A novel approach to identifying potential anticancer drug combinations revealed that pairing cholesterol-reducing drugs called statins with cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors might provide an effective approach to treating intractable melanomas driven by mutations in the NRAS and KRAS gene. David F. Stern, Ph.D., professor of pathology at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues reported these data in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. “The identification of gene mutations that drive specific subsets of cancers has had a major beneficial impact on treatments for these patients. But, such mutations can only be identified for some cancers. Some patients who have a specific cancer-driving genetic mutation never respond to the matching drug, while nearly all those who initially respond eventually become resistant to the effects of the drug and their cancers relapse,” said Stern.
