Expert Discusses KRAS G12C Inhibitors for Patients with NSCLC

Emerging research for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) continues to show clinical promise where once there was very little, in particular, studies targeting patient’s gene mutations have shown exciting promise. One of these mutations being targeted by researchers is the KRAS G12C mutation, that develops in about 10% to 13% of patients with NSCLC, according to Bob T. Li, MD, MPH.

Li, a medical oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, had the chance to speak with Oncology Nursing News^® at the 14^th Annual New York Lung Cancers Symposium on the research being done to target the KRAS G12C protein that he is a principal investigator for.

TRANSCRIPTION

The research in the last few years, including those down at Memorial Sloan Kettering in the lab, had shown that we are able to trap the KRAS G12C protein in an inactive sleep state instead of the active one. It prefers to go to active state, but when it's inactive, there's a little pocket that we can fit a pill in, and we can actually block and trap it in its inactive state. Therefore, switching off the cancer signal and therefore they die.

So, I am the principal investigator of the first in class KRAS G12C inhibitor AMG 510, at Memorial Sloan Kettering, and we had shown some very encouraging tumor shrinkage in patients with this mutation that were heavily pretreated with other drugs. None of them had worked and were no longer working and then suddenly, they take this pill and their tumors shrink.

This is the very first, which is certainly not a home run, but it's a very giant step forward and this could potentially help many patients should it be developed further towards regulatory approval. It could certainly help many patients because KRAS G12C, is looking at about 10% to 13% of non-small cell lung cancer. That's a lot of patients.