K-ras

There are plenty of examples already of personalized drug treatments: Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE ) Xalkori is designed to work on patients that are ALK-positive and mutations in a gene called K-ras affect whether Amgen's (Nasdaq: AMGN ) Vectibix or Bristol-Myers Squibb's and Eli Lilly's (NYSE: LLY ) Erbitux help cancer patients.

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All of this appears to leave Genentech's Avastin immune from the impact of mutant K-ras, since the drug targets a receptor that works in a pathway independent of K-ras.

Genetic Research May Help Pick 2008

When activated, they fire signals that in turn switch on K-ras as part of a process that regulates cell growth.

Genetic Research May Help Pick 2008

But a mutant K-ras gene gets locked in the "on" position, foiling efforts to stymie the cancer via EGFR.

Genetic Research May Help Pick 2008

Sales of Vectibix, which hit $170 million in 2007, fell an annualized 20% to $34 million in the first quarter of 2008 as the K-ras findings gained credence and after European regulators approved the drug in advanced cases, but only in patients with a normal K-ras gene.

Genetic Research May Help Pick 2008

But Avastin generally enjoys a survival advantage over the EGFR drugs, which may lead other doctors to go with that drug first and possibly rely on K-ras tests to guide second-line treatment.

Genetic Research May Help Pick 2008

Amgen learned about the K-ras issue last summer from studies revealing that the drug had no effect in about 45% of patients with K-ras mutations.

Genetic Research May Help Pick 2008

Pfizer is developing a drug known as PF299804 for lung and other cancers and intends to test it only in patients who have a normal K-ras gene.

Genetic Research May Help Pick 2008

Joffre Baker, chief scientific officer at Genomic Health Inc., a Redwood City, Calif., developer of genomic tests, presented data suggesting that analyzing activity of several other genes in additional to K-ras could eventually lead to a test that would identify more precisely than K-ras alone which patients are likely to respond to Erbitux.

Genetic Research May Help Pick 2008

ImClone's North American marketing partner for Erbitux, and Merck KGaA of Germany, its European partner and sponsor of the K-ras study, voice similar sentiments -- as do cancer scientists at such companies as Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca PLC, which are integrating biomarkers into cancer-drug-development programs.

Genetic Research May Help Pick 2008