Ten-Gram-Scale Total Synthesis of the Anticancer Drug Candidate E7130 to Supply Clinical Trials.

E7130 is a novel drug candidate with an exceedingly complex chemical structure of the halichondrin class, discovered by a total synthesis approach through joint research between the Kishi group at Harvard University and Eisai. Only 18 months after completion of the initial milligram-scale synthesis, ten-gram-scale synthesis of E7130 was achieved, providing the first good manufacturing practice (GMP) batch to supply clinical trials. This paper highlights the challenges in developing ten-gram-scale synthesis from the milligram-scale synthesis.

Catalytic asymmetric synthesis of chiral tertiary organoboronic esters through conjugate boration of beta-substituted cyclic enones.

The first catalytic enantioselective conjugate boration of beta-substituted cyclic enones was developed to produce enantiomerically enriched tertiary organoboronates. The optimized asymmetric catalyst includes a QuinoxP*-CuO(t)Bu complex generated from CuPF(6)(CH(3)CN)(4) and LiO(t)Bu. In situ generated LiPF(6) significantly increased product yield. The enantioselectivity, however, was almost constant irrespective of the alkali metal used (Li, Na, or K). Moreover, a protic additive, which was essential in the previous Cu-catalyzed enantioselective boration to linear beta-monosubstituted substrates (Yun's reaction), was not necessary. The substrate scope was broad, and high to excellent enantioselectivity was produced using both beta-aromatic and aliphatic (linear and branched)-substituted cyclic enones with five-, six-, and seven-membered ring sizes. Due to the synthetic versatility of organoboron compounds, a variety of new chiral building blocks containing a chiral tetrasubstituted carbon was synthesized based on this methodology. Specifically, a one-pot three-component reaction from alpha,beta-substituted cyclic enone, bis(pinacolato)diboron (PinB-BPin: 2), and an aldehyde proceeded with a high level of enantio- and diastereocontrol. These chiral building blocks are difficult to access using other methods.

Computerized estimation of patient setup errors in portal images based on localized pelvic templates for prostate cancer radiotherapy.

We have developed a computerized method for estimating patient setup errors in portal images based on localized pelvic templates for prostate cancer radiotherapy. The patient setup errors were estimated based on a template-matching technique that compared the portal image and a localized pelvic template image with a clinical target volume produced from a digitally reconstructed radiography (DRR) image of each patient. We evaluated the proposed method by calculating the residual error between the patient setup error obtained by the proposed method and the gold standard setup error determined by consensus between two radiation oncologists. Eleven training cases with prostate cancer were used for development of the proposed method, and then we applied the method to 10 test cases as a validation test. As a result, the residual errors in the anterior-posterior, superior-inferior and left-right directions were smaller than 2 mm for the validation test. The mean residual error was 2.65 ± 1.21 mm in the Euclidean distance for training cases, and 3.10 ± 1.49 mm for the validation test. There was no statistically significant difference in the residual error between the test for training cases and the validation test (P = 0.438). The proposed method appears to be robust for detecting patient setup error in the treatment of prostate cancer radiotherapy.