Busting the Breast Cancer with AstraZeneca's Gefitinib

S Chemmalar; A R Intan Shameha; Che Azurahanim Che Abdullah; Nor Asma Ab Razak; Loqman Mohamad Yusof; Mokrish Ajat; Kim Wei Chan; Md Zuki Abu Bakar Zakaria

doi:10.1155/2023/8127695

Busting the Breast Cancer with AstraZeneca's Gefitinib

Adv Pharmacol Pharm Sci. 2023 Dec 4:2023:8127695. doi: 10.1155/2023/8127695. eCollection 2023.

Authors

S Chemmalar^{1

2}, A R Intan Shameha³, Che Azurahanim Che Abdullah⁴, Nor Asma Ab Razak², Loqman Mohamad Yusof⁵, Mokrish Ajat⁶, Kim Wei Chan², Md Zuki Abu Bakar Zakaria^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), Theni 625534, Tamil Nadu, India.
² Natural Medicines and Products Research Laboratory, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
³ Department of Veterinary Preclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UPM, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁴ Biophysics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Laboratory of Cancer Research (MAKNA), Institute of Bioscience and Material Synthesis & Characterization Laboratory, Institute of Advanced Technology, UPM, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁵ Department of Companion Animal Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UPM, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁶ Department of Veterinary Preclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Natural Medicines and Product Research Laboratory, Institute of Bioscience, UPM, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia.

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women, and in 2020, there were 684, 996 deaths due to this disease. Epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFRs) and their respective ligands have been blamed for the pathogenesis and resistance to treatment in specific breast cancer cases. With EGFR having four homologues: EGFR1, EGFR2, EGFR3, and EGFR4, in-depth understanding of EGFR biology led to the discovery of small-molecule inhibitors and antibodies against this receptor. Gefitinib (GEF), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of EGFR1, possesses a vast potential for treatment against breast cancer and is supported by a multiplicity of experiments. Unfortunately, in clinical trials, GEF did not show the outcomes expected with complete response and disease progress. This is due to incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in EGFR signaling and endocrine sensitivity. Hence, additional in-depth experiments are needed regarding various molecular pathways and crosstalk pathways to comprehend GEF's action mechanism thoroughly in breast cancer patients. In this review, the role of EGFR in the development and pathogenesis of breast cancer and the pharmacokinetics and pharmacotherapy of GEF for the treatment of breast cancer have been elaborated. Nanomedicines synthesized with GEF have shown positive experimental response, paving a promising path for GEF against breast cancer.

Publication types

Review