TY - JOUR
T1 - Mutations and addiction to EGFR
T2 - The Achilles 'heal' of lung cancers?
AU - Gazdar, Adi F.
AU - Shigematsu, Hisayuki
AU - Herz, Joachim
AU - Minna, John D.
N1 - Funding Information:
Supported by grants 5U01CA8497102 from the Early Detection Research Network and Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Lung Cancer Grant P50CA70907, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD.
PY - 2004/10
Y1 - 2004/10
N2 - The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene product is a receptor tyrosine kinase (TK) that affects many important downstream pathways. The recent finding that mutations in EGFR predict the response of lung cancers to therapies that target the TK domain of the gene product has generated considerable interest. The mutations are associated with adenocarcinoma histology, oriental origin, female gender and never-smoker status. Most mutations target structures in the TK domain that appear to be essential for the phosphorylation function of the gene. Cancer cells with mutant EGFR genes might become physiologically dependent on the continued activity of the gene for the maintenance of their malignant phenotype; however, this might also be a target for therapy.
AB - The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene product is a receptor tyrosine kinase (TK) that affects many important downstream pathways. The recent finding that mutations in EGFR predict the response of lung cancers to therapies that target the TK domain of the gene product has generated considerable interest. The mutations are associated with adenocarcinoma histology, oriental origin, female gender and never-smoker status. Most mutations target structures in the TK domain that appear to be essential for the phosphorylation function of the gene. Cancer cells with mutant EGFR genes might become physiologically dependent on the continued activity of the gene for the maintenance of their malignant phenotype; however, this might also be a target for therapy.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.molmed.2004.08.008
DO - 10.1016/j.molmed.2004.08.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 15464447
AN - SCOPUS:4644274700
SN - 1471-4914
VL - 10
SP - 481
EP - 486
JO - Trends in Molecular Medicine
JF - Trends in Molecular Medicine
IS - 10
ER -