Ripretinib

Key takeaways

Ripretinib belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ripretinib to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ripretinib from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ripretinib, sold under the brand name Qinlock, is a medication for the treatment of adults with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a type of tumor that originates in the gastrointestinal tract. It is taken by mouth. Ripretinib inhibits the activity of the kinases KIT and PDGFRA, which helps keep cancer cells from growing. The most common side effects include alopecia (hair loss), fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain, constipation, myalgia (muscle pain), diarrhea, decreased appetite, palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia syndrome (a skin reaction in the palms and soles) and vomiting. Ripretinib was approved for medical use in the United States in May 2020, in Australia in July 2020, and in the European Union in November 2021. Ripretinib is the first new drug specifically approved in the United States as a fourth-line treatment for advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST).

Medical uses Ripretinib is indicated for the treatment of adults with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a type of tumor that originates in the gastrointestinal tract, who have received prior treatment with three or more kinase inhibitor therapies, including imatinib. GIST is type of stomach, bowel, or esophagus tumor.

Adverse effects The most common side effects include alopecia (hair loss), fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain, constipation, myalgia (muscle pain), diarrhea, decreased appetite, palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia syndrome (a skin reaction in the palms and soles) and vomiting. Ripretinib can also cause serious side effects including skin cancer, hypertension (high blood pressure) and cardiac dysfunction manifested as ejection fraction decrease (when the muscle of the left ventricle of the heart is not pumping as well as normal). Ripretinib may cause harm to a developing fetus or a newborn baby.

History Ripretinib was approved for medical use in the United States in May 2020. The approval of ripretinib was based on the results of an international, multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial (INVICTUS/NCT03353753) that enrolled 129 participants with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) who had received prior treatment with imatinib, sunitinib, and regorafenib. The trial compared participants who were randomized to receive ripretinib to participants who were randomized to receive placebo, to determine whether progression free survival (PFS) – the time from initial treatment in the clinical trial to growth of the cancer or death – was longer in the ripretinib group compared to the placebo group. During treatment in the trial, participants received ripretinib 150 mg or placebo once a day in 28-day cycles, repeated until tumor growth was found (disease progression), or the participant experienced intolerable side effects. After disease progression, participants who were randomized to placebo were given the option of switching to ripretinib. The trial was conducted at 29 sites in the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The major efficacy outcome measure was progression-free survival (PFS) based on assessment by blinded independent central review (BICR) using modified RECIST 1.1 in which lymph nodes and bone lesions were not target lesions and a progressively growing new tumor nodule within a pre-existing tumor mass must meet specific criteria to be considered unequivocal evidence of progression. Additional efficacy outcome measures included overall response rate (ORR) by BICR and overall survival (OS). The trial demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in PFS for participants in the ripretinib arm compared with those in the placebo arm (HR 0.15; 95% CI: 0.09, 0.25; p<0.0001). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the application for ripretinib priority review and fast track designations, as well as breakthrough therapy designation and orphan drug designation. The FDA granted approval of Qinlock to Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Society and culture

Legal status Ripretinib was approved for medical use in the United States in May 2020, and in Australia in July 2020. In September 2021, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a marketing authorization for the medicinal product Qinlock, intended for the treatment of advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) in people who have received prior treatment with three or more kinase inhibitors. The applicant for this medicinal product is Deciphera Pharmaceuticals (Netherlands) B.V. Ripretinib was approved for medical use in the European Union in November 2021.

Names Ripretinib is the International nonproprietary name (INN) and the United States Adopted Name (USAN).

References

Further reading Schneeweiss M, Peter B, Bibi S, Eisenwort G, Smiljkovic D, Blatt K, et al. (May 2018). "The KIT and PDGFRA switch-control inhibitor DCC-2618 blocks growth and survival of multiple neoplastic cell types in advanced mastocytosis". Haematologica. 103 (5): 799–809. doi:10.3324/haematol.2017.179895. PMC 5927976. PMID 29439183.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: overridden setting (link)

External links "Ripretinib". NCI Drug Dictionary. National Cancer Institute. "Ripretinib". National Cancer Institute. 27 May 2020. Clinical trial number NCT03353753 for "Phase 3 Study of DCC-2618 vs Placebo in Advanced GIST Patients Who Have Been Treated With Prior Anticancer Therapies (invictus)" at ClinicalTrials.gov

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ripretinib

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ripretinib claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ripretinib before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ripretinib ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ripretinib

In research: Ripretinib appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ripretinib in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ripretinib is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Antineoplastic drugs, Cancer treatments, Orphan drugs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ripretinib outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Ripretinib in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ripretinib means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ripretinib out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ripretinib in simple terms?

Ripretinib, sold under the brand name Qinlock, is a medication for the treatment of adults with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), a type of tumor that originates in the gastrointestinal tract. It is taken by mouth.

Why does Ripretinib matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ripretinib?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ripretinib.