SK CANCER BASKET STUDY REPORT

#AACR17: Basket Trial for Experimental Drug Shows Promising Early Results

First, at this week's #AACR17 press conference: David Hyman, MD, from @sloan_kettering presented data from a phase II basket trial.

I'm going to quote heavily here from the article's intro to the story of SUMMIT phase 2 study.:

"Neratinib,  an experimental drug developed to target certain mutations that drive cancer growth, is showing promise for treating several types of cancer. The findings from a phase II study were presented at the 2017 AACR Annual Meeting."

" Basket trials are based on the idea that cancers originating in different parts of the body may carry the same genetic mutations.

Neratinib, the drug in this study, targets mutations in a protein called HER2. 

Researchers think the drug will work even better if it’s combined with other therapies".

(Not the same HER2 we've been thinking of in breast cancer.)

Breast Cancer, cervical cancer, and biliary cancer showed the best results - some tumors shrunk, some stopped growing.  Which leads us to a story from Dr. Robin Gillespie, a scientist who has taken the drug for two years!

After chemo and having a lung removed, she had no other conventional choices.  She was tested for mutations that might qualify her for a clinical trial, she came to SK. 

Metastatic since 2011:

Her tumors have stopped growingShe has almost no side effectsShe can take the medicine as pills You might enjoy her study - and have a look at the whole article.
I wish you health.

https://www.mskcc.org/blog/aacr17-novel-trial-experimental-drug-shows-promising-early-results?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Organic&utm_campaign=040217PhotoAACRHyman&utm_content=Research&sf67394656=1

NEW WAY TO STUDY CANCER DRUGS - Will BC be in Sloan Kettering basket studies soon?

I had never heard of basket studies until I ran into them on Sloan Kettering twitter.See twitter November 4    and click for basket studies and Sloan Kettering. I checked today (Nov 15 already.. It's still available)

Basket studies are very new.  This is the quick description I got from the Thursday, August 20, article on the MSKCC site;  https://www.mskcc.org/blog/clinical-trial-shows-promise-basket-studies-drugs:  

• Basket studies focus on a tumor’s gene mutation regardless of type. 

Or:  A clinical trial shows that a drug focused on a single genetic mutation can be effective across multiple cancer types — although blocking the mutation does not guarantee success.

Oncologist David Hyman put it in a way I might remember:  "what works in different tumor types."  

The twitter pictographs shows BC as included in the "basket,"

But the accompanying paragraph indicates other cancers as the ones getting help from the drug in the current clinical trial.

However, the pictograph makes me guess that BC may be in a future basket.  So we need to keep an eye on these basket studies.  .

This is one of many articles and trials that remind me of what Lisa Carey, MD, of Chapel Hill said in Hot Topics BC about some BC cells looking a lot like other cells.. 

I guess we stay tuned for more.  I wish you health.