Clinical Outcomes of patients with Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) mutations in IPASS (Iressatm Pan Asia Study)

August 2, 2009 by srrpenna

An epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a protein found on the surface of cells to which an epidermal growth factor (EGF) binds. When an EGF attaches to an EGFR, it activates the enzyme tyrosine kinase, triggering reactions that cause the cells to grow and multiply. An EGFR is found at abnormally high levels on the surface of many types of cancer cells, which may divide excessively in the presence of an EGF. The drug gefitinib is intended to attach to the EGFR and, thereby, inhibit the attachment of EGF and stop cancer cell division.

IPASS is a randomized phase III study that compared oral gefitinib with chemotherapy as first-line therapy and analyzed the treatment efficacy by EGFR mutation status. Of 1,217 enrolled patients in IPASS, 437 samples were available to assess for EGFR mutation, and 261 were found to be EGFR mutation-positive. The study assessed the clinical outcomes of objective response rate and progression-free survival among patients with an EGFR mutation versus those without.

"Our findings show that gefitinib had longer progression-free survival and greater objective response rate compared to chemotherapy in patients with EGFR mutations," said Tony Mok, M.D., lead author and professor of clinical oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "Most notably, we found that responses to both gefitinib and chemotherapy were observed in the small group of patients with T790M mutations, which have previously been reported to be associated with resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors."

Dr. Mok will present this study on Saturday, August 1, 2009 at 3:20 pm PT in Moscone West, Room 2001-2005, Level 2 at13th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC),

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