NSCLC Drug Targets Acquire New Visibility

Extract

For researchers studying drug targets in non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), 2010 was a very good year.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommended, for the first time, that oncologists test their NSCLC patients for EGFR mutations and treat those testing positive with erlotinib (Tarceva). In June, the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting featured a phase I/II trial of a newer targeted NSCLC drug, crizotinib, which the New England Journal of Medicine later published. And in October, at the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), sessions focused on major trials with erlotinib and gefitinib (Iressa), both targeted at EGFR mutations, as well as newer agents targeting MET, HER2, and other genes with mutated versions that appear to drive the development of NSCLC.

The reports allowed researchers to savor progress and pronounce hope for targeted therapies in NSCLC, a cancer that has not responded markedly to traditional chemotherapies.