Christopher Arendt, PhD, head, Oncology Therapeutic Area Unit, Takeda, speaks on the success of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in the treatment of blood cancers and efficacy implications of these therapies for solid tumor cancers.
Along with blood cancers, targeted therapy via tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has shown significant effectiveness in the treatment of solid tumor cancers, including non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), said Christopher Arendt, PhD, head, Oncology Therapeutic Area Unit, Takeda.
Transcript
Is there anything notably different about how mobocertinib works in NSCLC compared with what we know about tyrosine kinase inhibitors in blood cancers?
Indeed, we've learned a lot about TKI responsive oncodriver mutations, and the effectiveness that these medicines can bring to patients, and the durability of responses that can be achieved from studies in blood cancers—really foundational studies, so exciting for patients. They're sort of the wonderful example of precision medicine really moving the envelope and standard of care for patients who have specific lesions that can be identified and then the therapy can be tailored.
But of note, there's actually quite a robust list of targets and therapies in the solid tumor space when it comes to TKIs, and so the tumor subtypes run the whole gamut: from breast cancers, colon, renal, lung, HCC [hepatocellular carcinoma], you name it. Some of these kinase inhibitors, in fact, are what we call multikinase inhibitors. So, a little bit kind of more permissive in their profile, and that may be important for their activity (ie, they need to sort of be able to inhibit multiple growth factor pathways, not only one), but there's also some that are much more selective. this includes the class around Elk, EGFR, and HER2, for example; [they] tend to have higher selectivity profiles and be associated with treatments around a very specific lesion and a solid tumor cancer.
So, I'd say the results are broadly convergent in terms of liquid and solid. And clearly, it's all about being able to link that genetic profile to an effective therapeutic and being able to offer that to patients as a targeted therapy that can address really the disease pathogenesis and the root cause of that tumor growth.
ALL Disparities, Treatment Gaps: AYA Patients Face Unique Challenges
June 4th 2025Adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) face significant survival disparities and unmet needs for effective third-line treatments, highlighting urgent care gaps.
Read More
Trastuzumab Deruxtecan Plus Pertuzumab Improves PFS vs Standard Care in HER2+ Breast Cancer
June 2nd 2025Trastuzumab deruxtecan plus pertuzumab demonstrated statistically and clinically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) in HER2-positive breast cancer, potentially representing a new standard of care.
Read More
Multicancer Detection Assays Remain Largely Elusive for Early-Stage Disease Detection
June 1st 2025Multicancer early detection tests are revolutionizing cancer screening by using liquid biopsies to screen for multiple cancers from a single blood sample, enhancing patient outcomes by identifying cancers earlier.
Read More