biology

Vatalanib

Vatalanib is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Vatalanib rather than just read about it. In short: Vatalanib (INN, codenamed PTK787 or PTK/ZK) is a small molecule protein kinase inhibitor that inhibits angiogenesis. It is being studied as a possible treatment for several types of cancer, particularly cancer that is at an advanced stage or has not responded to chemotherapy.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Vatalanib (INN, codenamed PTK787 or PTK/ZK) is a small molecule protein kinase inhibitor that inhibits angiogenesis. It is being studied as a possible treatment for several types of cancer, particularly cancer that is at an advanced stage or has not responded to chemotherapy. Vatalanib is orally active, meaning it is effective when taken by mouth. Vatalanib is being developed by Bayer Schering Pharma and Novartis. It inhibits all known VEGF receptors, as well as platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta and c-kit, but is most selective for VEGFR-2.

Development Vatalanib was discovered through high-throughput screening. It has been extensively investigated in Phase I, II and III clinical trials. Two large, randomized controlled Phase III trials have studied the effect of adding vatalanib to the FOLFOX chemotherapy regimen in people with metastatic colorectal cancer: CONFIRM-1, whose participants had not yet received any treatment for their cancer; and CONFIRM-2, in which participants had received first-line treatment with irinotecan and fluoropyrimidines. Vatalanib produced no significant improvement in overall survival (the primary endpoint of the studies), although it did significantly increase progression-free survival in CONFIRM-2. Both trials found that progression-free survival was improved in people with high levels of lactate dehydrogenase, an enzyme used as a marker of tissue breakdown; the reasons for and implications of this difference are still unclear.

Adverse effects The adverse effects of vatalanib appear similar to those of other VEGF inhibitors. In the CONFIRM trials, the most common side effects were high blood pressure, gastrointestinal upset (diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting), fatigue, and dizziness.

Notable users Patrick Swayze, a popular actor in the 1980s who starred in such films as Dirty Dancing and Road House was given this drug when he was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer in 2008. Doctors hoped the drug would cut off blood supply to the tumor. Despite this, Swayze died on September 14, 2009, 20 months after being diagnosed.

References

External links Ongoing and completed clinical trials of vatalanib at ClinicalTrials.gov (U.S. National Institutes of Health)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Vatalanib

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Vatalanib claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, 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 Vatalanib 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 Vatalanib 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 Vatalanib

In research: Vatalanib appears in biology 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 Vatalanib 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: Vatalanib is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Angiogenesis inhibitors, Drugs not assigned an ATC code, Experimental cancer drugs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Vatalanib 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.

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How to study Vatalanib in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Vatalanib 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 Vatalanib out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Vatalanib in simple terms?

Why does Vatalanib matter?

Because it connects several biology 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 Vatalanib?

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 Vatalanib.