Scientists Spot Mechanism Behind Lung Cancer Drug Resistance

(Page 2)

This is a wholly new mechanism for lung cancer drug resistance, Janne said, and it is also "a mechanism that we can target with a specific drug. This is a potentially new and important therapy for these individuals." he said. According to Janne, similar mechanisms may also be at work in other cancers.

The Harvard group is working on ways to combine treatment with currently available EGFR inhibitors and MET inhibitors that are currently in clinical trials. They also want to study more drug-resistant samples, to get a better idea of how often this resistance mechanism occurs.

One expert views the finding as another indication of cancer's complexity.

"This shows the complexity of treating a rapidly changing tumor type," said Michael Melner, a scientific program director at the American Cancer Society. "The mutation of the MET gene is only one explanation out of many for the resistance of the tumors."

Drug combinations appear more and more necessary for treating many cancers, Melner added. "This is another study that points to things being more complex than we think they are. Clearly, combinations of drugs are going to be necessary to treat multiple cancer types. And this is just another indication of that," he said.

More information

For more information on lung cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.