Study Suggests Potential For Bristol Leukemia Drug For Lung Cancer
58 minutes ago Dow Jones
By Jennifer Corbett Dooren
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
ORLANDO, Fla. (Dow Jones)--Researchers have identified a mutation in a gene in some patients with squamous cell lung cancer that appears to respond to Sprycel, a Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) drug.
According to a study, scheduled to be published in a new cancer journal called Cancer Discovery, researchers found mutations in a gene called DDR2 among some patients with squamous cell lung cancer. That type of cancer affects about 50,000 people annually in the U.S. and researchers said there are no approved therapies that specifically target that type of lung cancer.
The research was led by Matthew Meyerson, a professor of pathology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Meyerson and his colleagues looked at about 290 samples of squamous lung tumors and ran them through genetic sequencing tests to look at the genes and any mutations of those genes in each tumor. They found that the DDR2 gene was the most frequently mutated in the samples. However, the mutation is rare and occurred in just 11 samples or 3.8%.
Meyerson estimates that DDR2 mutations would be present in 1,000 to 2,000 lung cancers in the U.S.
Researchers then tested some drugs against the tumors with the DDR2 mutations in the laboratory and found that Sprycel appeared to be the most effective.
"As a percentage of the millions of people who get cancer each year it is small, but cancer therapy is going more in the direction of personalized medicine as we learn more and more about the complicated biology of each tumor," Meyerson said.
The study is also being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting.
Because Sprycel is already approved for use to treat cancer, researchers said they hoped the findings would stimulate larger clinical studies into whether Sprycel or a similar drug might work to treat some types of squamous cell cancer.
Sarah Koenig, a spokeswoman for Bristol-Myers said, "We will review these data, but I wouldn't want to speculate about future development plans for Sprycel and lung cancer."
Sprycel is in a class of medicines called protein-tyrosine kinase inhibitors. It works by blocking the action of an abnormal protein that signals cancer cells to multiply. Another drug in the class, Tasigna, is marketed by Novartis AG (NVS).
-By Jennifer Corbett Dooren, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-9294; jennifer.corbett@dowjones.com
