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Next-generation lung cancer drugs can be very effective, but within a period of about one year, patients develop resistance to treatment.
Researchers at the Israeli Weizmann Institute conducted a study using a new combination of existing drugs. help crush the potential resistance to treatment in mice.
Their results were published recently in the journal Clinical Cancer Research .
The study looked at a subtype of lung cancer caused by a mutation in a gene called EGFR, responsible for about 12 percent of cases.
Patients with the EGFR mutation may be helped by kinase inhibitors, which block the mutation, preventing the EGFR from generating a signal for an uncontrolled division. These drugs work much better than chemotherapy, but in 10 to 14 months, many patients develop a secondary mutation of EGFR causing the recurrence of their tumors.
In 2015, a new kinase inhibitor, Tagrisso, was approved to block this second mutation. However, in 10 to 14 months a third mutation or other alterations appear in the EGFR gene, causing another relapse.
"This is of course a nightmare for patients, their families and doctors," said Professor Yosef Yarden. the Weizmann Biological Regulatory Department. "We have now developed a new approach that works on mice and can help relieve this frustrating situation if our method proves effective in humans."
In collaboration with the doctors of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Yarden Tagrisso's team, with a drug that blocks the EGFR on the cell surface and a drug that blocks the HER2 receptor, to mice implanted with human lung cancer cells.
This combined triple therapy resulted in substantial narrowing of tumors in mice. The tumors did not grow back until the mice received the treatment.
"If confirmed in humans, the new combination therapy can help prolong the lives of thousands of lung cancer patients who are currently developing resistance to kinase inhibitors."
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