The most promising results to date were seen in patients with tumor abnormalities linked to a protein called HER2.
Early results from a clinical trial of Roche Holding AG cancer drugs released on Saturday, June 4, suggest some promise in matching treatments based on abnormalities found in a patient's tumor rather than the organ in which the cancer was originally detected.
The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
in Chicago, showed that 29 out of 129 patients with 12 different types
of advanced cancers responded to drugs targeting genetically driven
abnormalities.
The drugs were administered outside
of indications currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration, which generally reviews drugs using studies based on the
type of organ where the cancer was found.
The trial, which received funding from Roche's Genentech unit, is designed to eventually enroll up to 500 patients.
The most promising results to date were seen in patients with tumor abnormalities linked to a protein called HER2.
Seven
of 20 patients with colorectal cancer, three of eight with bladder
cancer, and three of six with biliary cancer saw tumor shrinkage of 30
percent or more after treatment with a combination of Roche drugs
Herceptin and Perjeta, which target HER2 and are typically used to treat
breast cancer.
The researchers said the trial
will expand those groups of patients, as well as a separate group with
BRAF mutations in lung cancer who were treated with Zelboraf, which is
approved for melanoma.
"With genomic testing
of tumors becoming increasingly available, studies such as ours will
help more patients benefit from precision medicine approaches," lead
study author Dr John Hainsworth, senior investigator at Sarah Cannon
Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, said in a statement.
The
study also included Roche's Everidge, a basal cell carcinoma drug that
targets the a cancer-related signaling pathway known as Hedgehog and
Tarceva, a lung cancer drug that targets a cell-surface receptor known
as epidermal growth factor, or EGFR.
Such
targeted drugs are seen as a type of personalized medical therapy
designed to treat cancer by interrupting unique molecular abnormalities
that drive cancer growth. The targeted drugs are designed to interfere
with a specific biochemical pathway central to the development, growth,
and spread of that particular cancer.
During the trial, 14 patients who initially responded to treatment saw their cancer eventually worsen.
The
researchers said they plan to study other drugs, including Roche's
Cotellic, an MEK inhibitor, currently approved for advanced melanoma.
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