New drugs may help treat a variety of mutant cancers

new cancer drug that targets a common specific genetic abnormality shows some potential in mouse and human tumor studies. The paper was published recently in Nature. The study also includes the first known reports of the use of KRAS inhibitor therapy in human clinical trials.
Among many cancer genes, the RAS gene family has the highest probability of mutation, with KRAS, as the main subtype in the RAS gene family, promoting a variety of fatal tumors in humans, such as about 13 percent of lung adenocarcinomas, 3 percent of colorectal cancers, and 2 percent of other solid tumors that contain KRAS mutations.
Jude Canon of Amgen, California, and colleagues reported on the development of an anti-cancer drug called AMG 510, which works by inhibiting KRAS activity.
in mouse models of KRAS mutated cancer, the new treatment shrunk the growing tumor and, in some cases, eradicated it. The researchers also reported a positive response to treatment in two patients with KRAS mutant tumors in a dose-increment study. After six weeks of treatment, the tumors in the two patients shrunk by 34% and 67%, respectively. This is the first report of a cancer patient responding to a direct mutation-selective KRAS inhibitor.
models of mice with colorectal cancer showed that the treatment also created an inflammatory micro-environment around the tumor. This makes tumors more sensitive to other cancer drugs, produces adaptive immune responses, and achieves lasting results. The results show that the drug can work well whether used alone or in combination with other anticancer therapies. (Source: Lu Yi, China Science Daily)