Afatinib A Potent Option for NRG1+ cancer Treatment

Release Date: 30-Sep-2019

A recent study confirmed that Afatinib (Gilotrif) has a potential for the treatment of patients with NRG1-positive tumors across multiple cancer types. The study is presented at the ESMO 2019 Congress and it is presented by Stephen Liu, MD, and colleagues. They present their findings by describing a series of 7 pretreated patients with NRG1-positive tumors who were treated with Afatinib. The degree of success mauy vary, which depends upon the condition of patient.

The fusion of NRG1 results in the constitutive activation of the HER3/HER4 pathway, which in turn, leads to activation of the PI3 kinase and the MAP kinase pathways. This will affects the normal cell cycle of cancer cells and results in increasing cell proliferation, survival, and growth.

According to the researcher Stephen Lui, the agentsgents such as afatinib that target HER3/HER4 would be agents that could have efficacy in the presence of an NRG1 fusion. This series shows us that when you block the HER pathway with a drug like afatinib in the presence of an NRG1 fusion, you can induce responses and in some cases, durable responses.

Stephen also added that, there are several drugs such as monoclonal antibodies and bispecific antibodies, which affects the target NRG1 fusions. In future, many trials with afatinib in patients with NRG1-positive tumors are expected and some of them are ongoing. Some of the others drugs are about to be launched. One prospective study is ongoing in the Drug Rediscovery Protocol trial. One soon to be launched is through the Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR).