Vemurafenib in Multiple Nonmelanoma Cancers with BRAF V600 Mutations
Phase 2 or 3 results paper on BRAF in Thyroid cancer, in New England Journal of Medicine (2015), one of the most cited Europe PMC records with BRAF in its title.
Overview
Background: BRAF V600 mutations occur in various nonmelanoma cancers. We undertook a histology-independent phase 2 "basket" study of vemurafenib in BRAF V600 mutation-positive nonmelanoma cancers.
Methods: We enrolled patients in six prespecified cancer cohorts; patients with all other tumor types were enrolled in a seventh cohort. A total of 122 patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive cancer were treated, including 27 patients with colorectal cancer who received vemurafenib and cetuximab. The primary end point was the response rate; secondary end points included progression-free and overall survival.
Results: In the cohort with non-small-cell lung cancer, the response rate was 42% (95% confidence interval [CI], 20 to 67) and median progression-free survival was 7.3 months (95% CI, 3.5 to 10.8). In the cohort with Erdheim-Chester disease or Langerhans'-cell histiocytosis, the response rate was 43% (95% CI, 18 to 71); the median treatment duration was 5.9 months (range, 0.6 to 18.6), and no patients had disease progression during therapy. There were anecdotal responses among patients with pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma, anaplastic thyroid cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, salivary-duct cancer, ovarian cancer, and clear-cell sarcoma and among patients with colorectal cancer who received vemurafenib and cetuximab. Safety was similar to that in prior studies of vemurafenib for melanoma.
Conclusions: BRAF V600 appears to be a targetable oncogene in some, but not all, nonmelanoma cancers. Preliminary vemurafenib activity was observed in non-small-cell lung cancer and in Erdheim-Chester disease and Langerhans'-cell histiocytosis. The histologic context is an important determinant of response in BRAF V600-mutated cancers. (Funded by F. Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01524978.).
Indexed on Europe PMC as PubMed record 26287849 (DOI 10.1056/nejmoa1502309). Its title names BRAF and its text names Thyroid cancer; PubMed types it as a clinical trial report (Clinical Trial, Phase II, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, research-article, Multicenter Study). It was matched automatically to the idea "BRAF/MEK plus PD-1 blockade as standard for BRAF-mutant anaplastic thyroid cancer" and no figure has been checked by an editor.
One of the most cited trial reports Europe PMC returns for BRAF in Thyroid cancer, so it is a natural first reading for anyone weighing the idea it is linked from. The record was linked automatically by title and abstract; read the abstract above and the paper itself before relying on any figure.
- Matched by BRAF in the title and Thyroid cancer in the title or abstract of the Europe PMC record; the summary reproduces the record's abstract and no figure has been verified against the full paper.
- Chosen as a phase 2 or 3 report by the record's publication type or its own wording, not by reading the paper.