ixabepilone + hydroxychloroquine

This combination therapy involves ixabepilone, a microtubule-stabilizing agent, and hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug repurposed as an autophagy inhibitor. The rationale for this combination is that hydroxychloroquine inhibits autophagy, a cellular survival mechanism that cancer cells use to resist chemotherapy-induced stress, thereby sensitizing metastatic breast cancer cells to the cytotoxic effects of ixabepilone. This specific regimen was investigated in a Phase I/II trial (NCT00765765) sponsored by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey for patients with metastatic breast cancer who had previously received chemotherapy. Ixabepilone is an epothilone B analog that binds to tubulin to induce cell cycle arrest, while hydroxychloroquine acts as a lysosomotropic agent that prevents lysosomal acidification and autophagosome-lysosome fusion.

Brand names

IxempraPlaquenil

Other names

hydroxychloroquine sulfateixabepilone