New study helps predict which lung cancer drugs are most likely to work
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 - 15:01
in Health & Medicine
(Medical Xpress) -- Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that DNA changes in a gene that drives the growth of a form of lung cancer can make the cancers cells resistant to cancer drugs. The findings show that some classes of drugs wont work, and certain types of so-called kinase inhibitors like erlotinibmay be the most effective at treating non-small cell lung cancers with those DNA changes. Some kinase inhibitors block a protein known as EGFR from directing cells to multiply.