Patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors were found to have specific mutations benefited the most from the tyrosine kinase inhibitor erlotinib (marketed under the trade name Tarceva), compared to those that didn't, according to newly published results from a sub-study of the SATURN trial.
The SATURN trial was a Phase III, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with 889 participants. Results demonstrated that erlotinib maintenance therapy prolonged PFS and overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced NSCLC who had non-progressive disease following induction treatment featuring platinum-based chemotherapy.
In this sub-study, researchers sought to uncover biomarkers that had prognostic or predictive value in non-small cell lung cancer. What they found was that mutations in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) had a predictive effect on progression free survival (PFS).
This prospective look tested tumor samples for EFGR protein expression with immunohistochemistry, EGFR gene copy number using fluorescent in situ hybridization, and EGFR and KRAS mutations using DNA sequencing.
The molecular drive to determine which patients will benefit most from which treatments by way of DNA sequencing is at the forefront of current anti-cancer therapy.
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