Scientists looking for second-line defense for patients with NSCLC

DENVER- In lung cancer, patients who benefit from drugs like erlotinib will inevitably develop drug resistance. This is heralded by cancer growth and increasing tumor-related symptoms. Now scientists are investigating a second line of defense by studying the use of the novel AKT inhibitor MK-2206 in combination with erlotinib for patients whose benefit from erlotinib has begun to wane. Results of a Phase II trial will be presented during the 5th Latin American Conference on Lung Cancer.

Dr. Primo Lara, medical oncologist and professor of medicine at the University of California Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center in Sacramento, U.S.A, will share the latest on this research at an abstract session Friday, July 27 at 8 a.m. in the Louvre I & II rooms at the Windsor Barra Hotel.

Dr. Lara will present the initial efficacy and toxicity analysis of a stratified phase II trial of MK2206 plus erlotinib in two patient cohorts: those tumors with or without activating EGFR mutations. The trial, sponsored by the US National Cancer Institute through the California Cancer Consortium, has enrolled 42 patients with advanced NSCLC who have had prior benefit from erlotinib (either response or stable disease for at least 12 weeks) but have since progressed.