Fighting Cancer Drug Resistance: Opportunities and Challenges for Mutation-Specific EGFR Inhibitors

Multiple mutations in the EGFR gene are a major cause for the failure of Erlotinib and Gefitinib in the treatment of patients harboring non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who initially responded to this therapy. The development of these tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are going back to the early 90's, where cancer was widely considered and fully treated as an organ disease. Fundamental gain of knowledge in cell biology in general and cancer genetics in particular led us to where we currently stand: cancer is a disease that originates in the genome.

Source: Drug Resistance Updates - May 12, 2015 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Michael Juchum, Marcel Guenther, Stefan A. Laufer Source Type: research