Title:Tebentafusp as a Promising Drug for the Treatment of Uveal Melanoma
Volume: 25
Issue: 3
Author(s): Khalid Al Balushi, Abdulrahman Al Hadhrami, Hamdan Al Balushi, Abdullah Al Lawati and Srijit Das*
Affiliation:
- Department
of Human & Clinical Anatomy, College of Medicine & Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al Khoud, Muscat
123, Sultanate of Oman
Keywords:
Uveal melanoma, etiology, malignant, tumor, treatment, drug, tebentafusp.
Abstract: Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular malignancy in adults
and commonly occurs in the Caucasian population. The malignancy involves the uvea of the eye,
which includes the iris, ciliary body, and choroid. The etiology of UM is still not well understood,
but age is a risk factor. Symptoms include blurred vision, redness of the eye, floaters, dark spots, a
change in the size of the pupil, and loss of vision. The location, shape, and size of the tumor are
important for therapeutic purposes. Treating metastasis is always a challenge in UM cases. In cases
of lung metastasis, the survival rate decreases. Treatment includes surgery, laser therapy, immunotherapy,
hormone therapy, and chemotherapy. Recently, in 2022, the United States Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug tebentafusp. Tebentafusp was developed to target
the most common HLA complex in humans. The present review discusses the indications for the
use of a new drug tebentafusp, its mechanism of action, dose, pharmacokinetics, results of clinical
trials conducted, and adverse effects like cytokine release syndrome. Hence, tebentafusp is the
first T cell receptor (TCR) therapeutic drug that could be considered for the treatment of UM.
