Publications by authors named "Chukwuemeka V Ikpeazu"
METex14 skipping mutations occur in about 3-4% of lung adenocarcinoma patients and 1-2% of patients with other lung cancer histology. The MET receptor tyrosine kinase and its ligand hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) are established oncogenic drivers of NSCLC. A mutation that results in loss of exon 14 in the MET gene leads to dysregulation and inappropriate signaling that is associated with increased responsiveness to MET TKIs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe recent approvals by the Food and Drug Administration several tumor-agnostic drugs have resulted in a paradigm shift in cancer treatment from an organ/histology-specific strategy to biomarker-guided approaches. RET gene fusions are oncogenic drivers in multiple tumor types and are known to occur in 1-2% of non-squamous NSCLC patients. RET gene fusions give rise to chimeric, cytosolic proteins with constitutively active RET kinase domain.
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- The study investigated the effect of adding bevacizumab, an antibody targeting a specific growth factor, to platinum-based chemotherapy for patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
- Results showed that while overall survival was slightly improved (12.6 months with bevacizumab vs. 11.0 months without), it was not statistically significant, though there were higher overall response rates and longer progression-free survival with bevacizumab.
- Increased toxicity, including more severe bleeding and treatment-related deaths, was noted with the addition of bevacizumab, highlighting the need for further research on safer angiogenesis inhibitors for certain patients.