Inflaming resistance to Tarceva

A team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratoryhas found that in cancer, inflammation-driven IL-6 signaling can cause resistance to drugs that inhibit epidermal growth factor receptor, such as Tarceva erlotinib and Iressa gefitinib.¹The data suggest that blocking IL-6 could help treat drug-resistant cancers, a hypothesis Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc. may put to the test in a Phase IIa trial of its anti-IL-6 antibody, ALD518.

About 80% of patients who respond to small molecule inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) carry oncogenic mutations in the kinase domain of the receptor that render them sensitive to EGFR inhibition.² However, all patients will eventually develop resistance to these drugs...