Table 1.

Clinical trials targeting sustained proliferative signaling through growth factors.

Negative trials
Mechanism	Rationale	Drug	Trial design	Reference
EGFR inhibition	Activating EGFR mutations are rare but EGFR is over-expressed between 50% and 95% of patients [43,44]	Erlotinib	Phase II	[Garland et al. 2007]
			First line
		Gefitinib	Phase II	[Govindan et al. 2005]
			First line
PDGF inhibition	PDGF binds to PDGF receptor and induced mesothelial cell proliferation	Imatinib	Phase I	[Mathy et al. 2005]
			First line
			+platinum/ pemetrexed
		Dasatinib	Phase II	[Dudek et al. 2012]
			First-line
			+ Gemcitabine
Multi-receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors		Sorafenib	Phase II	[Dubey et al. 2010]
			Monotherapy
			Pretreated patients
		Sunitinib	Phase II	[Nowak et al. 2012]
			Monotherapy
			Pretreated patients
Upcoming trials
Mechanism	Rationale	Drug	Trial design	ClinicalTrials.gov identifier
IGF inhibition	IGF supports tumor cell growth and division	Cixutumumab	Phase II	NCT01160458
			Monotherapy
			Pretreated patients
EGFR inhibition		Cetuximab	Phase II	NCT00996567
			Monotherapy
			First-line + platinum/ pemetrexed

EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; IGF, insulin like growth factor; PDGF, platelet derived growth factor.