Role of anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibition in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer.

Purpose: Published data on the clinical efficacy, safety, dosage and administration, and costs of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitors crizotinib and ceritinib in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are reviewed and compared.

Summary: The ALK protein functions as a transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase; rearrangements of the ALK gene are associated with the development of NSCLC with adenocarcinoma histology. Crizotinib is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved in 2011 as a first-line therapy for patients with metastatic ALK mutation-driven NSCLC.

Glucarpidase for the management of elevated methotrexate levels in patients with impaired renal function.

Purpose: The pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, clinical efficacy, safety, dosage, administration, and current role in therapy of a recently approved agent for controlling methotrexate toxicity are reviewed.

Summary: Glucarpidase is a bacterial enzyme useful in reversing toxicity induced by the widely used antineoplastic agent methotrexate. Glucarpidase gained U.

New treatment options for castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Purpose: Published efficacy and safety data from clinical trials of three recently approved agents for the management of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) are reviewed.

Summary: Sipuleucel-T is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic patients with CRPC. In a placebo-controlled Phase III clinical trial, the use of sipuleucel-T was associated with an average improvement in median overall survival of 4.

Pseudo-myocardial infarction in diabetic ketoacidosis with hyperkalemia.

Hyperkalemia-induced electrocardiogram changes such as dysrhythmias and altered T wave morphology are well described in the medical literature. Pseudo-infarction hyperkalemia-induced changes are less well known, but present a unique danger for the clinician treating these critically ill patients. This article describes a case of pseudo anteroseptal myocardial infarction in a type 1 diabetic with hyperkalemia.