News Story: Full Text: "Researchers have discovered two markers which indicate a response to erlotinib, a drug for the treatment of brain cancer.
For many years, there has been little progress in the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, a malignant type of brain tumor. Then a new type of drug, erlotinib, which is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, came along. Some patients respond well to erlotinib, others do not. To determine why there is this difference, doctors at the University of California, San Francisco, looked at a group of 41 patients in a trial of erlotinib.

Tests showed that there were two biomarkers associated with response to erlotinib. One was a higher level of a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor. The other was low levels of an enzyme called PKB/Akt. In this trial, eight of the patients showed a good response to erlotinib. The findings can be used to plan more effective clinical trials of erlotinib and related drugs and also to select the treatment that is most appropriate for each patient.




Source
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 15th June 2005 Volume 97 pages 880-887"