Posts tagged ‘Melanoma’

Preview of ASCO 2011 Annual Meeting #ASCO11

May 31st, 2011

Daedalus

3013235262 8f75c04656 300x133 Preview of ASCO 2011 Annual Meeting #ASCO11

Photo Credit: Nimesh Madhaven

This Friday sees the start of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. The meeting runs from June 3-7.

On Pharma Strategy Blog, Sally Church shares her thoughts on what she expects to be hot news at ASCO this year.

In her ASCO11 video preview Sally discusses clinical trial presentations in ovarian cancer, metastatic melanoma and soft tissue sarcoma. You can watch Sally’s video below and read more on Pharma Strategy Blog.

Icarus Consultants will be attending ASCO (along with 30,000 others), so if you are interested in meeting up, please contact us.

Understanding why melanoma patients develop resistance to PLX4032

April 25th, 2011

Daedalus

Targeted therapies for metastatic melanoma such as PLX4032 (vemurafenib) have shown dramatic effects in patients. However, resistance to BRAF inhibitors such as PLX4032 soon develops. The result is a need to understand how resistance occurs due to cross talk and how to overcome this through a rational drug combination strategy.

Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog delves into the topic of BRAF resistance with demonstrable enthusiasm. In her insightful post she discusses data presented in the plenary session at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) by Levi Garraway from Dana Farber.

As Sally discusses in some detail, the research identified a novel mutation in the downstream kinase MEK1 that may be the reason why patients become resistant to PLX4032.

You can watch Dr Garraway’s presentation as a free AACR webcast and can read more about the important implications of this research for melanoma new product development on Pharma Strategy blog.

Whole-Exome Sequencing of Melanoma leads to discovery that Glutamate Antagonists limit tumor growth

April 20th, 2011

Daedalus

At the recent Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) annual meeting in Philadelphia that Pieter Droppert attended, one of the keynote speakers was Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In his presentation he drew the attention of the assembled audience to exciting new research supported by the NIH on whole-exome sequencing of melanoma.

This research published recently in Nature Genetics has led to the discovery of the GRIN2A mutation and further insight into the association between the glutamate pathway and melanoma. GRIN2A mutations were found in 33% of NIH/NCI sample set.

Glutamate antagonists limit tumor growth and may be a new druggable target in melanoma.

Sally Church has written extensively about melanoma. In a post on Pharma Strategy Blog, Sally looks in more detail at the discovery of the GRIN2A mutation and what this means for melanoma new product development. You can read more here.

Insights into BRAF resistance in melanoma lead to potential new drug targets

April 19th, 2011

Daedalus

Melanoma is a common form of skin cancer in which 60% of patients have the V600E mutation of the serine/threonine kinase B-RAF (BRAF)

Melanomas with a V600E BRAF mutation are dependent on mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and have been shown to respond to inhibition of the RAF and MEK signaling pathway.

PLX4032 (vemurafenib) is a B-RAF(V600E) inhibitor that has achieved some spectacular results.

However, resistance to BRAF inhibitors such as PLX4032 occurs, so understanding the mechanism of BRAF resistance is key to finding new druggable targets that may overcome this.

Sally Church has written one of her most insightful posts of 2011 on Pharma Strategy Blog that discusses recent research on BRAF resistance to melanoma.

In a post entitled, “COT drives resistance to PLX4032 through MAPK reactivation”, Sally discusses results published in a Nature Letter.

She also reviews the recent plenary talk by Keith Flaherty at the recent American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting and provides insights on the next generation of BRAF inhibitors.

Sally concludes that it looks like “metastatic melanoma will be a hot topic at ASCO.” You can read more about new products in development for melanoma on Pharma Strategy Blog.

Zebrafish as a platform for cancer gene discovery

March 31st, 2011

Daedalus

Icarus Consultants’ oncology new products guru, Sally Church, has published a fascinating post on Pharma Strategy Blog on how Zebrafish models of melanoma are providing new drug targets.

Sally discusses recent research published in Nature that shows the histone methyltransferase SETDB1 is an oncogene that accelerates melanoma formation in co-operation with BRAF(V600E).

What makes this research exciting is the potential of zebrafish as a platform for cancer gene discovery.

Pharma Strategy Consulting – BRAF inhibitor resistance and oncology drug development strategy

February 23rd, 2011

Daedalus

BRAF inhibitors such as PLX4032 have shown promising initial results in melanoma, but have suffered from drug resistance after 6-9 months. This has led to combination trials with AKT and MEK inhibitors to see if the time before drug resistance sets in can be extended.

However, recent research published in Cancer Research suggests that loss of PTEN function may be another mechanism of resistance. Researchers have looked at what may happen with the next generation of BRAF inhibitors, PLX4720.

Sally Church in a thoughtful post on Pharma Strategy Blog discusses how the insights from this latest research may impact oncology drug development strategy.

Targeting BAP1 – a future targeted therapy for Uveal Melanoma?

December 21st, 2010

Daedalus

Published by Pieter Droppert on Biotech Strategy Blog