Pralatrexate - from bench to bedside.

: Pralatrexate (PDX, 10-propargyl 10-deazaaminopterin) is an exciting new chemotherapeutic agent with promising activity in T-cell lymphomas and non-small cell lung cancer. It has been granted approval by the Food and Drug administration (FDA) for use in the treatment of relapsed and refractory peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL). Pralatrexate belongs to a class of antineoplastic agents known as antifolates that also include methotrexate, pemetrexed and ralitrexed. Pralatrexate was rationally designed to have high affinity for the one carbon-reduced folate carrier (RFC-1) which leads to better cellular internalization of the drug and a greater antitumor effect than methotrexate. The following monograph is a story of the development of this drug in a systematic fashion from the bench to the bedside.