High quality Afatinib (BIBW 2992) CAS:439081-18-2 in stock Tovok

Afatinib belongs to a class of drugs known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors are designed to block the action of a specific enzyme called tyrosine kinase. This enzyme plays a big role in the function of cells, and is active in promoting tumor growth and progression. Afatinib works to inhibit the function of two types of tyrosine kinases: epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and Her2, which are “over-expressed” by several types of cancer. By blocking the function of these tyrosine kinases, afatinib may prevent cancer cells from dividing and growing.
Afatinib was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as the first-line treatment for a subset of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The patients for which afatinib was approved have lung cancer that carries a particular kind of mutation that results in an abnormal EGFR protein. These patients are most likely to be of Asian descent, women, and never smokers with a form of lung cancer known as bronchoalveolar adenocarcinoma. Clinical experience with erlotinib and gefitinib has shown that these patients respond particularly well to tyrosine kinase inhibitors that block the EGFR. This proved to be true for afatinib as well, which increased the progression-free survival of this group of patients to 13.6 months as compared to only 6.9 months for patients treated with standard chemotherapy. Erlotinib is also approved in the United States as a first-line treatment for this subgroup of patients. Longer clinical experience will be needed to determine which drug is the best choice. Afatinib may be somewhat more potent than erlotinib, but its side effects, primarily rash and diarrhea, are also more severe.