The pathway alteration load is a pan-cancer determinant of outcome of targeted therapies: results from the Drug Rediscovery Protocol (DRUP).

Background: Many patients with cancer exhibit primary or rapid secondary resistance to targeted therapy (TT). We hypothesized that a higher number of altered oncogenic signaling pathways [pathway alteration load (PAL)] would reduce the benefit of TT which only intervenes in one pathway. This hypothesis was tested in the Drug Rediscovery Protocol (DRUP).