Chinese doctors achieve new results in overcoming cancer-targeted drug resistance

On August 31, the internationally renowned magazine "Clinical Oncology" released a research report on the prevention of cancer-targeted drug resistance led by Wu Yilong, the life director of the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital. This research results for the first time and confirmed the second type of EGFR gene mutation resistance - the treatment strategy of cMET amplification.

There are dozens of lung cancer driver genes known in the medical world, and EGFR gene mutations are one of them. Studies have shown that about 50% of Chinese patients with non-small cell lung cancer have EGFR gene mutations, and the corresponding targeted drug gefitinib has been approved for EGFR gene mutation.

However, due to the instability of cancer cell mutations, other mutations are likely to occur in cancer cells during treatment, and patients are susceptible to drug resistance using targeted drugs. Studies in 2007 have confirmed that 20% of EGFR gene mutations are overactive in gene non-mutation, a phenomenon known as amplification, cMET amplification.

The result of this research by Wu Yilong team first proposed a therapeutic strategy for the second type of EGFR resistance, cMET amplification, that is, the combination of the EGFR inhibitor gefitinib and the cMET inhibitor kamartinib.