Targeting a mean mutation

By Quinn Eastman | Photography by Jack Kearse

The “divide and conquer” approach to cancer therapy has been increasingly prominent in recent years. This strategy identifies drugs that are particularly effective against tumors carrying certain growth-driving mutations.

Two recent examples include crizotinib, approved by the FDA for non-small-lung cancer with a translocation in the ALK gene, and vemurafenib, approved for melanomas with mutations in the B-raf gene.

One inevitable drawback: if someone’s tumor doesn’t carry the specified mutation, these drugs can’t help. The mutation that makes a tumor vulnerable to crizotinib is found in only a small percentage of lung cancers.