated patients with short TL, but no improvement in median PFS and OS in patients with long TL (HR = 0.86; 95% CI 0.39-1.88; and HR = 0.51; 95% CI 0.2-1.28; P = 0.145).
conclusionsMaintenance imetelstat failed to improve PFS in advanced NSCLC patients responding to first-line therapy. There was a trend toward a improvement in median PFS and OS in patients with short TL. Short TL as a predictive biomarker will require further investigation for the clinical development of imetelstat.
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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.