Reviews on recent clinical trials
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Rev Recent Clin Trials · Jan 2006
ReviewEpidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) targeted therapies in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
The Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) family, including EGFR, HER2, HER3, and HER4, is implicated in the development and progression of cancer, and is expressed in many human epithelial malignancies, including Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). Several molecules were synthesized to inhibit the extracellular domain of EGFR, such as cetuximab (Erbitux), the extracellular domain of HER2, such as trastuzumab (Herceptin) or the EGFR tyrosine kinase domain, such as gefitinib (Iressa) and erlotinib (Tarceva). Gefitinib and erlotinib are orally active, selective EGFR tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKI) that produce objective response rates in about 10% of advanced NSCLC. ⋯ In NSCLC, trastuzumab produced disappointing results when combined with chemotherapy, but probably patients were not properly selected. Recent findings in gefitinib treated patients support HER2 analysis by fluorescence in situ hybridization as a complementary test for selection of patient candidate for EGFR targeted therapies. Combination of EGFR targeting agents with other biological drugs is under investigation.