Dr. Paul Goodfellow, an expert in endometrial cancer and a professor within the departments of surgery, genetics and obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine, and Dr. Pollock are planning additional studies to investigate whether two drugs currently in Phase I trials for other cancers inhibit endometrial cell growth in the laboratory. Future studies include testing these drugs in mouse models of endometrial cancer before being tested in humans.
"We are planning to investigate FGFR2 in tumors from a much larger group of patients to determine whether mutations in the gene lead to aggressive cancers and poor outcome. Given how frequent mutations are in endometrial cancers, we are hopeful we will be able to initiate a Phase II trial treating patients with an FGFR2 inhibitor within the next two to three years," said Dr. Goodfellow, also co-director of the Hereditary Cancer Core at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.
"This study illustrates the power of systematic searches for mutations in cancer genomes in identifying the abnormal genes responsible for driving cancers and providing new therapeutic avenues," said Dr. Michael Stratton, who along with Dr. Andrew Futreal, co-leads the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
The identification of the FGFR2 gene and its role in the development of endometrial cancer is a great example of scientific collaboration. Dr. Pollock has studied the FGFR2 gene in melanoma for more than three years. The team headed by
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Contact: Galen Perry
gperry@tgen.org
602-343-8423
The Translational Genomics Research Institute
22-May-2007