RON's new role

A Utah team has shown that inhibiting the kinase RON could fight cancer metastasis by stimulating an antitumor immune response.¹ The findings build a case for directed drug discovery efforts against the target, which has long been neglected in favor of its more famous relative, MET.

In the last few years, two drugs have been approved that inhibit MET (c-Met proto-oncogene; HGFR): Xalkori crizotinib from Pfizer Inc. to treat EML4-ALK oncogenic fusion protein-positive lung cancer and Cometriq cabozantinib from Exelixis Inc. to treat medullary thyroid cancer...