New breast cancer drug defeats the Ras genes notorious for causing many types of cancer
Virginia Commonwealth University
This attachment permanently blocks the function of the receptors, causing the cell to target them for degradation. We thought, ‘if neratinib can take down c-MET even though it doesn’t attach to it, maybe it can take down other membrane proteins.’ In addition to the afatinib-resistant NSCLC cells, the researchers tested the neratinib and valproic acid combination on cell lines derived from human pancreatic and ovarian cancers containing K-Ras mutations and N-Ras mutations, respectively. As he works to better understand the biology of neratinib-induced Ras inhibition, Dent hopes his laboratory findings can be validated in clinical trials testing a combination of neratinib and valproic acid in patients with afatinib-resistant NSCLC. In addition, the study uncovered other exciting clinical possibilities for neratinib.