Exploring the Use of MET Inhibition and Targeted Therapies in Lung Cancer

Roman Perez-Soler, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine (Oncology) and Department of Molecular Pharmacology, and chief of the Department of Medicine Division of Oncology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discusses the use of MET inhibitors as treatment of patients with lung cancer and the evolving role of targeted therapy in the lung cancer setting.

There will be different applications for MET compounds that are approved for patients with MET alterations, according to Perez-Soler. MET inhibition has been discussed as an option after patients become resistant to other therapy options, such as in patients with other alterations. MET has been identified as an alteration that drives tumor growth, as well as a mechanism of resistance. This needs more investigation since researchers have seen activity with MET inhibition so far.

Perez-Soler says in the field of targeted therapies, he has seen new compounds work in most patients, but eventually some develop resistance, so many studies are based on understanding that resistance. Other alterations will receive a method of investigation similar to what has been done with EGFR inhibitors, where investigators found a mechanism of resistance and then created a targeted therapy for it. Some of these will be combinations, the same way there were compelling data for chemotherapy and an EGFR inhibitor rather than the targeted therapy alone in the subset of patients with EGFR mutations. This method could also be applied to other alterations in these subpopulations.