CANCER GENE

1 October 2004

Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have discovered that the ERBB2 gene is mutated in a proportion of lung cancers. As a drug is already available that targets the mutant ERBB2 gene product, this discovery opens up the possibility of targeted drug therapy for people with lung cancer caused by ERBB2.

Andy Futreal and colleagues working on the Cancer Genome Project at the Sanger Institute identified activating ERBB2 mutations in 4 per cent of lung cancers. The mutations lead to the formation of a type of tumour known as a non-small-cell lung cancer.

A role for ERBB2 has been suggested in other cancers, including breast cancer, and a drug called trastuzumab (Herceptin) has been developed that switches off activated ERBB2 protein.

The project team suggests that trastuzumab and other anti-ERBB2 agents should be tried in lung cancer patients who carry mutations of the type they have discovered.

The results were published in Nature (see below).

External links

• Stephens P, et al. (2004) Lung cancer: intragenic ERBB2 kinase mutations in tumours. (Nature Vol. 431: 525-6): View abstract