Beyond BRAF: Emerging Agents Aim at Other Melanoma Targets
Source: OncLive, March 2016
Targeted therapy for melanoma is much more than just BRAF inhibition.
While more than half of cutaneous melanoma tumors are BRAF-positive, agents that target the other 3 subtypes—RAS mutant, NF1 mutant, and triple wild-type—identified by the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) in 2015 now have the increasing potential to improve survival for non-BRAF patients, says Jason Luke, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago Medicine.
“When we talk about targeted therapy for melanoma, most people think of it as BRAF targeted therapy,” says Luke. “While other approaches are not as far along in clinical investigation, they will, over time, become part of the armamentarium of the treatment of melanoma.”
There are several therapeutic options for targeting non-BRAF mutations and beyond.
According to the TCGA, RAS– and NF1-mutant melanomas have deregulated MEK signaling and may be responsive to MEK inhibitors. Tumors that are of the triple wild-type subtype often contain mutations in receptor tyrosine kinases that may be responsive to receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors.