Dabrafenib


Dabrafenib, sold under the brand name Tafinlar, is a medication for the treatment of cancers associated with a mutated version of the gene BRAF. Dabrafenib acts as an inhibitor of the associated enzyme B-Raf, which plays a role in the regulation of cell growth. Dabrafenib has clinical activity with a manageable safety profile in clinical trials of phase 1 and 2 in patients with BRAF -mutated metastatic melanoma.

Approvals and indications

The US Food and Drug Administration initially approved dabrafenib as a single agent treatment for patients with BRAF V600E mutation-positive advanced melanoma on May 29, 2013. Dabrafenib was approved for use in the European Union in August 2013.
Clinical trial data demonstrated that resistance to dabrafenib and other BRAF inhibitors occurs within six to seven months. To overcome this resistance, the BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib was combined with the MEK inhibitor trametinib. On January 8, 2014, the FDA approved this combination of dabrafenib and trametinib for BRAF V600E/K-mutant metastatic melanoma. On May 1, 2018, the FDA approved the combination dabrafenib/trametinib as an adjuvant treatment for BRAF V600E-mutated, stage III melanoma after surgical resection based on the results of the COMBI-AD phase 3 study, making it the first oral chemotherapy regimen that prevents cancer relapse for node positive, BRAF-mutated melanoma.
In April 2017, the European Union approved the combination of dabrafenib with trametinib for BRAF V600-positive advanced or metastatic non small-cell lung cancer.