Using AMG900 to Treat Breast Cancer

Richard S. Finn, MD, associate professor of medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, discusses the aurora kinase inhibitor AMG900.

Clinical Pearls

• AMG900 is a small molecule inhibitor of aurora kinases, which are proteins that are involved in maintaining DNA integrity and controlling DNA replication
• AMG900 has been evaluated in breast cancer models to try to determine which group of patients will benefit
• Results of an AMG900 trial showed that patients with p53 mutation may have a potential benefit with the agent
• p53 mutations are common throughout all the molecular subtypes of breast cancer but triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) shows a higher frequency of these mutations
• This early preclinical work suggests that p53 mutations may act as a biomarker for selecting patients who will benefit from AMG900
• AMG900 is now in a phase I study that includes patients with TNBC and a biomarker component will be included in the study to help researchers get a better understanding of how the drug is working