Emerging treatments and combinations in the management of NSCLC: clinical potential of nintedanib

There remains an unmet need for effective, well-tolerated treatment options in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to alleviate the disease burden for a broad selection of patients. Nintedanib is a potent, oral, triple angiokinase inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, and platelet-derived growth factor, and was recently approved in Europe for use in combination with docetaxel for the treatment of adults with locally advanced, metastatic, or locally recurrent NSCLC of adenocarcinoma tumor histology, following first-line chemotherapy. Nintedanib has been investigated extensively in preclinical research and in a number of clinical studies, the most important of which was the Phase III LUME-Lung 1 study, which investigated nintedanib in combination with docetaxel in patients with advanced NSCLC after failure of first-line chemotherapy. In this study, which led to the approval of nintedanib, addition of nintedanib to docetaxel significantly improved overall survival in patients with adenocarcinoma histology. Nintedanib demonstrated a manageable safety profile in combination with docetaxel. This review focuses on the clinical experience with nintedanib in NSCLC and discusses the clinical potential of this agent for use in combination with chemotherapy.