title: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, pancreatic hyperenzymemia and acute pancreatitis: a review.
abstract: The advent of new drugs can rapidly increase the number of substances causing acute pancreatitis. This is the case of tyrosine kinase inhibitors; these drugs are currently used for chronic myeloid leukemia, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, unresectable hepatocellular carcinomas and advanced renal cell carcinomas that and they have been reported to cause acute pancreatitis or asymptomatic elevations of serum pancreatic enzymes. Of the classes of drugs capable of inducing acute pancreatitis, we aimed to evaluate, in which class tyrosine kinase inhibitors can be allocated. A search was carried out using the MEDLINE database in order to select the data existing in the literature on pyrimidines and acute pancreatitis or serum lipase/amylase elevation covering the period from January 1966 to January 2010; thirteen papers were found and utilized for this review. Based on the data in the literature, we found that tyrosine kinase inhibitors may often cause an increase in pancreatic enzymes in plasma and patients treated with these drugs, especially those who are treated with sorafenib, might be at risk of developing acute pancreatitis. Whether acute pancreatitis due to tyrosine kinase inhibitors is associated only with sorafenib or may also be caused by other drugs of the same class remains an open question. Recent patents on tyrosine kinase inhibitors and acute pancreatitis are pointed out in this review.
authors.affiliation: Department of Digestive Diseases and Internal Medicine, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. raffaele.pezzilli@aosp.bo.it
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pezzilli
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fabbri
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Imbrogno
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Corinaldesi
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000681:Amylases / Q000097:blood; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D008049:Lipase / Q000097:blood; D010179:Pancreas / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000097:blood / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000201:enzymology; D010330:Patents as Topic; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D015415:Biomarkers; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D008049:Lipase; C518354:PNLIP protein, human; D000681:Amylases