Background BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib achieves high response rate and an improvement in survival in patients with BRAF-mutated metastatic melanoma. However, median progression-free survival is only 6.9 months in the phase 3 study. Retrospective analyses suggest that treatment with BRAF inhibitors beyond initial progression might be associated with improved overall survival. We aimed to prospect...

The BRAFV600E mutation, which in melanoma is targetable with vemurafenib, is also found in sarcomas and we here evaluate the therapeutic potential in sarcoma cell lines. METHODS Four sarcoma cell lines harboring the BRAFV600E mutation, representing liposarcomas (SA-4 and SW872), Ewing sarcoma (A673) and atypical synovial sarcoma (SW982), were treated with vemurafenib and the effects on cell g...

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a chronic B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder that accounts for 2% of all leukemia. Recent identification of the recurrent V600E BRAF mutation in a majority of HCL patients has led some teams to evaluate the clinical potential of vemurafenib, a BRAF V600 specific inhibitor in a limited number of refractory HCL patients. Recently, we published the case of an HCL pati...

Somatic point mutations in the BRAF gene have been found in approximately 50% of melanomas. BRAF (V600E), the most common mutation, results in the constitutive activation of BRAF (V600E) kinase, sustaining MAPK signaling and perpetuating cell growth. This groundbreaking discovery led to the clinical development of vemurafenib, a selective BRAF inhibitor. Vemurafenib has been approved for the tr...

Herein we describe fluorescent derivatives of vemurafenib to probe therapeutic BRAF inhibition in live cells and in vivo. The compounds were evaluated and compared by determining target binding, inhibition of mutant BRAF melanoma cell lines and live cell imaging. We show that vemurafenib-BODIPY is a superior imaging drug to visualize the targets of vemurafenib in live cells and in vivo in non-r...

Clinical studies evaluating targeted BRAFV600E inhibitors in advanced thyroid cancer patients are currently underway. Vemurafenib (BRAFV600E inhibitor) monotherapy has shown promising results thus far, although development of resistance is a clinical challenge. The objective of this study was to characterize development of resistance to BRAFV600E inhibition and to identify targets for effective...

INTRODUCTION The use of orally available BRAF kinase inhibitor - vemurafenib is associated with numerous adverse skin reactions. AIM To assess the safety and early side effects of vemurafenib treatment in the unselected group of patients treated at the outpatient clinic, in particular the assessment of the incidence of skin cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS We carried out a systematic study of p...

The discovery of BRAF mutations in the majority of patients with metastatic melanoma combined with the identification of highly selective BRAF inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. The first highly specific BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib, began clinical testing in 2008 and moved towards a rapid approval in 2011. Vemurafenib induced responses in ~50% of ...

Treatment options for advanced metastatic thyroid cancer patients are limited. Vemurafenib, a BRAFV600E inhibitor, has shown promise in clinical trials although cellular resistance occurs. Combination therapy that includes BRAFV600E inhibition and avoids resistance is a clinical need. We used an in vitro model to examine combination treatment with vemurafenib and mammalian target of rapamycin (...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved vemurafenib for the treatment of BRAF valine in exon 15, at codon 600 (V600E) mutant metastatic melanoma. Vemurafenib is a competitive small-molecule serine-threonine kinase inhibitor that functions by binding to the ATP-binding domain of mutant BRAF. Compared with dacarbazine chemotherapy, vemurafenib significantly improved the 6-month ov...