A peek into the drug development scenario of endometriosis - A systematic review

Goenka L, Luxitaa Goenka, Melvin George, Maitrayee Sen, Sen M
Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie · 2017 · vol. 90 , pp. 575–585 · doi:10.1016/j.biopha.2017.03.092 · PMID:28407578 · W2606572014
Systematic review / meta-analysis OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 24 in-corpus citations
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This systematic review examines the current landscape of drug development for endometriosis, identifying key therapeutic targets and emerging treatment strategies.

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Abstract

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE: Endometriosis is a gynaecological disease that is characterised by the presence of endometrium like tissue-epithelium and stroma that develops outside the uterine cavity, which is responsible for pelvic pain and infertility. Even though several medical therapies exist for the treatment of endometriosis, each of the drug class has its own limitations such as cost of treatment, side-effects and its short-term effect on the symptoms of endometriosis. In this review, we have attempted to summarize the current status and challenges of drug development for endometriosis. METHODS: A systematic review was done and all the RCTs were selected from the identified hits. We included studies that explored the usage of therapeutic drugs on endometriosis patients from inception till November 2016. The search term used was 'Endometriosis' using PubMed and Clinicaltrials.gov. For the final analysis, 60 articles were analyzed and we identified the newly emerging drug therapies for endometriosis treatment and have briefed their current status and challenges in drug development for endometriosis. The quality of the selected studies was assessed based on the degree of bias. RESULTS: The current classes of drugs that have shown promising therapeutic results include Gonadotropin- releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists, aromatase inhibitors (AI), and selective progesterone and estrogen receptor modulators, dopamine receptor-2-agonists and statins. The drugs that failed midway during development include tanezumab, rosiglitazone, infliximab, pentoxifylline, telapristone acetate, asoprisnil and raloxifene. CONCLUSION: From the literature review, it appears that the most promising molecules for the treatment of endometriosis in the near future include elagolix, mifepristone, TAK-385, KLH-2109 and ASP1707 and cabergoline. It remains to be seen if these molecules would succeed large phase 3 clinical trials and overcome the regulatory hurdles to become an essential tool in the gynaecologist's armamentarium against endometriosis.

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Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Pharmaceutical Preparations Animals Animals Drug Discovery Drug Discovery Drug Discovery Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Female Humans Humans Pharmaceutical Preparations Pharmaceutical Preparations

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (89)

Cited by (26)

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