The South San Francisco-based U.S. arm of Swiss drug maker Roche said at the American Association for Cancer Research conference in Orlando, Fla., this weekend that a combination of the experimental drugs GDC-0973 and GDC-0941 is being tested in a 27-patient study. Several patients saw decreased tumor size, Genentech said, and three others found that their disease stabilized over six months.
GDC-0973 inhibits the MEK1/2 pathway, while GDC-0941 is designed to block the PI3K route — both of which are among those cell-signaling paths altered in most tumors. The combination is being tested on several types of cancer patients, including those with melanoma, prostate cancer and non-small cell lung cancer
The two drugs’ double roadblock could help the combo speed past other drugs that are being developed to inhibit one or the other pathway. There are at least 40 drugs in developing that target those pathways, a cancer researcher at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill told Dow Jones Newswires.
