Amgen Inc. said its therapy AMG 510 shrank the tumors of over half of evaluable patients with lung cancer in a small, early-stage study.
AMG 510 is a KRAS inhibitor, a type of drug which targets a mutation in a group of proteins called RAS that signal between cells. Mutations to these signal proteins appear in about a third of all human cancers and have been studied for more than 30 years as a possible but difficult lever to pull in treating these cancers.
Follow-up data from the ongoing phase 1 study showed 7 of 13 evaluable patients with non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, showed a reduction in their tumors — as measured by a metric called partial response — after being given a target dose of 960 milligrams once daily. The remaining six patients achieved stable disease, which means their tumors are neither growing nor shrinking.
To be eligible for the trial, patients have to be previously heavily pretreated with at least two or more prior lines of treatment.
The follow-up data includes a subset of 34 patients with NSCLC, with 23 patients from the subset being evaluable for efficacy. Thirteen of the evaluable patients were given the target dose.
No adverse events leading to discontinuation and dose-limiting toxicities were observed among the 34 patients.
Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen is also developing AMG 510 for patients with colorectal cancer.
Other companies developing treatments for KRAS mutations include Mirati Therapeutics Inc. and Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. The National Cancer Institute also launched an initiative in the space in 2013.

