[Gemcitabine: from preclinic to clinic passing by pharmacokinetics]

Gemcitabine or Gemzar forms part of the class of the anti-cancer drugs antimetabolites. Gemcitabine is a structural analogue of the deoxycytidine with 2 fluorine atoms. There is a strong analogy between gemcitabine and cytosine arabinoside (Aracytine or Depocyt), at the same time structural, mechanistic and metabolic. However, if the intracellular derivatives triphosphate of gemcitabine seem more stable than those of the cytarabine, the two molecules move away from share their therapeutic activity. Indeed, if the cytosine arabinoside finds its place in the treatment of hematologic diseases, myeloblastic or lymphoblastic acute leukaemia and in acute myeloid leukaemias and myelodysplasy, gemcitabine sees its indications in the treatment of solid tumours such as non small cell lung cancer, adenocarcinoma of the pancreas, cancer of the bladder and metastatic breast cancer.