NCI starts trial of targeted cancer treatments
NIH's National Cancer Institute launched the single-blind Phase II M-PACT trial to evaluate whether treatment based on specific gene mutations improves the rate and duration of response in patients with advanced, refractory solid tumors. The trial is slated to enroll 180 patients with mutations or amplifications in DNA repair pathways, the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway or the RAS, RAF or MEK pathway. Patients will be grouped by their tumor gene variation and then further split into two arms: patients in one arm will receive a treatment prospectively identified to target their specific mutation or pathway, while patients in the other arm will receive a treatment not designed to target their mutation or pathway. NCI hopes to report data from the trial by 2017.
The trial will evaluate Afinitor everolimus from Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN); Mekinist trametinib from GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE:GSK; NYSE:GSK); veliparib ( ABT-888) from AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in combination with temozolomide; and MK-1775 from Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN) in combination with carboplatin. ...