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July 15, 2019 – 12:11
PanARMENIAN.Net – Chemotherapy treatment for people who have advanced bowel cancer and a particular genetic mutation is generally ineffective. According to Medical News Today, a combination of three different drugs could be the key to improved treatment.
The outlook for people with a standard bowel cancer – also called colorectal cancer – and those with an advanced form of the disease can be very different.
While more than half of the former tend to survive bowel cancer for 10 years or more, the prospects for the second may be just a few months if the cancer involves a specific gene mutation.
The BRAF gene is responsible for producing a protein that transmits signals and supports cell growth. But a particular change in this gene – the BRAF V600E mutation – can accelerate the spread and growth of some cancer cells.
Up to 15% of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) carry the BRAF V600E mutation. Treating this form of cancer is difficult because it can be aggressive and tends not to respond to combined treatments involving chemotherapy.
Now, a new study has tested a combination of targeted therapies without chemotherapy. Researchers call this test the BEACON CRC Phase III trial.
Their study appears in the Annals of Oncology and at the 2018 ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer.
A mixture of three drugs – two targeting cancer cells and one inhibiting the BRAF gene – was badyzed on a number of individuals who did not respond to one or two previous treatment regimens.
There were 665 participants in total. The researchers administered the following three drugs: encorafenib, cetuximab and binimetinib. Others received dual therapy with encorafenib, BRAF inhibitor, and cetuximab, cancer treatment.
A third group received the choice of irinotecan, a chemotherapy drug, folinic acid, fluorouracil and irinotecan (FOLFIRI) and cetuximab.
"Colorectal cancer does not respond to BRAF therapy alone because tumor cells adapt by other mechanisms after initial treatment," says Dr. Scott Kopetz, author of the MD study. Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas at Houston.
"With this triple targeted therapy, we are using a very scientifically logical combination to inhibit BRAF and these other mechanisms."
The focus was on triple therapy, which proved to be the most effective option. While standard treatment gave a general survival rate of 5.4 months, the combination of three drugs gave a median survival rate of 9 months.
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