What is crizotinib?

• What crizotinib is
• Research into crizotinib
• Is crizotinib available in the UK?
• More information about treatment

Crizotinib is a new drug in development for lung cancer. It is also called Xalkori and PF-02341066. It is a type of drug treatment called a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). Tyrosine kinases are proteins called enzymes that act as chemical messengers in cells.

There are a number of different tyrosine kinases that can stimulate cancer cells to grow. TKIs block tyrosine kinases so researchers hope that they will stop or slow the growth of cancers.

Crizotinib blocks a protein called ALK or anaplastic lymphoma kinase. Some lung cancers have an overactive version of ALK. Blocking ALK with crizotinib can stop the cells growing but it only works in cancers with the overactive protein. So it is not suitable for everyone. About 1 in 20 people (5%) with non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have the overactive ALK protein.

Research is also looking at crizotinib as a treatment for other types of cancer that have an overactive ALK protein, including

• Neuroblastoma
• Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Some rare types of sarcoma

You take crizotinib as a tablet twice a day.

All new drugs go through a detailed research process. Firstly, research in the laboratory finds out if a substance harms cancer cells in any way. Then researchers look at whether it is safe to give to people, what the dose should be, and which side effects it causes in people.

As crizotinib is a new drug we are still finding out about how well it works and about the side effects. A phase 1 trial using crizotinib for non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) found that the cancer shrank in 6 out of 10 people (60%). These are early results and the people in the trial have only been followed up for 6 months. So we will need results from much bigger trials with longer follow up before we know for certain how well it works and for how long. The side effects were mild and included feeling and being sick.

There are now 2 international trials going on. In the UK they are taking place in a few centres including London and Manchester.

There is a phase 2 trial looking at how well crizotinib works and finding out more about the side effects it causes. You can take part in this trial if you have a non small cell lung cancer which has overactive ALK and you have had chemotherapy containing either pemetrexed or docetaxel which is no longer working.

There is also a phase 3 trial comparing crizotinib with chemotherapy. People with NSCLC either have crizotinib or chemotherapy. The chemotherapy is either docetaxel or pemetrexed. This trial is for people who have a non small cell lung cancer with overactive ALK and have already had a platinum chemotherapy drug.

We don't have information about these trials on our clinical trials database. But if you are interested in entering one of the trials you can talk to your doctor. You may find it helpful to print this page and take it with you.

In the UK crizotinib is only available as part of a clinical trial. In the USA crizotinib has been approved to treat people with locally advanced or metastatic non small cell lung cancer and who have the abnormal anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene.

You can find more information on CancerHelp UK about treatment for lung cancer in our cancer types section. You can also read more about what’s new in lung cancer on the lung cancer research page.