carboplatin

Overview

Carboplatin is a platinum-based antineoplastic agent used in chemotherapy for a wide range of solid tumors. Like other platinum compounds, it exerts its anticancer effect primarily by forming DNA crosslinks, which interfere with DNA replication and transcription and ultimately promote cell death. Compared with cisplatin, carboplatin is generally considered less nephrotoxic and less emetogenic, although it remains associated with clinically important toxicities such as myelosuppression and hypersensitivity reactions.

In contemporary oncology, carboplatin is commonly used in combination regimens with agents such as paclitaxel, pemetrexed, gemcitabine, etoposide, and targeted or immune therapies including pembrolizumab, durvalumab, atezolizumab, amivantamab, and serplulimab. It is a standard backbone in treatment protocols for lung cancer, gynecologic malignancies, breast cancer, melanoma, and pediatric or rare tumors, and it also appears in veterinary oncology and experimental drug-delivery research.

Focus of Latest Publications

Recent publications investigate carboplatin across diverse therapeutic contexts, with the majority examining its use in combination with immunotherapies or targeted agents for non-small cell lung cancer. Phase III trials evaluated carboplatin-pemetrexed paired with checkpoint inhibitors, including atezolizumab (APPLE trial in nonsquamous disease), durvalumab (DUO-E trial in endometrial cancer), and the bispecific antibody amivantamab (ACROSS2 and PAPILLON trials in EGFR-mutated NSCLC with exon 20 insertions or concurrent tumor suppressor mutations). These regimens demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements in progression-free survival and response rates, though with varying tolerability. Carboplatin was also combined with serplulimab in a phase II neoadjuvant trial for resectable squamous NSCLC, and with pembrolizumab and paclitaxel in metastatic melanoma, with biomarker analyses revealing associations between peripheral immune signatures and clinical outcomes.

Neoadjuvant carboplatin-based chemotherapy continues to show promise across solid tumors. The combination of carboplatin, paclitaxel, and cetuximab (PCE) was evaluated as "bridging therapy" in locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma to prevent rapid tumor progression during preoperative periods. In resectable NSCLC, neoadjuvant atezolizumab combined with carboplatin and nab-paclitaxel achieved a 45% major pathologic response rate, including 25% complete pathological response, with all patients undergoing complete anatomical resection. Beyond pulmonary and head-and-neck malignancies, carboplatin with cabazitaxel and abiraterone was evaluated in high-volume metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

Unexpected neuroprotective activity emerged in preclinical and disease models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, where carboplatin alleviated transactive response DNA-binding protein (TDP)-43–induced astrocytic neurotoxicity by suppressing nuclear factor kappa B phosphorylation, restoring mitochondrial respiration and ATP production, and rescuing locomotor deficits in transgenic organisms without affecting TDP-43 protein levels. This finding suggests potential repurposing of carboplatin in TDP-43–associated proteinopathies. Simultaneously, multiple computational and materials science studies optimized carboplatin delivery through advanced platforms: magnesia-based carriers enabling synergistic drug activation and enhanced DNA-guanine targeting, functionalized calix[4]arene complexes responsive to external electric fields, and injectable modular microgels permitting temporally coordinated sequential release with other chemotherapeutics to overcome resistance.

Key Publications

• NEWJul Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy With Paclitaxel, Carboplatin, and Cetuximab for Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer. (Anticancer research, 2026, PMID 42373242): "This study evaluated the clinical and pathological responses to neoadjuvant paclitaxel, carboplatin, and cetuximab (PCE) therapy used as a "bridging therapy" to ensure safe transition to surgery."
• NEWJun Theoretical insights into the activation of carboplatin and its interaction with DNA bases on magnesia: synergistic drug delivery and magnesium supplementation. (Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP, 2026, PMID 42300117): "We employed first-principles calculations and molecular dynamics simulations to reveal atomic-scale mechanisms governing carboplatin interactions with magnesia (MgO) films."
• Jun Development of the Weight-Tiered Q3W Regimen of Amivantamab in Combination With Carboplatin-Pemetrexed in EGFR-Mutated Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. (CPT: pharmacometrics & systems pharmacology, 2026, PMID 42166539): "Here we present the population pharmacokinetics (PK) and exposure-response (E-R) analysis supporting this dose regimen change."
• Jun Carboplatin alleviates astrocytic TDP-43 neurotoxicity by inhibiting NF-κB activation. (European journal of pharmacology, 2026, PMID 42134762): "Therefore, in this study, we investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of the anti-cancer agent, carboplatin, on neuronal cells and its potential therapeutic effects against ALS."
• May Final overall survival analysis of the APPLE study: atezolizumab and platinum-pemetrexed with or without bevacizumab for metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer. (Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2026, PMID 42127535): "The phase III APPLE trial evaluated the efficacy of adding bevacizumab to atezolizumab with carboplatin plus pemetrexed (APP) for individuals with advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)."
• May Simplified perioperative serplulimab and chemotherapy for resectable squamous NSCLC: a phase II trial with biomarker analysis. (Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 2026, PMID 42114951): "This exploratory, phase II study investigated the feasibility and efficacy of a four-cycle perioperative regimen combining serplulimab with a taxane (paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel) and carboplatin in patients with resectable stage II-IIIA sq-NSCLC."
• Apr Neoadjuvant Atezolizumab and Chemotherapy for Non-Squamous Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Efficacy and Safety Results of an Open-Label, Single-Arm, Phase II Trial. (International journal of cancer, 2026, PMID 42003237): "This open-label, single-arm, prospective, monocentric trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of neoadjuvant atezolizumab plus carboplatin/nab-paclitaxel in patients with resectable non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer."
• Jun Carboplatin, Cabazitaxel, and Abiraterone in High-Volume Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer: The CASCARA Phase II Study. (Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 2026, PMID 41880596): "This multicenter, single-arm, phase II trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of cabazitaxel and carboplatin followed by abiraterone, plus androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), in patients with high-volume metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC)."
• May Tunable microgel modulars for temporally coordinated combination therapy. (Journal of controlled release : official journal of the Controlled Release Society, 2026, PMID 41846001): "(1) Sequential delivery of carboplatin followed by RSL3 overcame chemotherapy resistance, extending mouse survival by 10 days compared to conventional hydrogels."
• Apr Aumolertinib with carboplatin-pemetrexed versus aumolertinib for nonsmall cell lung cancer with EGFR and concomitant tumor suppressor genes (ACROSS2): An open-label, multicenter, randomized phase 3 study. (CA: a cancer journal for clinicians, 2026, PMID 41818162): "ACROSS2 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT04500717) is the first prospective, multicenter, randomized phase 3 study to compare the third-generation EGFR-TKI aumolertinib in combination with carboplatin-pemetrexed versus aumolertinib monotherapy in patients who had NSCLC with EGFR mutations and concomitant TSG mutations."