Eribulin, sold under the brand name Halaven, is an anticancer medication used to treat breast cancer and liposarcoma.The most common side effects include fatigue, nausea, hair loss (alopecia), constipation, certain nerve damage causing weakness or numbness in the hands and feet (peripheral neuropathy), abdominal pain and fever (pyrexia). Eribulin may also cause low levels of infection-fighting white blood cells (neutropenia) or decreased levels of potassium or calcium. Approvals and indications
Eribulin was approved for medical use in the European Union in March 2011, and it is indicated for the treatment of:

people with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have progressed after at least one chemotherapeutic regimens for advanced disease. Prior therapy should have included an anthracycline and a taxane unless the people were not suitable for these treatments. adults with unresectable liposarcoma who have received prior anthracycline containing therapy (unless unsuitable) for advanced or metastatic disease. Breast cancer
The mesylate salt was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on November 15, 2010, with an indication to treat people with metastatic breast cancer who have received at least two prior chemotherapy regimens for late-stage disease, including both anthracycline- and taxane-based chemotherapies. It was approved by Health Canada on December 14, 2011, with an indication for the treatment of people with metastatic breast cancer who have previously received at least two chemotherapeutic regimens for the treatment of metastatic disease.
In addition to its cytotoxic, antimitotic-based mechanisms, preclinical studies in human breast cancer models have shown that eribulin also exerts complex effects on the biology of surviving cancer cells and residual tumors that appear unrelated to its antimitotic effects. These non-mitotic mechanisms include vascular remodeling that leads to increased tumor perfusion and mitigation of tumor hypoxia, phenotypic changes consistent with reversal of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and decreased capacity for migration and invasion leading to reduced metastatic capacity as measured in a preclinical experimental metastasis model. In other studies, eribulin treatment of leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma cells leads to increased expression of smooth muscle and adipocyte differentiation antigens, respectively. Taxane-resistant cancers are often unresponsive to eribulin. A recent study found that this resistance is due to expression of multidrug resistance protein 1 (MDR1). Fluorescently labeled eribulin has been used to study the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics at single cell level in vivo.The synthesis of eribulin was first published in 2001; a new synthetic route to the drug was published in 2009. Clinical trials
Eribulin is being investigated for use in a variety of other solid tumors, including breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, prostate cancer, brain cancer, cervical cancer, urothelial cancer, melanoma, solitary fibrous tumors, and various sarcomas. Research and development
Two new eribulin based products are in the research and development phase; a liposomal formulation and antibody drug combination therapy, both are for the treatment of solid tumors. The liposomal formulation of eribulin, E7389 liposomal, is currently in Phase I clinical trials.